Denon USA has just announced three AV receivers designed to attract new buyers into home cinema (or home theater as it's called there).
The new Denon E-Series models are the $250 AVR-E200, $400 AVR-E300 and $600 AVR-E400, seen above, and all three are designed to offer a high level of specification for the money and ease of set-up and use.
Denon explains that the 'E' in E-Series stands for an 'Easy, Exciting Entertainment Experience', and all three models have features such as colour-coded speaker terminals and, on all but the entry-level AVR-E200, the on-screen Denon Setup Assistant (below) to walk the user through installation and calibration, along with Audyssey MultEQ room acoustic measurement and correction.
Denon AVR-E400: $599
The top-end Denon AVR-E400 can be configured as a 7.1-channel receiver, or can run 5.1 channels in the main room and a stereo pair in a second room.
It claims 185W maximum power on each of its seven channels (the 20Hz-20kHz figure, all channels driven into 8ohms with 0.08% THD, is 90W), using identical discrete-component power amps for each channel – a design used for all three E-Series models – and also has six HDMI inputs and one output, with SD-to-HD video upconversion all the way to 4K Ultra HD and standby pass-through of HDMI signals.
It also has Apple AirPlay, and network connectivity to allow it stream from internet radio, content stored on the home network, and services including Pandora, SiriusXM, vTuner and Spotify. That network connection lets Denon's Remote App, running on iOS devices such as iPads and iPhones, control the receiver.
In addition the Denon AVR-E400 has USB connectivity allowing digital music playback from, and charging of, iPods, iPads and iPhones, and playback from USB memory devices.
The Denon AVR-E300 (above) has a similar specification to the AVR-E400, but with five HDMI inputs, a claimed maximum of 175W for each of its channels (75W 20Hz-20kHz), and a 5.1-channel configuration. Like the more expensive model, it provides push-terminals for easy cable connection.
Finally the AVR-E200 (below) is also a 5.1-channel model, claiming 165W maximum per channel (75W 20Hz-20kHz), and with four HDMI inputs.
It lacks the networking and calibration facilities of the pricier E-Series receivers, and has its speaker outputs on spring clips, but it still has Denon's Quick Select buttons for Cable/Satellite, Blu-ray, Game and Aux inputs, with the facility to customise the audio parameters for each input.
There's no information yet concerning the availability of these models in other markets.
Written by Andrew Everard
