Denon AVR-A1H High-end AVR Review

[Oddball]

@kawauso @dlaloum

Gave up on hissing in the smaller system, but it's relatively bad. Mostly listen that one really loud so overcome the increased noise floor. It was anyway never meant to be a reference system, just away from home system. Ended up not cheap, but what can I say, I am sucker for amps and always had Parasound on my bucket list.

Don't have gain adjustment on Parasounds except for the one that is dedicated to center - and yes that helps quite a bit. But rest of the speakers are still hissing. As I said, very likely will not be using that in the future so not that worried.

But now need to retire and hope you will have great day in your Pacific time zones . Always enjoy your comments.

 

[kawauso]

High sensitivity speakers (and that is of course Klipsches claim to fame!) - have always been very sensitive to Hiss....

I used to be very sensitive to hiss, and I am not sure whether over the years, the decreasing frequency range of my hearing has eased this "impediment" - or whether I currently have a sorted system without any audible hiss... (and does the difference matter...)

In the 80's when I worked in AV, I used to hate the constant 19kHz whine of the CRT's.... no one else seemed to hear it.
The move to flat screens and projectors was a great aural relief for me! - But I have a feeling I would not be able to hear it anymore.

My gut (ie: the sum of my experiences in the Audio hobby since the 1970's ) still says the hiss may be resolvable with gain adjustment... you lose a bit in maximum potential power output, but typically, especially with high sensitivity speakers, you have more than enough headroom to be able to sacrifice 10db...
However that adjustment may not be easy to achieve depending on the gear you are running.... ideally I would be gently turning down the gain on my power amp - but many power amps don't have adjustable gain, or only adjust using a high/low switch... still in the latter case, if you are in high gain mode, I would switch to low gain... (and make the necessary adjustments)

In my JBL setup (A1H → miniDSP → NC502MP in BTL mode, 32 dB gain), the connection is XLR, so I can simply lower the gain in the miniDSP and the noise becomes almost inaudible. In the end, what really matters isn’t distortion — it’s noise.

My KEF system uses a similar chain with NCx500 amps at mid gain, but when I cranked the volume up quite a bit, I once heard a “crackling” kind of distortion. Probably because the line level was exceeding 4 V. Switching to high gain might actually be a better choice there.

With integrated amps, gain matching happens automatically, but with separates it’s always a bit of a headache. When I first bought my Buckeye amps, I was surprised by how much noise I heard despite their great specs.
Turned out it was the miniDSP connected to my PC via USB — every time I moved my Bluetooth mouse, it produced bursts of noise. Once I unplugged the USB, it was completely silent again. These systems are so faithful they even amplify the noise itself.

 

[dlaloum]

Turned out it was the miniDSP connected to my PC via USB — every time I moved my Bluetooth mouse, it produced bursts of noise. Once I unplugged the USB, it was completely silent again. These systems are so faithful they even amplify the noise itself.

At one point I used a cooling fan unit on top of my AVR.... with those generations of AVR's that used to run REALLY REALLY HOT!

When I ran some measurements on the pre-outs, I found some low level hash present.... turning off the fan, removed the hash...

I got rid of the cooling unit. (no point cooling it only to get more distortion/noise) - had the AVR located in "open space"... but ultimately it fried its own overheating HDMI board .

I won't buy a bit of gear that runs hot like that any more.

 

[Oddball]

At one point I used a cooling fan unit on top of my AVR.... with those generations of AVR's that used to run REALLY REALLY HOT!

When I ran some measurements on the pre-outs, I found some low level hash present.... turning off the fan, removed the hash...

I got rid of the cooling unit. (no point cooling it only to get more distortion/noise) - had the AVR located in "open space"... but ultimately it fried its own overheating HDMI board .

I won't buy a bit of gear that runs hot like that any more.

Lol, I did not even complain how hot 6700H runs . When I got it , the idea was not to go with external amps. But then I used the heat as an excuse that to load up on amps. Did not regret it as Parasound does sound great. But seriously, if I put a pan on top of 6700H running 9 or more channels, you could do eggs in couple of minutes. Was a bit cooler in preamp mode but still quite hot. One of the reasons I went for AV10. Cool as a cat and just purrs and does its job.

Less sensitive to hiss but more to heat. Playing loud is sure cure for hiss. But heat makes me think that it will break anytime or at least go to thermal shutdown. Does not happen as it was apparently designed for that, but still feeds my paranoia. Longevity is another issue.

 

[solrage]

Only two minor issues I have had with this unit after ~2 years:

1. It causes my PC to freeze when idle. I initially thought this was a Windows 11 bug (I upgraded around the same time), but to test I had my PC plugged directly into my TV for a while and never had the issue. Only way to solve it is to hard restart the PC. A workaround I've found is to just keep a video playing in the background, but this is rather annoying.

2. Similarly, when setting up Dirac I can't run my PC through the unit but have to plug it directly into the PC. Thankfully this is just a one time thing unless/until you have to rerun the Dirac setup.

 

[mtbdudex]

The power delivery capabilities of the A1H remain quite impressive but it's still an AVR after all.

I chose the A1H as it has pre-outs for all channels so I can expand the number of power amps when I feel the need to upgrade. Right now I only have an extra power amp for the main speakers which already ensures a stress free playback at reference levels.

When Dirac ART is released I might make the surround channels full range though by adding a beefy woofer to these speakers and power the combination with a 2-channel Hypex Fusion amp or even a Crown XLS1002. The surround speakers would be HPF'd between 100-120Hz.

How you liking ART?
I’ll add ART to my HT 3.0 soon, doing some acoustic treatments tweaking first
Went from OC705 (done in 2011 before much was known on GFR) to pink fluffy , added live edge hardwood top

I actually sourced two of these 2-D diffuser plates that I’m gonna put on the front of those broadband bass traps, to reflect the mid and highs and balance out the energy in the room

 

[Frank207be]

I like ART very much although I must confess I'm still running it with an old 9pt measurement. Right now I'm in the middle of a thorough insulation rebuild of my home. I hope it's finished in about 2 weeks so I can focus back on audio again.

I have all cabling and subs ready for extending bass response of my surround speakers to 30Hz but first I have to resolve an annoying ground loop. Then I'll build a bespoke jig for reliable/repetitive Dirac measurements so I'm hoping to be up and running with the updated gear just before Christmas.

Very nice absorbers you've built there!

 

[mtbdudex]

I like ART very much although I must confess I'm still running it with an old 9pt measurement. Right now I'm in the middle of a thorough insulation rebuild of my home. I hope it's finished in about 2 weeks so I can focus back on audio again.

I have all cabling and subs ready for extending bass response of my surround speakers to 30Hz but first I have to resolve an annoying ground loop. Then I'll build a bespoke jig for reliable/repetitive Dirac measurements so I'm hoping to be up and running with the updated gear just before Christmas.

Very nice absorbers you've built there!

I’ve not heard any negative comments on ART, for a few hundred $$$’s well worth it seems, considering how we chase stuff in the AV world.

FWIW, I’ll be mounting the 2D diffuser plates easy on / off, they will rest on a notch and top will be magnetic.
Easy then A vs B to confirm the diff for mid - high energy reflection back into room.

For my prior build I used Kraft paper behind the green fabric to reflect mid - high energy.
I made this video 14 years ago now, holy cow time marches on

 

[Frank207be]

I’ve not heard any negative comments on ART, for a few hundred $$$’s well worth it seems, considering how we chase stuff in the AV world.

FWIW, I’ll be mounting the 2D diffuser plates easy on / off, they will rest on a notch and top will be magnetic.
Easy then A vs B to confirm the diff for mid - high energy reflection back into room.

For my prior build I used Kraft paper behind the green fabric to reflect mid - high energy.
I made this video 14 years ago now, holy cow time marches on

Of all upgrades in my room ART is hands down the most impressive one. After listening to the same room modes for 30 years (so yes time indeed marches on!) I'm very pleased that ART could reduce them.

I'm also reading about dry vs wet ART curves but I still need to experiment with support levels before forming an opinion. On first impression I assume that I prefer tightness over bass bulk.

Absorbers help a lot in most rooms. My DIY ceiling panels take away the most fatiguing sparkle of my Focal speakers so I'm also very happy with them!

 

[Head_Unit]

Maybe as a Codec Overlord needs $20 k per unit when the hardware endpoint is only going to sell 50 units worldwide per annum, but on a PC? How hard would it be to recoup all your development costs and insure a lavish return if your product was on something that sold millions of units annually? Or do we need to ask Bill Gates about that one?

I don't think we need to ask Billy to realize that the market for multi-box systems based around decoding on a PC would be tiny. Few people want to deal with that much screwing around. So probably not of interest to big companies, and from my dealings with Apple Is suspect licensing from Dolby/DTS/etc is not a trivial overhead (they were super nice by the way). Hence why small companies are pretty much never making surround hardware products.

Anyway it's moot because I per your previous post they are not licensing such.

Therefore we are left with this Denon, which I will semantically surgically say is "State of the Art for an AVR." And kudos to @PJ 1 and @rynberg - hey people STOP STOP STOP comparing surround stuff to stereo DACs! Those are different animals! Let's see an HDMI-input multichannel DAC with performance equaling those units. I suspect it is just NOT that easy, even if you ditched out the video switching AVRs have. Or maybe the smaller sales figures just drive up the price too much. People think features affect price WAY more than they actually do. Amortization of development can actually be a huge cost component.

 

[middlemarch]

I received my A1H late last week and spent the weekend hooking it up and doing some preliminary calibrations. The A1H replaces an x6700, as well as a couple of miniDSPs to run 5 subs and a second 2 channel receiver to power my top mids. Cleaned up the equipment cabinet a bit, although the A1H projects from the front by a couple of inches. That puppy is big! and heavy! The weight required some ingenuity during installation, but I got her done. My Infinity fan just barely fits on top with millimeters to spare, but it works.

The only connection difugalty was the top surround and top rear connections. I assumed Height 1, 2 and 3 would logically map to top front, top surround and top rear, in that order. Not so, top rear is height 2 and 3 is the surrounds. Could have read the owners manual... In addition, I liberated my Crown XLS1502 from sub duty and am using it to drive my Studio 2s. Works great with gains set to max, which seems to match the internal amp gains within a couple of db. I set the A1H to preamp only for the front LR channels. The remaining four subs are connected to the RCA sub outputs, eliminating the miniDSPs. First thing I noticed was the elimination of a low level 60Hz hum that was coming from the xls2502 driving my two passive subs. Direct connection to the receiver results in silence. Good news!

Next familiarized myself with the new 'high res' menu structure. Nice improvement over the 6700. Then proceeded to do a standard Audessey cal, followed by a couple of A1 Evo versions. So far I'm not impressed with the subwoofer cal with either version. I was able to get a much better 4 sub cal using REW and the miniDSP, so that's a little disappointing, but it's early days. I plan to give Audessey tweaks with Acoustica a few tries before buying a Dirac license, but suspect that's where I'll be going shortly.

Now, first impressions. This is my first experience running front wides. I dusted off a set of NHT Classic 3s for that purpose, and I must say, I'm very impressed! Using the Dolby Surround and DTS NeuralX up mixers on stereo material. The wides make more of a noticeable difference than adding rear surrounds or top middles, heck, than probably all the overhead speakers. The NHTs look a little lost bridging the gaps between Studio 2s and Gem 2s, but I must say they're up to the job!

So that's all good. The only retrograde 'feature' I've run into so far is that I used to be able to use Tone Controls when Audessy DEQ was not being used. Now I can't use tone controls while Audessy is enabled period. That makes no sense to me, is that the result of some recent firmware update? Is that Denons intent, no tone controls if room correction is enabled? I should like to have Mr. Toole have a few words with them!

That's all for now. I suspect I'll add some more thoughts once I play with Dirac for a bit.

Would love feedback on the Tone Control situation in case I'm missing some setting somewhere.

 

[kawauso]

I received my A1H late last week and spent the weekend hooking it up and doing some preliminary calibrations. The A1H replaces an x6700, as well as a couple of miniDSPs to run 5 subs and a second 2 channel receiver to power my top mids. Cleaned up the equipment cabinet a bit, although the A1H projects from the front by a couple of inches. That puppy is big! and heavy! The weight required some ingenuity during installation, but I got her done. My Infinity fan just barely fits on top with millimeters to spare, but it works.

The only connection difugalty was the top surround and top rear connections. I assumed Height 1, 2 and 3 would logically map to top front, top surround and top rear, in that order. Not so, top rear is height 2 and 3 is the surrounds. Could have read the owners manual... In addition, I liberated my Crown XLS1502 from sub duty and am using it to drive my Studio 2s. Works great with gains set to max, which seems to match the internal amp gains within a couple of db. I set the A1H to preamp only for the front LR channels. The remaining four subs are connected to the RCA sub outputs, eliminating the miniDSPs. First thing I noticed was the elimination of a low level 60Hz hum that was coming from the xls2502 driving my two passive subs. Direct connection to the receiver results in silence. Good news!

Next familiarized myself with the new 'high res' menu structure. Nice improvement over the 6700. Then proceeded to do a standard Audessey cal, followed by a couple of A1 Evo versions. So far I'm not impressed with the subwoofer cal with either version. I was able to get a much better 4 sub cal using REW and the miniDSP, so that's a little disappointing, but it's early days. I plan to give Audessey tweaks with Acoustica a few tries before buying a Dirac license, but suspect that's where I'll be going shortly.

Now, first impressions. This is my first experience running front wides. I dusted off a set of NHT Classic 3s for that purpose, and I must say, I'm very impressed! Using the Dolby Surround and DTS NeuralX up mixers on stereo material. The wides make more of a noticeable difference than adding rear surrounds or top middles, heck, than probably all the overhead speakers. The NHTs look a little lost bridging the gaps between Studio 2s and Gem 2s, but I must say they're up to the job!

So that's all good. The only retrograde 'feature' I've run into so far is that I used to be able to use Tone Controls when Audessy DEQ was not being used. Now I can't use tone controls while Audessy is enabled period. That makes no sense to me, is that the result of some recent firmware update? Is that Denons intent, no tone controls if room correction is enabled? I should like to have Mr. Toole have a few words with them!

That's all for now. I suspect I'll add some more thoughts once I play with Dirac for a bit.

Would love feedback on the Tone Control situation in case I'm missing some setting somewhere.

If you’re upgrading from the X6700H, the A1H offers several convenient features. These include custom speaker output assignment (with fixed pre-outs), two speaker presets, saving and loading settings via USB memory, and Quick Select buttons. While Quick Select has been around for a while, it becomes much more useful when combined with speaker presets and Dirac functionality. There is also a feature called Directional Bass, although there are not many situations where it is particularly effective.

As for tone controls, I believe they were available with Audyssey (with DEQ off) and with basic Dirac, but this may have changed due to a firmware update. Tone controls are not available when using Dirac Bass Control or ART. Dirac allows you to save three profiles, and when combined with speaker presets, you can store up to six configurations. This doesn’t fully replace tone controls, but it can cover some of the same ground.

Personally, I use a miniDSP on the LCR channels to give myself more flexibility in adjusting the high frequencies. With Dirac, I only correct the low frequencies. Honestly, Acoustica is a waste of time, so I recommend trying Dirac as soon as possible. And please feel free to post in the ART thread as well.

Active Room Treatment (ART) by Dirac

Dirac is demoing Active Room Treatment (ART) at CES and here are two videos about it... :) Flavio

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[middlemarch]

I have to admit that I've been a little reluctant to go the Dirac route again. Some years ago I went through a less than pleasant experience with a miniDSP DDRC24 (2x4HD with Dirac Live). At the time it was clear the software was very immature and, shall I say, "fragile". This combined with the (very) poor quality miniDSP support left a very bad impression with me. Much of this was the result of nothing but finger pointing between the two companies so who is to say who was most at fault.

I ended up learning REW and going that route to good success and never looked at Dirac Live again. At this point the DDRC24 refuses to talk on USB. I have two other 2x4HDs that I've used straight with no problems.

This time it SEEMS as if people are fairly happy with the state of Dirac software maturity, so I hope that is indeed the case. I've just gotten very reluctant to spend good money to be what is in essence an alpha tester, much less beta tester, of someone else's software. I spent a fair number of years doing embedded systems software development for weapons systems, and error recovery and failing gracefully are very much front of mind for me, I just don't like sloppy programming.

 

[dlaloum]

I have to admit that I've been a little reluctant to go the Dirac route again. Some years ago I went through a less than pleasant experience with a miniDSP DDRC24 (2x4HD with Dirac Live). At the time it was clear the software was very immature and, shall I say, "fragile". This combined with the (very) poor quality miniDSP support left a very bad impression with me. Much of this was the result of nothing but finger pointing between the two companies so who is to say who was most at fault.

I ended up learning REW and going that route to good success and never looked at Dirac Live again. At this point the DDRC24 refuses to talk on USB. I have two other 2x4HDs that I've used straight with no problems.

This time it SEEMS as if people are fairly happy with the state of Dirac software maturity, so I hope that is indeed the case. I've just gotten very reluctant to spend good money to be what is in essence an alpha tester, much less beta tester, of someone else's software. I spent a fair number of years doing embedded systems software development for weapons systems, and error recovery and failing gracefully are very much front of mind for me, I just don't like sloppy programming.

REW, Dirac Live RC, Audyssey and a plethora of competitors, all do very very similar things, with a range of different user interfaces and automation... resulting in broadly similar capabilities.

Dirac Live ART is something new - it provides something that the competitors simply don't have.

Don't consider "Dirac" to simply be "Dirac".... what you have now, is the old Dirac Room EQ system, but it is layered on top of Dirac ART - and that means that you gain something that was previously impossible to achieve without construction/architects/bass traps, dedicated rooms etc...

If you want to eke out another stepwise upgrade from your system, you really should try Dirac ART.

REW remains a useful tool for analysing the end result of Dirac ART, which also facilitates optimisation of Dirac ART parameters....

 

[middlemarch]

Please, I'm very much aware of what Dirac IS. The point of my post was to provide context as to why I wasn't among the first to jump aboard the ART bandwagon. That being a former less than satisfactory experience with their software. I hope that's all in the past now, but wanted to give it a little time for the first movers to provide feedback. That is now happening and the news seems to be good. I'll probably be buying a copy in the very near future. In the meantime I'm reading any and all usefull information on the topic that I can lay my hands on. Good information still seems a little scarce, at least tough to find. Wading through 2 or 3 thousand post strings on the forums for useful tidbits bits is not great fun.

 

[EWL5]

Please, I'm very much aware of what Dirac IS. The point of my post was to provide context as to why I wasn't among the first to jump aboard the ART bandwagon. That being a former less than satisfactory experience with their software. I hope that's all in the past now, but wanted to give it a little time for the first movers to provide feedback. That is now happening and the news seems to be good. I'll probably be buying a copy in the very near future. In the meantime I'm reading any and all usefull information on the topic that I can lay my hands on. Good information still seems a little scarce, at least tough to find. Wading through 2 or 3 thousand post strings on the forums for useful tidbits bits is not great fun.

If you want a reference, the newer positive ART experience by D&M folks should not be your starting point. Unless I'm mistaken, ART has been available on StormAudio products since Jan 2023 so you should start your research there!

 

[middlemarch]

I'm afraid I have to update my preliminary review a scosh, in a good way. Surprised no-one has called me on this yet! The Tone Control behavior is indeed as it's always been. When using any form of Audyssey and not using DEQ the Tone Control works like always. It's just not intuitive with the new user interface. Didn't notice it until I used the remote app with my Ipad. So that makes me happy! At 71 I need treble augmentation and this gives it to me without having to embed it in a target curve, which is obviously less flexible.

I've done several Audyssey calibrations to this point, the out of the box standard (not a fan) and several flavors of OCAs work. I really like the newest A1X version, it's done a very good job doing EQ of my 4 sub arrangement, equivalent to my manual REW/miniDSP efforts, except below 20Hz. My manual efforts extended smooth response to around 15Hz, the latest Evo versions put hi-pass filters at around 20Hz for each of my subs individually. This actually works well for my system since I mostly do music and there's still plenty of rumble for movies. Since ART does the same this should make for a more apples to apples comparison in that area.

Having said all that, I've also purchased the full Dirac ART suite. I've not started that yet. I'm a bit trepidatious because setting speaker levels is where all my difficulties with Dirac Live came from a few years ago. But the process looks to have been refined a bit in the meantime. I do want some time with AcoustiX to give me a reference baseline, however, so will begin my ART adventure when I feel I've got the other dialed in.

 

[mikaoJ]

Hi, I have a question about the A1H menu system. Is it possible to reassign which of the 15 internal amplifiers is used for a specific speaker output? For example, can you configure the Front Wide amplifiers to power the main Front speakers?

The reason I’m asking is that like the idea (my idea) of giving the front amplifiers a break and instead making use of some of the other amplifiers
The Front Wide amps in my setup never get used at all.

 

[kawauso]

Hi, I have a question about the A1H menu system. Is it possible to reassign which of the 15 internal amplifiers is used for a specific speaker output? For example, can you configure the Front Wide amplifiers to power the main Front speakers?

The reason I’m asking is that like the idea (my idea) of giving the front amplifiers a break and instead making use of some of the other amplifiers
The Front Wide amps in my setup never get used at all.

Yes, such a configuration is possible.
The A1H allows flexible assignment of speaker outputs.

 

[mikaoJ]

Thank you. I’ve now connected my main fronts and center to the previously unused Front Wide and Height 3 amps. Feels like I need to break in my two-year-old amplifier again

The Height 3 amp has two outputs, but since the center signal is mono, I assume I can freely choose between the Height 3 amp left or right output?

I took the opportunity to remove the cover from the amplifier for the first time to clean out dust, but that turned out to be unnecessary because there was no visible dust either in the fans or heat sinks.