DENON AVR-X8500H A/V RECEIVER
SOME PEOPLE get weird about anything with a 13 in it. Fear of this seemingly innocuous number, otherwise known as Triskaidekaphobia, has brought us buildings with no 13th floor, and even the renaming of the 13th Space Shuttle mission. But Denon has shown us they don’t have time for silly superstitions by delivering the world’s first A/V receiver with 13 channels of onboard amplification.
Physically, the AVR-X8500H marks a return to the monster receivers Denon was known for in the past, such as 2008’s massive AVR-5308CI. You won’t find any class-d amplifier modules or wimpy switched-mode power supplies here. A glance through the perforated cover of this 52-pound beast reveals that two-thirds of the real estate is dedicated to the huge transformer and 13 individual class-ab amplifier cards. Four fans are mounted under the heat sinks to keep things cool when the going gets loud.
Up front, the AVR-X8500H has Denon’s familiar front-panel layout with two large knobs, one for volume and the other for source selection, flanking a large display that indicates the status of various functions. A drop-down door directly under it conceals a multi-function cursor for menu navigation and zone and source selection buttons, along with an HDMI input, USB port, and a headphone output jack. As with most receivers, the remote control is required to gain access to the Denon's less-used functions.
While new object-based surround sound formats like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and now Auro-3d have expanded home theater setups into the vertical dimension, most receivers only have a limited number of amp channels. Do you want both front wide and back surround channels along with your height speakers? With most
The AVR-X8500H features Audyssey Multeq XT32 speaker calibration/speaker EQ for all of its 13 channels. receivers you will run out of channels and be forced to make choices. The AVR-X8500H, however, is the first receiver with 13 amp channels. Do you want a 7.1.6 setup with six height speakers along with a full complement of ear-level speakers? No problem. How about a 9.1.4 setup with front wide speakers? The only Atmos combination you can’t do with the AVR-X8500H is 9.1.6, but I think most of us would be abandoned by our spouses or evicted by our landlords before reaching that point.
Some immersive surround sound formats require different speaker placement configurations, and the AVR-X8500H is versatile enough to accommodate that. There are connections for 15 speakers on the back, which allows you to connect both the center-mounted ceiling speakers used by Auro-3d and the height or elevation speaker pairs used for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. With just (just!) 13 amplifier channels, the receiver of course can’t drive all 15 speakers at once, but it will automatically switch to feed a proper 13-speaker configuration to match each surround mode.
BLEEDING-EDGE FEATURES
As you would expect from a new flagship receiver from one of the big boys, the AVR-X8500H is loaded to the gills with the latest tech. All eight (one front/seven rear) HDMI 2.0b inputs support 4K/60p and HDCP 2.2, along with Dolby Vision, HDR10, and Hybrid Log Gamma high dynamic range. Next-gen HDMI 2.1 connections aren’t available yet, but Denon has promised a future HDMI 2.1 hardware upgrade option (cost