Denon's blast from the past

Richard Stevenson salutes the no-stone-unturned approach of this monster 15.4-channel AV amplifier |

Japan's Denon has a rich history of wheeling out truly reference-class AV amplifiers and, spoiler alert, it has done it again. The AVC-A1H is its latest feature- and performance-heavy flagship multichannel machine that can trace its heritage back to the likes of the 2007 AVC-A1HD, 2004's epic AVC-A1XV and even the DSP AV granddaddy, the 1996 ACP-A1.

While there has been something of a hiatus in the true A1 dynasty for some 16 years, the AVC-A1H celebrates all the brand's heritage and craftsmanship of the lineage. Like its forefathers, it mixes cutting-edge processing and electronics with the sort of attention to sonic refinement that even the hardest of hardcore audiophiles would appreciate. Cast iron feet, an 11.5kg power transformer and non-magnetic speaker terminals? Oh yes – and more.

Your flexible friend 

The headline billing and red-carpet credentials are stupendous. This is a 15.4-channel processor with 15 channels of amplifi cation, each claiming 150W fullbandwidth power into a sensible 8ohm speaker load, and a claimed 210W into a 4ohm load with a 1kHz test tone. This spec gives you incredible setup fl exibility, from an epic 9.4.6 speaker confi guration down to a rather more mundane 7.1 plus multiple stereo zones. Or how about seven main channels fully bi-amped, along with a subwoofer count of up to four? All possible.