With 10 New Receivers, Denon Vies to Become Market Leader
LAGUNA CLIFFS, Calif. -- On a campaign to become the No. 1 AV receiver company in the U.S., Denon this week launched 10 new receivers for 2008 at its corporate line show. The models come on the heels of last year’s complete overhaul of the Denon receiver line, which marked the first time that the company has replaced all its receivers at once.
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Price points for the new line run from the $299 entry- level AVR-589 to the $1,199 multi-zone AVR-2809CI for the custom channel. The top five models pack multizone capability. All receivers in the line include Audyssey Dynamic Volume to regulate the volume level disparity between TV programming and commercials. Dynamic Volume also works to maintain sound balance in movie soundtracks. The Audyssey processing constantly monitors the volume of program material in real time, to maintain the desired listening level for all content while optimizing the dynamic range to preserve the dramatic effect.
The Audyssey software works with AudysseyEQ, which Denon has included in receivers over the past couple of years to tailor sound to a particular room. The Dynamic Volume feature appears for the first time in the Denon line, although Audyssey co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Chris Kyriakakis says the circuitry could find its way into TVs this year. He declined to say which manufacturers are studying the technology. The software requires more processing power than TVs are generally equipped with, he said, which complicates design. Still, he said TVs are the next obvious source destination for the sound compression circuitry.
Denon also reaffirmed its commitment to the custom channel. The new CI products pack an RS-232 port to facilitate use with control systems. The company has also developed a program and logo to support custom installers. The Denon certified CI program involves a seven-hour seminar and test. Installers who pass get up to three CEDIA University credits along with access to a special Internet portal available only to certified installers. There are 500 registered users, and the company hopes to increase the number to 1,000 by CEDIA Expo in September.
Denon also announced its third Blu-ray Disc player. The DVD-1800BD, due in October at $749 list, offers full support of Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS HD Master Audio along with a 2-channel analog output. The Profile 1 version 1.1 player packs dual audio and video decoders for Bonus View compatibility but doesn’t support BD Live. Consumers who want access to ancillary studio material including subtitles, audio streams, camera angles, trailers, and games can get it by downloading material to a PC, copying it to an SD card and playing it back through the player’s SD card slot. Additional features include HDMI 1.3a with Deep Color and 1080p scaling from standard DVDs.
The DVD-1800BD is Denon’s first Blu-ray player with CEC control. The base CEC system includes control of basic functions such as play, pause, power and stop. All of the new receivers support CEC via HDMI as well, which, according to Jeff Talmadge, director of product development and systems for Denon, “has become as confusing to consumers as HDMI itself.”
Joe Stinziano, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Denon, took issue with recent unfavorable reports on Blu-ray adoption. “I keep hearing that Blu-ray is not going to be adopted as quickly as DVD was and my gut says that’s probably correct,” he said. Plotting the numbers on a chart, Stinziano said current projections for Blu-ray do look like they're lagging behind DVD, but “if you advance the numbers one year, on a rate basis, Blu-ray is less than a year on an adoption basis behind DVD.” Denon’s view, he said, is that Blu-ray “is a very strong, very healthy business that’s not all gloom and doom. We're very, very bullish on Blu-ray.”
Denon’s success with current $1,000 Blu-ray players makes the company more optimistic about next-gen DVD as a performance product. “Similar to what we did in past with DVD, we're taking the high road, and we're going to continue that a bit,” Talmadge said. The new model is “a bit less expensive at $749, but we're taking the picture quality of our $999 player and putting it into a $749 player.” The company is also planning another Blu-ray player before the fiscal year runs out March 31.
Denon also showed its first noise-canceling headphones. Unlike models on the market from Bose, Sony and others, the Denon AH-NC732s ($299, due in August) still operate as headphones -- just without active noise-canceling -- when not powered. The feature gives the headphones dual functionality as conventional headphones for use with a home music system or TV and as portable noise-canceling headphones for use on airplanes. Denon supports the versatility with a pack of accessories including a 1.4-inch stereo headphone plug adapter that snaps on the end of the 3.5mm stereo plug adaptor, a dual-plug adaptor for airplane use, and two cords in 2.3-feet and 5-feet lengths. The headset is compatible with Apple iPhones without the need for an adaptor. The phones claim a charge of 40 hours from a single AAA battery and weigh 5.6 ounces. -- ((Rebecca Day