AV Receivers

With the HEOS AVR, Denon has taken everything you think you know about AV receiver design, and filtered it through a multiroom prism. Pointless legacy inputs and 1990s design chic are traded for multiroom streaming and app control. You don't even have to trail speaker wire around your living room. Few would argue that the AVR is long overdue a rethink, but is this the right direction for tomorrow’s home cinema?

It's getting hard to find many points of difference between AV receivers around the key £500 mark. Pioneer's VSX-1131, originally priced £550 but available now for less if you shop around, offers a specifications sheet with few surprises, beyond the fact that it's very well featured indeed. Whatever you're hoping to find here, you probably will. 

Denon's AVR-X2300W is an AV receiver after my cash-conscious heart. Available for £500, it offers buyers at this price everything they will probably expect, all wrapped up in a neat design and delivered with a welcome understanding that those investing in home cinema separates may still be AV novices. 

The home cinema industry has been in something of a rut since the financial meltdown of 2007, with gaping holes where much of the high-end market used to be. But Arcam's AVR850 – its latest flagship AV receiver – has me thinking we may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Onkyo's TX-RZ800 marks a break from the brand's typical AVR design, offering an oversized volume dial and a pimple rash of tiny buttons. As a fashion statement, it must be said it’s not particularly pretty, but it is at least different. Other changes are less obvious.