Denon showcased new product lines for 2009 on Monday with something for everyone—the videophile, the audiophile, the tweaker, the iPod lover.

The company has a slew of A/V receivers, Blu-ray players and iPod docks to highlight its 2009 product releases, so we’ll give you a heads up on what to look for.

Receivers will bear HDMI repeaters on all new models, part of Denon’s one-cable HD solution across the line—one cable from the source, one cable to the television. All the models will also include the latest lossless audio codecs Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, the new Dolby ProLogic IIz front height surround channel, and send analog video to HDMI at a minimum (starting with HDMI conversion on the entry-level models, and moving on to upscaling).

The receivers range from the five-channel entry-level $379 AVR-1610 to the fully loaded $1,999 AVR-4310CI, which is the first to include Audyssey’s DSX technology for height/width surround-sound expansion. The AVR-4310CI has six HDMI ports in total, including one on the front panel, and also includes a vertical stretch feature for theater owners with CinemaScope aspect ration projection setups.

On the video processing side, Denon has also switched from Faroudja to Anchor Bay, with the AVR-4310CI, $1,499 AVR-3310CI and $1,499 AVR-990 employing the ABT2010 scaler; the $549 AVR-1910, which is the new version of Denon’s best-selling AVR-1909, includes ABT1030 processing among the improvements you’ll now get for $100 less than the 1909.

Other highlights on the higher-end models include 10-bit processing/12-bit audio output, party mode that lets you stream iPod tunes to up to five Denon products on one network, and OSD menus that are more navigation friendly.

Among Blu-ray Disc player offerings, Denon’s do-it-all DVD-A1HDCI tops the line at $4,500 and combines SACD, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, CD and Blu-ray playback. The BD-Live-ready (look for the firmware update in June) also has balanced XLR connectors, 32-bit DAC upsampling and vertical stretch mode. The more traditional Blu-ray products include the DBP-2010CI for $699 and the DBP-1610 for $499—both will be BD-Live upon arrival, with the lower-end model losing the analog 7.1-channel outputs.

Also keep an eye out for Denon’s new iPod dock, the ASD-51N/W wired/wireless docks, now featuring a coax output, for $249 and $299, respectively.

About the Author:
Arlen Schweiger - Managing editor of Electronic House Magazine

Arlen contributes product news items to electronichouse.com along with his role on the print publication. Got a tip? Send it along!