AV Receivers

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Steve May  |  Mar 28, 2013  |  0 comments

AV receivers are too big, too complicated and too damn old school. That’s the unspoken truth for a generation weaned on portable devices and wireless widgets. While home cinephiles will rightfully defend an opposing view, the fact is that for many, 
AVRs have simply become an irrelevance.  

Richard Stevenson  |  Mar 11, 2013  |  0 comments

There is something right about using 
a BD player and AVR that have been designed together as an holistic partnership. One can expect not only matching cosmetics but a synergistic duo, like Bonnie and Clyde or Sooty and Sweep. And not only should their performance exceed the sum of the parts, they won’t look like a car-crash into a Richer Sounds shop-front on your kit rack, either.

Danny Phillips  |  Jan 20, 2013  |  0 comments

When it comes to AV receivers, Onkyo campaigns to be the people’s champion. Every year its entry-level models come packed to the hilt with features, sporting a competitive price tag and, more often than not, a nailed-on sound quality, too. This commitment to value has made Onkyo the best-selling home cinema receiver brand for four years running, which kinda tells you everything you need to know.

Adrian Justins  |  Jan 19, 2013  |  0 comments

Pioneer's SC-2022 AV receiver proudly ditches the VSX prefix of its predecessor (the VSX-2012) to join the more illustrious company of its SC-toting brethren, although it doesn’t quite make it into the elite LX club, falling short 
in its construction and lacking Air Studios calibration. It gains its SC credentials largely through the adoption of an all-digital Direct Energy HD amplifier, which uses shorter signal paths and has more efficient cooling, leading Pioneer to claim a better performance and lower power consumption.

Steve May  |  Dec 02, 2012  |  0 comments

Boasting an armoured build that would do Tony Stark proud, Onkyo’s new TX-NR5010 receiver is a mouth-watering proposition - a 25kg home cinema heavyweight boasting state-of-the art audio/visual processing and unbending muscle.

Richard Stevenson  |  Oct 27, 2012  |  0 comments

May saw Pioneer doing its traditional launch of a new range of AV receivers. As usual, the lower- and mid-range models break cover first – and the VSX-922 is one of the latter.

Steve May  |  Oct 26, 2012  |  0 comments

The STR-DA5700ES is an important product for Sony’s home entertainment division. Not only does it represent a concerted effort to retake ground lost at the upper end of the AV market, it comes with refinements that we’ve not seen before, and some bold new ideas. This is Sony reinventing home theatre for the network era.

Richard Stevenson  |  Jul 18, 2012  |  0 comments

Fresh from scooping the industry equivalent of an Oscar for technical innovation at this year’s CES, Lexicon’s DD-8 power amplifier comes to the test bench flaunting the looks of a size-zero super-model – wistfully thin, lithe and lightweight, and sexily wrapped in cat-walk style designer clothes. Unlike most supermodels there is more than airspace between its rack-mountable ears, too. Using some clever proprietary amplifier technology, Lexicon’s DD-8 packs eight channels of 125W into that slimline chassis.

Steve May  |  Jul 02, 2012  |  0 comments

The Aventage range represents the current high-end in AVR design from Yamaha. Combining bomb-proof build quality with brilliant DSP, they are arguably the most exciting new home theatre arrivals from the brand since the launch of the outrageously over-specified RX-Z11 THX battle-cruiser back in 2008.

Richard Stevenson  |  May 30, 2012  |  0 comments

If you own either of Denon’s flagship A1HD products, the AVR or the standalone processor, you might be feeling a little left out these days. While these high-end devices still pack a performance punch, their v1.3 HDMI jacks and lack of height/width processing has kept them very much a 2D product in a 3D world. Enter Denon’s 3D Edition Upgrade.

Danny Phillips  |  May 02, 2012  |  0 comments

The bigger brother of the TX-NR709 (reviewed in HCC 202), Onkyo’s TX-NR1009 boasts a bulkier frame, greater muscle and a fuller spec sheet – including a claimed 9 x 180W power output (into 6Ohms) and DTS Neo:X, the latest audio mode to deliver extra front height and width channels.

Ed Selley  |  Mar 13, 2012  |  0 comments
Easy-going AV Denon's AVR-1912 offers a smooth sound as well as its headline AirPlay functionality. But Danny Phillips doesn’t always like it that way

Apple’s nifty music streaming feature, AirPlay, is slowly finding its way onto more and more home cinema products, and Denon’s AVR-1912 is another one to add to the list. This makes it dead simple to play music from iPods, iPhones and iPads, but with DLNA-certified streaming and USB playback also on board the rest of your devices are in safe hands.Denon hasn’t dubbed this AVR the ‘Everyceiver’ for nothing.

Ed Selley  |  Jan 12, 2012  |  0 comments
Master of drama Richard Stevenson finds it hard to resist this 3D-capable, connection studded AVR, despite its chunky price. He wants to keep it forever...

Onkyo’s flagship TX-NR5009 receiver is so crammed full of goodies I really don’t know where to start. The big price ticket might put some off, but I reckon it’s spectacularly good value. It has all the high-end goodies, too, such as the massive toroidal transformer, separate power supply for A/V processing and a multi-layer chassis to reduce vibration.

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