Denon’s 2014 AV receivers packed with HDMI and wireless connectivity

Denon is always one of the last of the major manufacturers to announce its new AV receivers in a given model year, but this year’s models appear to have been worth the wait.

The new trio of S-Series receivers are particularly competitive based on the initial specs, which is an improvement from last year’s relatively less-featured models. The AVR-S500BT, AVR-S700W, and AVR-S900W all feature built-in Bluetooth and HDMI 2.0, with healthy HDMI connectivity ranging from five inputs on the entry-level model up to eight inputs and two outputs on the AVR-S900W.

Here’s a quick rundown of how the S-Series line breaks down:

Denon AVR-S500BT ($250 USD)

• 5.2 channels
• 70 watts per channel
• Built-in Bluetooth
• Five HDMI inputs with support for HDMI 2.0
• Automatic speaker calibration

Denon AVR-S700W ($450 USD) step-up features

• 7.2 channels
• 75 watts per channel
• Built-in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and AirPlay
• Six HDMI inputs
• Built-in support for DLNA 1.5, Pandora, Spotify Connect, and Sirius XM
• Native playback of MP3, WAV, AAC, WMA, FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, and DSD files
• Audyssey MultEQ, Dynamic EQ, Dynamic Volume
• Front panel USB input

Denon AVR-S900W ($600 USD) step-up features

• 90 watts per channel
• Eight HDMI inputs, two outputs
• Analog video upconversion
• 4K upscaling

Both the AVR-S500BT and AVR-S700W look to offer a lot of value, with more HDMI connectivity and lower prices than similar models introduced by Sony last month, while also including ample wireless connectivity. We’ll need to get some hands-on time to see how they perform, but at first glance this is an impressive lineup from Denon.