AV Receivers

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.

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.

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.

Whether through luck or design, Marantz has created something rather special with the NR1602. Driven by a desire to innovate within the often stultifying constraints of hardcore AV, the company has taken the traditional hefty AVR form factor and chopped it in half. The result is a component with a good deal more va-va-voom than its peers.

NAD is not a brand to follow the masses. In fact, while the AVR herd are grazing on features and connecting to the milking machine of network integration, NAD receivers are more ‘free range’. The T757 goes a step further and is truly feral. What we have here is a significantly wallet-wrenching AV receiver that has thrown off what are considered basic features on even budget models costing one-fifth of the price. Instead, this chunky beast concentrates on sonic performance, delivering your speakers an ultra- clean analogue signal designed to make your ears love you. I would even go so far as to say that its dark grey exterior and clean lines make it the best-looking NAD receiver yet, too.

There has been something of a dry spell for new AVRs of late. Months have passed without seeing one then, like buses, Yamaha launches the five-model strong RXV-x71 lineup all at once. To celebrate the 25 years since the launch of its Cinema DSP technology, Yamaha’s fledglings get some cutting edge features and obligatory eco-friendly credentials, too. While the flagship RX-V771 looks stunning on paper, I suspect this was a ruse by Yamaha just to tease us, because the RX-V471 turns out to be an absolute corker.