An excellent review "Count W"
thank you.
You mentioned a short while back that sometime in the spring "Denon" (as with "Marantz" part of D&M Holdings, unless that's changed now
) are also, apparently, bringing out an AV amp. As I have the venerable "Denon" AVCA11XV upgraded to (A spec) amp, at some point next year I would be interested in changing this model for an Atmos / DTS:X enabled amp as opposed to a receiver as I have a separate "Denon" DAB / FM and for what it's worth AM tuner.
I've had my present AV amp for around twelve years now and one of my main concerns was the quality of the two channel hi-fi sound as this is very important to me. The AVC11XV amp got a cracking review for its two channel capabilities when it was originally released in "Hi-Fi News & Record Review" and this publication rarely does reviews on AV amps as they tend to leave these types of components to periodicals such as "Home Cinema Choice" as well as your good selves. It was also one of the main reasons I purchased the amp as I knew the surround capabilities were pretty much a forgone conclusion.
Part of my reasoning for considering changing my present amp is not just for the Atmos and DTS:X codecs but also it would enable me to have neat HDMI inputs for my three BD players (my original LG 2D one, a Panny 3D model and my Panny 3D enabled 850 BD recorder) as opposed to having a plethora of analogue cables, optical leads etc, etc hanging out the back like an explosion in a spaghetti factory . At the moment to get lossless sound from my LG BD player I have to go via the "in" of the "external out" with eight analogue leads (7.1).
Whilst this amp is "THX Ultra 2" certified, as with others I feel that this is (probably) of no real consequence now. But having said that I do notice a slight, let's say, smoothing out of the various surround formats when "THX" is applied on DVD's but of course the sound from these platters is lossy.... not that I watch too many of those now. I look forward to any replies.
Addendum: I've just seen the video / info on the "Denon AVRX8500" above whilst typing all this lot.
By the way if I wasn't full of a heavy head cold accompanied with copious amounts of coughing and spluttering I would be at work and typing this out in the early evening as opposed to mid morning.... By the way this is me feeling sorry for myself
.