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After completing a new round of testing, we selected the Denon AVR-X1700H as our top pick, the Denon AVR-X3800H as our upgrade pick, and the Denon AVR-S570BT as our budget pick.
Best Av Receiver For Home Theater
If you’re trying to get as close as possible to recreating a real home cinema experience, there’s no substitute for a good AV receiver. Soundbars are a big step up from built-in TV speakers, but an AV receiver gives you a lot more control over how you set up, use, and upgrade your home theater system. For most people, the Denon AVR-X1700H offers everything needed – now and for the foreseeable future – to enjoy a premium movie, video game, TV or music experience. All you have to do is add some speakers.
How To Set Up Your Av Receiver And Get The Best Sound
The AVR-X1700H is a great-sounding, easy-to-use 7.1-channel receiver with all the features needed to satisfy movie fans, music lovers, and gamers alike.
The Denon AVR-X1700H is our top pick because it’s a great sounding receiver that holds your hand through the setup process and offers great value. It has seven amplifier channels that can power a surround sound speaker system or two overhead speakers for a Dolby Atmos or DTS:X home theater setup. It has six HDMI inputs, three of which are HDMI 2.1 compliant and supports the advanced gaming features found on the Microsoft Xbox Series X and Sony PlayStation 5 consoles. You can stream music wirelessly via Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay 2. Wireless streaming platform Heos (a competitor to the Sonos platform). It also offers good room correction, which lets you adjust the performance of your speaker system to suit your environment. Our tests consistently show that at this price point, the effectiveness of the ambient correction system is the differentiating factor in sound quality among AV receivers. Our only minor gripes with the AVR-X1700H are that the remote’s infrared signal can be fragile, and the receiver can get a bit warm when you turn the speaker system up to high volume.
With better room improvement, more enhanced channels and a host of advanced features, the Denon AVR-X3800H is a great choice for home cinema enthusiasts who want an advanced option – but also a great bump in price.
For movie lovers willing to spend more for better sound quality, more amp channels and some much-improved customization features, we recommend the Denon AVR-X3800H. This receiver sounds better than the sub-$1,000 models we’ve tested, thanks in large part to its more advanced Audyssey MultEQ XT32 room correction. The 9.4-channel AVR-X3800H includes two additional amplifier channels that you can use to power additional speakers and independently process sound to four subwoofers. All six HDMI inputs are HDMI 2.1 compliant and support 8K video and advanced gaming features. It also supports multiroom audio and video better than the AVR-X1700H. But all its features and performance advantages come at a price.
How To Choose An Av Receiver
Easy to set up and use but lacking in features, if you want to build a good 5.1-channel speaker system, the Denon AVR-S570BT is a solid choice.
If you’re looking to build a simple 5.1-channel surround sound system – or you already have a 5.1-channel system and need to upgrade to a receiver that supports 4K, 8K or high dynamic range video – the Denon AVR-S570BT is the one. A good option under $500. It’s easy to set up and use and performs very well for the price, although it can only power five speakers and lacks the Audyssey room correction you get on more expensive Denon models. It offers four HDMI inputs, all of which support HDMI 2.1, so it works well for gamers. But it can only stream music over Bluetooth, not Wi-Fi based platforms like AirPlay 2.
I’ve been reviewing AV gear for over two decades for publications ranging from Robb Report Home Entertainment to Home Theater Magazine, HomeTheaterReview.com to SoundStage. Over the years I’ve tested more receivers, preamps and amplifiers than I care to count, and in recent years I’ve spent a lot of time learning and testing all kinds of room improvement systems.
If you want to get as close to a home theater experience as possible and want maximum flexibility in speaker selection and configuration, you need an AV receiver at the heart of your AV system. Today’s soundbars offer levels of audio performance that were unimaginable 10 years ago, but they still have performance and flexibility limitations: speaker drivers must be relatively small to fit inside the soundbar, you’re usually limited to one subwoofer, and soundbars typically offer only a few connection options. , to name a few.
Avr S970h Av Receiver With Heos® Built In
If your current AV receiver works with all your AV components and has all the features you want, you don’t need to upgrade because you won’t hear improved sound quality with a new model unless you upgrade with a good room fix. .
An AV receiver combines source switching, audio (and sometimes video) processing, speaker amplification, and volume control in one box. Think of it as the traffic cop of your audio-video system, routing video from your sources to your monitor and sending audio to your speakers. Plug your media streamer, game console, cable or satellite receiver or disc player into its inputs, then connect its outputs to your monitors and speakers, and the AV receiver will route them all. AV signals in the right places and in the right formats.
An AV receiver can also act as a music hub for your home, as many of these can connect to a home network and stream audio around the house via proprietary systems like Apple’s AirPlay 2, Google’s Chromecast, or Apple’s Heos. Yamaha’s Denon and MusicCast. , which is designed to compete with companies like Sonos. Many receivers include built-in support for streaming music services such as Sirius XM, Spotify Connect and Tidal, Internet radio stations and the ability to connect directly to local DLNA media servers. And if you prefer a more traditional approach, some receivers allow you to distribute audio (and sometimes video) sources to a second area via a wired connection.
If your current AV receiver works with all your AV components and has all the features you want, you don’t need to upgrade because you won’t hear improved sound quality with a new model unless you upgrade with a good room fix. . But if you’ve bought a new 4K HDR TV and 4K HDR source devices — or, more recently, an 8K-capable TV or one that supports upgraded HDMI 2.1 features — an older AV receiver may not have the ability to pass those features. More advanced. quality signals and a really old receiver may not have an HDMI connection. All of our current recommendations support 4K HDR screens and sources, and our top and freshest picks support 8K or 4K at a refresh rate of 120Hz.
Best Av Receivers 2022: Which Home Cinema Receiver Should You Buy?
Many new AV receivers also support Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive audio formats. These sound patterns are designed to add an element of overhead to the typical ear-level surround sound that has been available for decades. To get the most out of Dolby Atmos or DTS:X sound, you’ll either need to add taller speakers or buy special Atmos-enabled speakers (you can read more about this in our guide to the best high-end speaker system). sound) and you need an AV receiver that can decode these formats and power additional speakers.
AV receivers range from a few hundred dollars to the four-figure region. Our focus here is on receivers that strike a good balance between performance, features, and price, so all of our picks are $1,700 or less. A serious audio or home theater enthusiast may choose to spend more money for more power (this can be important if your speakers are low sensitivity and difficult to drive), more amplified channels, more configuration and customization options, and better build quality, but above. $1700 You get a diminishing performance return on your investment.
Even with a price cap of US$1,700, we found a variety of AV receivers with very different price points covering different performance needs. We don’t set too many minimum spec requirements to limit the models we’ll consider, but as you begin your receiver search, there are some important specs you should keep in mind to determine whether you need a budget, mid-price, or high-end receiver. Model:
A basic home theater setup is known to have 5.1 channels of audio. In this case the “5” indicates the number of amplified channels: two front left and right speakers, a center speaker for dialogue and on-screen sound effects, and two surround sound speakers located behind or to the side of the listening position. the audition. The “.1” represents the subwoofer, which usually has its own built-in amplifier so your receiver doesn’t need to supply power. Many mid- and high-value receivers are labeled “.2” instead of “.1”,
The Best Av Receivers In 2023
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