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.