The Best Denon Receiver

Comparing receivers across brands is mostly an exercise in comparing measurement conditions. Comparing Denon to Denon is not. Every AV receiver on this page carries the same power specification format in Denon’s own documents — watts into 8 Ω, from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, at 0.08% THD, with two channels driven. Same load, same bandwidth, same distortion limit, same number of channels working. That makes the ladder real, and it makes what the ladder shows worth knowing.

It shows that power is not the reason to spend more on a Denon. Three other things are: how many channels the box has, how good the room correction is, and whether there is a phono input. This page ranks on those, in that order, and states the gap that each model leaves behind.

The power ladder is worth about half a decibel

Denon publishes 70 W per channel for the AVR-S570BT, 75 W + 75 W for the AVR-S670H and 80 W + 80 W for the AVR-X1800H, all into 8 Ω from 20 Hz to 20 kHz at 0.08% THD with two channels driven. Those are three honest, directly comparable numbers, which is exactly why it is worth doing the arithmetic on them.

The PMA-600NE sits lower still at 45 W + 45 W, and lower on a slightly harder test — 0.07% THD rather than 0.08%. It is also the only Denon in our registry that publishes a 4 Ω figure at all: 70 W + 70 W. Read the condition before you get excited, because Denon prints it honestly and most retellings drop it. The 4 Ω number is measured at 1 kHz and 0.7% THD, which is a single tone at ten times the distortion. The 8 Ω number is the full band at 0.07%. They are not the same kind of claim and they should not be compared as if they were.

Room correction is the real ladder

Denon runs three different tiers of Audyssey across these models and the difference between them is larger than anything in the power column. The AVR-S570BT has none — Denon publishes “Audyssey Dynamic EQ: No” and “Audyssey Dynamic Volume: No” for it. The AVR-S670H gets Audyssey MultEQ with Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume. The AVR-X1800H gets MultEQ XT, also with Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume.

In a normal domestic room with a sofa against a wall, that is the feature most likely to change what you hear, because room modes and boundary reinforcement do far more damage to a frequency response than any amplifier in this price class does. Our guide to AV receiver room correction explains what each tier actually measures and corrects, and why the XT suffix matters more than the watts do.

This is also the clearest reason the AVR-S570BT is ranked last rather than second on price. A receiver with no correction in an untreated room is not a bargain version of a corrected one; it is a different outcome. Treating the room is the alternative and it is a better one, but it is not free either.

Denon’s phono stage is the best-documented in our whole registry

This is the finding that surprised us. Plenty of receivers have a phono input. Denon is the only maker in this registry that tells you how good it is.

For the AVR-X1800H, Denon’s owner’s manual publishes a moving-magnet input at 2.5 mV sensitivity, an RIAA deviation of ±1 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, a signal-to-noise ratio of 74 dB (IHF-A) and distortion of 0.03% at 1 kHz and 3 V. Sensitivity alone only tells you a phono stage exists. The RIAA deviation tells you whether records come out of it the right shape, and ±1 dB across the band is a real specification rather than a marketing line.

The AVR-S670H publishes the sensitivity figure but not the curve accuracy. The AVR-S570BT has no phono input at all — none appears in Denon’s specification table for the model, and that is worth knowing before you buy, because its two dearer siblings both have one. The PMA-600NE publishes its own numbers: MM at 2.5 mV into 47 kΩ, with a phono signal-to-noise of 84 dB against 105 dB on its line inputs.

If a turntable is part of the plan, those figures are the ones to read, and they are the reason the usual advice to add an outboard phono preamp is weaker against a Denon than against most receivers. It is not nothing — a dedicated stage under $200 will publish better noise figures than 74 dB — but the gap is smaller than the usual advice assumes.

The pre-out line nobody reads

Denon publishes this and it only bites years later. The AVR-X1800H has 2.2 pre-outs: front left, front right, and two subwoofer outputs. That is not a full 7.2 pre-out set. If the plan is ever to add an outboard power amplifier for the surround or height channels, this receiver cannot do it — those channels have no line-level output to tap.

The AVR-S670H and the AVR-S570BT are narrower still: subwoofer outputs only, no main-channel pre-outs on either. So across Denon’s whole sub-$1,000 range, the answer to “can I add amplification later” is no, with the single partial exception of the X1800H’s front pair.

This is not a Denon-specific failing — it is normal at this tier, and the Yamaha RX-V6A publishes exactly the same 2.2 arrangement. It is worth stating because the one receiver in our registry that breaks the pattern sits in the same corporate family: the Marantz Cinema 70s publishes a full 7.2 pre-out set in a half-height chassis, at a price well above this bracket. Our pre-outs roundup ranks the field on exactly this specification if an upgrade path is the point.

The Atmos question on the AVR-S670H, which Denon has not settled

We publish source conflicts rather than resolving them quietly, and this one is Denon against Denon. Denon’s own US product page for the AVR-S670H is titled “5.2 Ch. 75W 8K AV Receiver Powered by HEOS with Dolby Atmos”. Denon’s own info sheet for the same model enumerates Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Pro Logic II, carries a “Dolby Audio” logo, and names neither Atmos nor DTS:X anywhere.

We lean on the info sheet, because a specification table beats a page title. But there is a second argument that settles the practical question regardless of which document wins: the AVR-S670H has five power amplifiers. Dolby Atmos height information needs channels to come out of, and five channels cannot produce height whether or not the box decodes the format. So if overhead effects are the reason you are buying, this is not the model, and the AVR-X1800H’s seven amplifiers — enough for a 5.2.2 layout — are the cheapest Denon answer. Where those two height speakers go matters more than which decoder drives them.

The AVR-S570BT is clearer and the answer is also no: neither Atmos nor DTS:X is named anywhere on Denon’s product page for it. The formats Denon does name are Dolby Digital, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD.

Gaming: read the table, not the copy

Denon prints the four HDMI 2.1 gaming features as an explicit yes or no per feature, which is the clearest disclosure any maker in this registry makes. On both the AVR-X1800H and the AVR-S670H it reads ALLM yes, QMS no, QFT yes, VRR yes. Both pass 8K/60 and 4K/120, and Denon states a count of three 8K inputs out of six on each.

The AVR-S570BT is where it gets interesting. Denon’s specification table for that model carries VRR yes, QFT yes and QMS no — and no ALLM row at all, while the marketing copy on the same page claims ALLM. Denon also stops stating how many of its four inputs carry 8K and 4K/120, where it prints an explicit count on every dearer model. If auto low latency mode is a requirement, that silence is the thing to check with a retailer before buying, not the bullet list. Our gaming receiver roundup ranks the whole field on input counts rather than feature logos.

What Denon does not publish for any of these

Two gaps, both worth knowing. There is no all-channels-driven power figure for any model here, so the two-channel numbers above are the only comparable power data that exists. And there is no idle power figure: Denon publishes 430 W maximum consumption for the AVR-X1800H and a 0.1 W standby figure, but the standby number comes with conditions most people will not meet — it requires Network Control set to “Off In Standby” with HDMI Pass Through off, and CEC standby is 0.5 W. What the box draws powered on and not playing is published nowhere.

So which Denon, by what you are actually doing

Films, and you might add height later: the AVR-X1800H. Seven amplifiers, MultEQ XT, and the best-documented phono stage of the three if a turntable joins later. Accept the 2.2 pre-outs as the ceiling.

Films, five speakers, no height ever: the AVR-S670H. Same 8K plumbing, Audyssey MultEQ, a phono input, and a meaningful saving for two amplifiers you were not going to use. Treat the Atmos label as unresolved.

Music first, with a turntable: the PMA-600NE, which is an integrated amplifier rather than a receiver. A published 4 Ω rating, an 84 dB phono signal-to-noise, Bluetooth 5.1 with SBC and AAC, coaxial and optical digital inputs, and a subwoofer pre-out at 1 V and 100 Hz. No HDMI, so a television needs its own path. Our integrated amplifier bracket ranks it against Yamaha, Marantz and Cambridge Audio on the same figures.

Cheapest Denon that still passes a modern television signal: the AVR-S570BT. 70 W a channel on the same honest condition as the dearer two, 8K and 4K/120, eARC, Bluetooth. No correction, no phono, no streaming, no Atmos. It is a competent switch and amplifier, and the under-$500 bracket shows what the rest of the market offers at the same money.

One last note on brand loyalty, since that is what brings most people to a page like this. Denon’s documentation is better than most of its rivals’ — the identical power conditions, the RIAA deviation figure, the per-feature gaming table, and the fact that its own two documents visibly disagree about the AVR-S670H rather than quietly papering over it. That is a real reason to prefer the brand, and it is not the reason the marketing gives. If you want the cross-brand view instead, the under-$1,000 roundup and the X1800H against the Yamaha RX-V6A are the two pages to read next. A Denon also makes a sensible core for a horn-loaded Klipsch system, because high-sensitivity speakers are exactly what a 70–80 W receiver wants.