In this article about the new Denon A10H Home Theater Receiver we will discuss its features, sound quality, and whether the A10H is the correct receiver for you.

Company History

Denon boasts a rich and illustrious history as Japan's original audio brand, with over 110 years of innovation and excellence. Few audio companies can claim such longevity while consistently delivering high-quality products. Denon's journey began by providing audio solutions to Japan's national public broadcaster, NHK, quickly establishing itself as a pioneer in audio technology. The brand has never shied away from innovation, leading to the creation of one of the first A/V receivers and the enduring legacy of iconic products like the DL-103 cartridge, which is still in production today. When it comes to discussions about Japanese audio brands, Denon consistently ranks among the most esteemed.

Features & Technology

When Denon came out with the AVR-A1H flagship home theater receiver, they knew they had a winner on their hands. Not only are the A series of receivers the best the brand offers, but with their largest transformer, the A1H is a true powerhouse of home theater goodness. The AVR-A10H follows this same path but with 13.4 available channels instead of 15.4 channels in the AVR-A1H. The AVR-A10H keeps the 150 watts per channel power rating and other features but is a lower-priced flagship offering for people not needing more than 13 channels of amplification. This allows people to get into a flagship A-series Denon receiver for about $2,000 less than the AVR-A1H.

The A10H will replace the very popular AVR-X8500H AVR, which has the same power specifications, but the A10H has a better power supply transformer and offers newer and better features, much like the flagship A1H receiver.

Built With Pride In Japan

Shirakawa Audio Works in Japan is famous for building some of the best-built audio components in the world and is where the A10H is proudly built. Not only is the A10H designed and built in this facility, but Denon’s Sound Master Shinichi Yamauchi ensures that the A10H meets the standards of a Denon flagship product. Shinichi has spent time with the A10H, and with his approval of the design and sound quality, the A10H is guaranteed to give the “vivid and spacious” sound that Denon is known for.

Denon Quality Aesthetics

Denon products have always had a certain visual quality. The A10H keeps this tradition alive with its simple yet elegant appearance. We have always liked how Denon keeps the look simple and effective with their AVRs. Sometimes, keeping the traditional look just works. The front panel is simply laid out with a large volume knob on the right side, followed by an input selector on the left. A large, easy-to-read display and power button seemingly round out the front panel. A flip-down door on the front panel hides all other buttons and settings, allowing the A10H to keep its clean look while also having access to the essential controls from the front panel.

The casework on the A10H is also of high quality, with a full aluminum front panel and metal side and back panels. While the Denon A10H looks a lot like Denon’s other lower-cost receivers, once you look at the build quality and parts, you will see that Denon pulled all the stops for the A10H, just like with the A1H. The A10H is 17.1” × 19” × 7.7” and weighs 52 lbs, which is heavy for an AV receiver and shows that Denon put some serious parts inside the A10H.

The Denon A10H's rear panel is fully stocked with all the connections needed in today’s AV components. It has seven total HDR10+ and Dolby Vision compatible HDMI inputs that are fully 8K capable and can offer 4K/120Hz for gamers who want to get the most out of their games. HDMI ARC and eARC are also supported here, so any TV with ARC or the enhanced eARC will be compatible. There are also legacy composite and component inputs for anyone wanting to use an older DVD player or any legacy video sources. There are two Toslink and two coax digital inputs for all of your digital sources, as well as a moving magnet phono input. Six analog inputs are also offered for any legacy analog components, and zone 2 and 3 inputs are provided for multi-room audio. One of the more important features of most flagship-level AV receivers is preamp outputs, and the A10H has preamp outputs for every channel plus four independently controlled subwoofer outputs. This means the A10H can grow as the system grows with the addition of outboard power amplifiers. Three 12-volt trigger outputs and 1 in and 1 out remote control connection for home control systems are also featured. FM Antenna, ethernet, and a powered USB socket for powering accessories or streaming sticks are also included. Looking at the rear panel might be somewhat intimidating initially, but all of the connections are well laid out and marked so that you know exactly what they mean.

High-End Grade DACS, High-End Grade Processing

Denon chose to use nine high-end 2-channel ESS DAC chips for all 13.4 channels of the A10H, meaning that all of the details in your favorite music or movies will be delivered in its purest form. With full 24-bit/192kHz support, all of your content will be present in its highest resolution form. Also, full support for Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, IMAX Enhanced, AURO-3D, and Sony 360 Reality Audio are included so that any content will sound its best with the A10H. Denon includes Audyssey MultEQ XT32 with the A10H, which is a good option, but the added Dirac support is much more important here. Most movie and music lovers in this price class will and should look at the Dirac room correction products to get the most out of the A10H. We are big fans of Dirac and it is the best solution to get your system to its maximum performance. Yes, extra costs are involved, but once you hear a Dirac-tuned speaker system, there is no going back! Like the A1H, the A10H, being an A series Denon product, has included the best technology throughout its design to give users a proper reference-level theater receiver that will handle all your entertainment needs now and in the future.

Reference Quality Amplification

One of the most essential parts of a quality receiver is its power amplification. Even the best processing on the planet will only reach the speakers if the power amplifiers are of the same quality. Denon knows this well and has given the A10H a proper amplification stage to bring out this performance. Denon rates the amplifiers in the A10H at 150 watts per channel into 8 ohms (20Hz to 20kHz, two channels driven), and 190 watts per channel into 6 ohms(2 channels driven). This is serious power for an AVR, and while these ratings are for only two channels driven, Denon has something called its “70% guarantee”. This means that the A10H is guaranteed to be able to hit 70% of its rated power into five channels. But in recent years, independent tests have confirmed that Denon A series receivers generally do even better than their 70% guarantee, which is excellent news, and we can thank Denon’s use of an ample power supply with good capacitance for this ability. In amplifiers, the power supply is generally the deciding factor on how well an amplifier handles different speaker loads or dynamic music or movie soundtracks. With the A10H, Denon chose well when it comes to the power supply in the A10H.

People not planning on using all of the A10H channels and staying with a 5, 7, or 9-channel speaker system can also take advantage of the A10H's custom amplifier assign mode.. This mode will assign amplifier channels not in use to bi-amplify channels in use, allowing you to bi-amp your main speakers, center channel, or surround speakers in your theater system, up to 13 total channels of amplification. This enables users to take advantage of all amplifier channels, even if you don’t have a complete 13-channel speaker system. This will allow for a more dynamic and effortless sound experience. In addition, you can save different speaker configurations for various listening situations. This will enable you to program a speaker configuration for watching TV when blinds are open during the day and have a preset for nighttime when the blinds are shut and your projector is running for movies, all saved in a preset for easy switching. This is an excellent option as it allows you to basically have two independently optimized systems in one room. We could see this being a well-used option for folks watching the game on Sunday but wanting to watch the latest blockbuster on Sunday night!

HEOS Brings the Music

Let's face facts: Most music lovers today get their music from streaming services. And Denon knows they need a great app to enable all of these services through the A10H. HEOS has been upgraded with a new home screen to reflect the needs of music lovers. The new home screen is all about the music, giving access to recently played tracks, favorite music, and preferred content from your music services. One of the most incredible things is the ability to create HEOS playlists and combine content from different streaming services or your personal collection as desired. The New “Now Playing” display has been added to the bottom of the screen to keep you updated on what track is playing at all times within the app. With universal music searchability, you can search for your favorite tracks no matter the service. Switching services just to find a song or album is no more, just use universal search, find the track or album, and play! The track could be on Amazon Music, Spotify, or your Tidal service. With Universal Search, it doesn’t matter; you just search, find, and play. HEOS supports Amazon Music, Pandora, SiriusXM, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tidal and Tidal Connect, and Deezer HiFi. However, Qobuz and Apple Music are missing as of this article. Tidal Hi-Res will give the A10H and any other HEOS device the ability to play tracks up to 192KHz/24bit natively. In addition to music streaming services, you can use HEOS to access and distribute music from locally stored content on media servers or PCs. (file types supported MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, DSD, Flac, WAV, and WMA). Denon says they keep working on HEOS and making it compatible with more services and features. This gives us peace of mind as Denon will be adding features in the future and allowing more technologies and streaming services onboard.

Apple Siri Voice Control and Airplay 2

Apple users are also invited to the party with support for Airplay 2 streaming. Airplay 2 allows you to stream Apple Music, Spotify or watch content from YouTube and Netflix directly from an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV device. This allows multi-room audio and allows users to control the music with Siri like they already do with these devices. This is excellent as it will enable users invested in the Apple ecosystem the ability to keep using their Apple sources just like they are designed to be used.

Performance

Knowing how well we liked the Denon A1H, we were excited to get the A10H into our test lab. It is always great when a brand offers much of its reference quality at more affordable prices. We got the unit out of the well-thought-out packaging and were impressed with what we saw. Much like the A1H, the A10H looks the part of a flagship-level AVR. We used the excellent Denon Setup Assistant to set up the A10H, which only required a TV connection to get started. The Denon Setup Assistant took over and told us exactly how to connect the A10H to our sources and speakers and walked us through the initial steps to get connected and going. We only wish all AVR manufacturers would take note of how easy this makes connecting the A10H into our system.

We started by streaming music to the A10H to see how well the internal streamer and DAC performed. Immanuel Wilkins just released his new 2024 album, Blues Blood, and it is a good one. Blue Note Records rarely misses with their albums, and this one is good. The Denon A10H allowed the soul of this music to shine through the speakers. The A10H has that familiar, impactful, and alive sound that Denon is known for while keeping complete control of the speakers. The bass was deep and impactful but detailed, allowing us to hear bass drum impacts with precision and focus. Stand-up bass kept its acoustic quality while not sounding lost or unfocused in the mix. The midrange was clear, giving vocals clarity and instruments the space they needed to shine. Sometimes, we forgot we were listening to an integrated home theater component instead of a high-end two-channel amplifier. Even the soundstaging and imaging were good for an AVR. No, the A10H will not replace a dedicated two-channel integrated amplifier purposely built with one job in mind. But it is surprisingly capable of a multi-channel component designed to handle everything from 2-channel to 13-channel audio. We see this as a complete win for the A10H. To have all of this circuitry and capability within it and to be able to perform like this with music is impressive. There are many good AVRs on the market that have surprisingly great performance today, and we can confidently say that the Denon A10H is one of the better of them.

For movies, we ran our selection of test movie scenes with the A10H running a full 7.2.4 theater setup. From Top Gun Maverick to Mad Max Fury Road, no soundtrack stumbled on the A10H. There were dynamics in spades, good bass control and quality, and the overall sound clarity was some of the best we have heard from an AVR at this price level. Just like the A1H, the A10H is a true performer, and we could see many people who aren’t going to need the extra channel count of the A1H going with the A10H and being very happy. Receivers like the A10H show us true high-end performance can come from an AVR. Yes, you can get better performance and options with a separate high-end processor like a Trinnov, or a separate power amplifier like Marantz AMP10 Reference. Still, these units are in a different price class. For the money, the Denon A10H does a heck of a lot right and not much wrong, and in our evaluation, it was impressive.

Overall, we like the Denon A10H's simple and elegant appearance and think that, for the price, it offers a lot of upgraded performance and features that lower-cost AVRs don’t have. You get a taste of true high-end performance at a lower cost than one would expect.

Overall Recommendation

After spending time with the Denon A10H and hearing what it could do with our favorite music and movie soundtracks, we were quite impressed. The Denon Setup Assistant is excellent, and options like this should be mandatory on these products. It easily powered our test system, only being bettered by much more expensive and complex separate components. The preamp outputs and independently controlled subwoofer outputs are excellent for future growth and controllability. And with the included HEOS app, music streaming should be easy and sound good. The A1H was already an excellent reference level AVR, and the A10H is exceptional in the same ways and is even less expensive than its big brother. The Denon A10H is an impressive achievement at its price and will be a well-recommended component. If you are in the market for a new AVR and are interested in seeing if the Denon A10H meets your needs, give us here at Audio Advice a call, email, or chat on our website and let our experts help you find the right AVR for you.

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