Argh, this is definitely a first-world problem, but when you Audio Video Receiver breaks down and you are living in COVID-19 hibernation, it seems like a life crisis. We bought a nice set more than 10 years ago when Dolby 5.2 was super amazing as was HD at 1080p and the miracle of BluRay. Back in the CES 2008 timeframe, the top features were:
- Audyssey Dynamic EQ and MultEQ. You could take a microphone and automatically tune your room.
- The top of the line was the AVR2809CI but the real monster was the AVR-5308HDCI which was a whopping $5.5K with 150 watts per channel for all seven channels with THX Ultra2 certification. That thing weighed a whopping 62 ounds.
- Multiple HDMI 1.3a inputs.
- The real monster are the AVP-A1HD & POA-A1HD which had 7.1 so 10 channels at 150W/channel that could be bridged to 300W if you want.
Denon has not replaced the Pre-amp and has exited the market which is sad. The thing was a 70 pound monster. I’ll try to get it repaired, but with XLR outputs it was a great tool.
