Sound United unveils 13.2 receivers with HDMI 2.1 and upgrade existing models
Sound United, the manufacturer of Denon and Marantz receivers, comes with two new, updated receivers with full HDMI 2.1 support. For the two existing models, the company has set up an upgrade program to make them HDMI 2.1 compatible.
Sound United has announced two updated versions of the existing Denon AVR-X8500H and Marantz AV8805 receiver. The new versions are the AVR-X8500HA and AV8805A, with the addition of the A designating the upgrade. The existing models came out a few years ago and are flagship models, but had yet to make do with HDMI 2.0 support. At the time, it was already clear that a paid upgrade option to support HDMI 2.1 would be offered in the future.
The Marantz AV8805A and the Denon AVR-X8500HA
Owners of the Denon AVR-X8500H and Marantz AV8805 who wish to make use of this can turn to authorized sales points. For a fee of 749 euros it is possible to have a renewed HDMI card installed to replace the old one. Owners of these receivers can use this from next month. Yamaha also recently announced such a solution.
According to the manufacturer, the new A receivers and the updated existing models can pass 8k60 and 4k120 signals via HDMI without any problems, in addition to supporting other HDMI 2.1 functions. The HDR standard HDR10 + will also be supported, in addition to the usual support for Dolby Vision. There is support for a bandwidth of 40Gbit / s and Fixed Rate Link signal technology of HDMI 2.1.
Gradually, these A versions will replace the copies of the Denon AVR-X8500H and Marantz AV8805. Only a single connection will be suitable for HDMI 2.1, both with the new A receivers and with the existing models that will receive the upgrade.
The upgrade kit with which a new HDMI board is built in, in this case with the Marantz AV8805
The emphasis that Sound United places on the full support of HDMI 2.1 features stems from the infamous ‘HDMI 2.1 bug’, with which quite a few relatively new receivers from various manufacturers have to deal. The German c’t Magazine noted last year that there are problems with the transmission of 4k120 signals to the connected television. Sound United acknowledged the problems and spoke of a mismatch between the HDMI chipsets of the various devices. Yamaha also confirmed that the problem occurs with its receivers. These problems are particularly prevalent with connected Xbox Series X and S consoles and PCs with AMD and Nvidia video cards with HDMI 2.1.
The problem probably concerns specifically Nuvoton Technology’s integrated HDMI chips. The chipsets from this manufacturer are built into quite a few receivers that support HDMI 2.1. This problem is not an issue with the PlayStation 5. The Nuvoton chips probably cannot handle the compression technique display stream compression very well. Sony does not apply it to the PS5, while Microsoft does to the image signal from the Series X and S.
Previously, Sound United already came up with a free solution for the HDMI 2.1 problems of receivers that should immediately have supported this HDMI standard without any problems. These include the AVR-X2700H, AVR-X3700H, AVR-X4700H and AVR-X6700H from Denon, and the SR5015, SR6015, SR7015 and SR8015 from Marantz. An HDMI adapter kit will be available for these models, among others. According to the manufacturer, this adapter will solve a ‘compatibility issue’ between Denon and Marantz receivers with HDMI 2.1 and certain game consoles. This adapter must be placed between, for example, the Xbox Series X console and the receiver.
The Denon AVR-X8500HA and Marantz AV8805A are high-end 13.2 receivers, which will be available from June with prices of 3999 and 4299 euros respectively.