AVR-S970H

I have for some time felt my Sony AV receiver just wasn't up to par on the sound. It also didn't have a phono input for my vintage 1980's Dual turntable I had been wanting to rehab, so I made the decision to update/upgrade receivers. Never having owned any Denon product I went strictly by online reviews and features. I am not disappointed! This receiver has sufficient power to rattle your windows, or reproduce the softest music you might desire. The remote control is used for the setup, which is a menu-driven app within the receiver itself, and even has little videos for the total newbie who doesn't kow how to hook up speakers. There is also an app for your smartphone that doubles as an extra remote control. I hooked this receiver up to my 7.1 speaker array which includes DCM TP260-CH pair as the front (and main 2 channel) speakers. I am an old DCM nut from the early 80's; I love my old Time Windows and the newer DCMs have video shielding, so I updated a few years back. My Dual turntable now has been refurbished, so I felt ready to get a new receiver and give it a spin. Prime Delivery could not be fast enough to ease my anticipation. And this new Denon rocks! I never heard vinyl records sound so good! This Denon unit not only SOUNDS superb; the video is breathtaking as well on a LG G1 4K largescreen TV. Watching 4K Top Gun: Maverick exceeded any experience I could possibly have watching in a theater. Whatever equipment you currently have, I believe the Denon AVR-S970H will improve your experience whether you are watching movies or listening to your favorite tunes. I am not a video game player, so I cannot critique the processors for that; however, I would be shocked if the Denon did not deliver top notch gaming performance as well. Everything is well thought out from the appearance to the setup to the controls. Ample HDMI connections (see back panel pic) and eARC functionality make it as versatile as any unit can be for home theater. I especially like the flexibilty of assignable speaker connections for surround versus zone 2 (a second room) and 8K processing (even though I have no 8K TV). My ONLY criticism is that there are no tape deck connections as Denon has on some of their less expensive stereo amplifiers. When I wrote them about this on their website, their answer was that cassette tsape decks are not coming back like vinyl is. (Excuse me?!) I guess Denon thinks one cannot be both a surround sound home theater buff and an analog music buff at the same time. The Denon AVR-S970H is a 90 W/channel beast of a performer that won't let you down; it is most worthy of your consideration and should be a dependable unit for years to come. Hope this helps!

I traded up to a Denon AVR-S970H from an Onkyo TX-NR636 that was slowly dying. They have mostly the same power rating and features. The setup was fairly straightforward with a few little quirks that, until you understand the operating logic, are common when you change brands. This receiver is advertised as a 7.2 channel system. It also advertises a powered Zone 2 output. However, you can't have both at the same time. The powered Zone 2 outputs use re-assigned Back speaker connections and the system then becomes a 5.2 system. Since a 5.1 and powered Zone 2 is what I already have, this fit my needs exactly. If you want a 7.2 channel with powered Zone 2, this receiver can't do that. Most of the new 7.2 systems seem to have a separate pre-amp Zone 2 output, which requires either an additional external amplifier or powered speakers to drive the Zone 2 sound. The use of their HEOS app to access on-line music streaming is definitely different, but seems to work ok. The additional Denon Remote app operates the receiver via Wi-Fi, which also works ok. Nothing fancy, though. The Bluetooth transmitter isn't available for wireless headset use when either the MAIN Zone or ZONE2 are sourced by HEOS, which prevents you from streaming on-line music from the receiver. TV Audio, Blue Ray, USB, CDs, etc. can all still be Bluetooth'd out, just not a HEOS source. I was stumped about this issue and called tech support. They answered the phone immediately and quickly answered my question. Not the answer I wanted, but that's how it works. If your TV or Blue Ray player can stream Pandora, Spotify, etc. app, you can feed that to the receiver and Bluetooth it out to headsets, so there is a work-around. The sound quality is very good and is marginally better than my old Onkyo. The Denon has some audio tuning features not on the Onkyo (Dynamic EQ, Dynamic volume, MP3 Rendering, and others). I have a remote reading temperature sensor in my stereo cabinet. The cabinet with an Onkyo always ran about 90-92dF. This is fairly hot and can impact long term reliability. To limit that high temperature, I had added 4 little computer fans to help ventilate the cabinet. So far, the highest temperature I've seen the Denon run is 80dF, a big difference for the same sound volume. Not sure why that is, but I like the result. I can probably remove the cooling fans. The one thing I wish the Denon had is a programmable TV power button on the remote. This missing feature forces me to use a 2nd remote every time I turn the system on. Overall, I would definitely recommend this receiver to anyone looking to buy in this price range.

Great receiver. I bought it to hook up my Klipsch reference speaker system too and use, primarily for home theater. Sounds great with music on all platforms. Has Bluetooth and network antennas. No real user manual but the onscreen is very user friendly and easy to understand. The hook up is step by step. Little more expensive than the Yamaha that could've been included with the speaker system but, you get more wattage, 90 per channel vs 75.

I love this receiver. I previously owned the Denon AVR-S660 and I loved that as well but ultimately ended up upgrading to this one to get a little more output power. I'm only using it at 5.2, so I'm not using all 7 speaker channels - but I love it. Good power output and very clear audio. Plenty of Dolby and DTS surround modes. Bluetooth connects easily and reliable. I utilize the eARC when using apps on my smart TV and have not had any issues at all. I manually tuned mine, but it does come with that wired mic thing for the auto setup. Onscreen menus are easy to understand and not overly complicated. I love that when I play my turntable on this receiver that it allows the option to pick a 2nd source for video - meaning I can listen to my turntable through the receiver while watching television that is passing through the receiver - so I can listen to vinyls while watching the ball game. PERFECT. If I had to put a negative on this, I'd say the 2nd zone option that it gives you is a little wonky. The 2nd zone option only exists if you are using 5 channels and not 7. If you are using 5 channels, you can wire in 2 speakers to those 2 unused channels and those 2 unused channels would serve as "zone b" which you can turn on/off as you wish to play music in 2 rooms at once if you wish. I found there to be a little lag of a fraction of a second between the 2 zones, so if the 2 rooms were right next to eachother and music from room 1 could be heard in room 2 and vice versa, it sounded weird because they weren't completely in sync. Maybe that could have been tweaked, but I already had an external speaker selector in place from my previous receiver so I just went back to using that. Short of that issue though, this receiver has been excellent. Clear audio. Powerful audio. Easy menu navigation and setup. Plenty of Dolby & DTS options. WiFi, Bluetooth and ARC have all been reliable.... Very happy customer here.

Loyal Denon customer and this seems as good as the last one that lasted 23 years, more technology and convenience, heos app sometimes gets wonky with phone and where the receiver thinks it is. Same power as the old with one more channel can crank out with the old one, Denon run hotter if you listen loud, get the AC infinity fans and you can’t go wrong. Thanks for staying great quality!

DO NOT buy Denon products. ★☆☆☆☆ Not because the receiver failed — because of what happens after it fails. Bought this AVR-S970H in August 2025. Ten months later, still under warranty, it started dropping into protection mode any time volume passed 50. Hardware fails. That I can live with. June 13: two hours on the phone with Denon, told to haul it to a service center myself. June 16: dropped it at their authorized center. They diagnosed it in one morning — unrepairable. Professional and responsive throughout. June 22: Denon approved the replacement and got my dead unit back that afternoon. July 17: still nothing. No receiver, no ship date. Five weeks of "backorder," "arriving in a couple of days," "end of the week." Ten calls. Emails ignored for weeks. Today: 30 minutes on hold to be told there is no manager available — none. No escalation path. No supervisor. I offered to accept any comparable model just to end it. No response. Their repair partner did their job in 24 hours. Denon can't ship a replacement it already approved for a unit already sitting in its own warehouse. Assume the warranty is decorative. Buy Yamaha, Onkyo, Sony — anything else.

Have owned this for three years now and am very happy. Denon has a very good remote app also. It does everything that was advertised. The internet radio is very good. Happy with my purchase for this price point.

Excellent sound quality! The arc connection makes it easy to control with just the tv remote!

Dem positiven Urteil der vorigen Rezensenten kann ich mich nur anschließen. Es bestehen jedoch Unterschiede zwischen dem gelieferten Gerät und dem bei Amazon eingestellten Produktfoto von der Geräterückseite: Es gibt keinen koaxialen Digitaleingang, sondern nur zwei optische Eingänge. Die Netzspannung beträgt, wie in Deutschland üblich, 230 V ~, statt wie abgebildet 120 V ~.

Don't buy no audessy mic i don't know wether it's sealed piece or refurbished even no warranty card also. Risky buy for 58000.

El equipo llegó en tiempo y forma, sin embargo a pesar de que en las opciones de entrega seleccione que llegara dentro de una caja de Amazon para que no fuera visible el producto lo enviaron solo con la caja original por lo que fue visible para todos los que manipularon el paquete, en relación a la calidad es muy buena, el tema a sido la configuración ya que para una persona como yo que no es experta a sido de mucho esfuerzo y trabajo, llevo tres días en el proceso y aún no finalizo de configurarlo para que quede al 100, por lo pronto con lo que llevo la calidad del audio es impresionante, hasta el momento a cumplido con mis espectativas, espero terminar lo antes posible para disfrutar al máximo la experiencia con el audio, ya veremos con el tiempo su durabilidad.

O melhor de todos!

This is by far the best receiver I have ever owned I Just replaced my Onkyo TX NR 646 of course it has the very common overheating chip failure problem and it Just stop working and of course Onkyo Canada would not return any of my Emails or phone calls so I searched everywhere to find a top notch AV receiver with great reviews at a price that wouldn't break the bank and this Denon AVR-S970H 8K Ultra receiver was very easy to set up this sound and Picture is absolutely stunning I highly recommend this AV receiver you will not be disappointed