A high-powered metallic beast screams with excitement and fury while deftly plucking digital images and music from the ether, immersing you in a wash of crystal clear sound. No, I'm not talking about a red Barchetta, or a gleaming alloy air car, or even an antique electric guitar found deep inside a cave. I'm talking about Denon's new 2112 receiver, unveiled to the world at a press event yesterday.
What Can This Strange Device Be?
The Denon AVR-2112CI (long boring name... I'll refer to it in short-hand), ahem, the Denon 2112 is a technological tour de force offering Apple's AirPlay technology for streaming music from a PC or Mac running iTunes, or directly from a portable device such as an iPod or iPhone. It also includes DLNA support so you can connect wirelessly and stream content from any DLNA-compliant device such as a Windows 7 tablet, PC or phone or an Android-based phone or tablet. And lest you think you'll lose all contact with the outside world, drowning in a wireless web of your own design, the 2112 also includes Pandora Internet Radio, Flicker, Napster, Rhapsody and access to over 12,000 internet radio stations. If there's a free radio station of the Solar Federation still out there, you'll find it on the 2112.
If you'd prefer to enjoy your audio/visual content on old-fashioned spinning silver discs, you'll be happy to hear the 2112 has built-in decoding for all of the latest surround sound codecs on Blu-ray including Dolby TrueHD, multi-channel PCM, and DTS-HD Master Audio. Those last two will come in particularly handy if you pick up the new release of Rush "Moving Pictures" on Blu-ray where you can experience all new discrete lossless surround sound mixes of the entire classic album. You haven't heard "Moving Pictures" until you've heard it in DTS-HD Master Audio through a fine multi-channel surround system such as this.
On the video side of things, you'll appreciate that the 2112 not only supports the newest 3D-capable HDMI-equipped modern sources (up to six of them), but also respects the past with inputs for older analog components such as VCRs, 8-Track tape decks, laserdisc players, or even a Wii. What comes in analog goes out digital (over HDMI) so you'll only need a single HDMI cable between your receiver and television or projector.
We Have Assumed Control
As part of Denon's new IN Command series of receivers, the 2112 is here to help you be a better person, or at least a smarter one with an all new set-up wizard. This magical guide leads you through first time system set-up to verify all of your connections and make sure you get clear images and sound while watching the weekly propaganda broadcasts from the temples of Syrinx. And if you need a little tweak, a friendly Denon priest... er, "service rep" can dial into your receiver, perform diagnostics and apply fixes courtesy of the receiver's remote IP Control capability.
On-board Audyssey speaker calibration assures that you'll get just the right crunch and bite out of Alex Lifeson's guitars while still enjoying the precise percussion work and thundering drum solos brought to you by Mr. Peart. In terms of making Geddy Lee's voice more mellifluous and dulcet in its harmonic tonality, well sorry but this thing can't work miracles.
The AVR-2112CI will be landing at an authorized Denon dealer near you in May for a suggested price of $599.99.
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