AV receivers are the audio epicentre of your whole home cinema system. As well as decoding and amplifying multichannel audio signals from a Blu-ray player and playing powerful sound through connected speakers, AV receivers are equipped with masses of digital signal processing and other audio trickery that heightens your excitement. The latest models can pass through 4K/60p signals from Ultra HD Blu-ray players, support HDCP 2.2 copy protection and can decode new 3D audio formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. Some even act as video switchers and up-convert signals to 4K. And with built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet ports, many AV receivers are also full-fat network streamers, playing music from NAS drives or services like Spotify.