All-in-one solutions are nothing new. Hell, Walmart sells them, but that term is generally reserved for lower-market products, not something from a top-tier audio brands. Denon doesn’t care about that stereotype though. The companies new S-5BD is a Blu-ray player and high-end audio receiver. All-in-one!
This is far from a Black Friday-special HTiB. First off the system has a $1,799 MSRP and doesn’t come with speakers. That’s $1800 bones for just the receiver/BD player. But at least both units are full-featured.
The receiver half is a 2-zone, 2-source 5.1-channel system with 3 HDMI 1.4 (seriously, 1.4) inputs and one output, along with iPod connectivity via a USB port. It of course has advanced audio processing from Dolby and Denon, and is actually one of the first products to support HDMI 1.4’s Audio Return Channel.
The Blu-ray player is everything you would expect as well with 1080p/24p support, Profile 2.0, and an Ethernet port for connectivity.
Sure, the price is high but chances are Denon will not have any problem moving these units. There are enough people with deep pockets boarding the Blu-ray boat and probably looking to bring the full experience into smaller rooms without the clutter of a full-fledge audio system. The S-5BD fills that void.