A/V Product Reviews

The Aragon Soundstage Processor represents the pinnacle of Aragon's success at producing a sophisticated digital preamp processor capable of decoding Dolby Prologic, Dolby Digital and DTS, while at the same time serving as a top quality audiophile preamp. The Soundstage's open architecture allows for future hardware and firmware upgrades. The preamp is driven with Class A circuitry for maximum linearity, and furnished with 24 bit premium Crystal DAC's on all channels for the best possible digital sound resolution.

Subwoofers have been conventionally known for their deep bass extension and wow factor, essential for today's home theater systems, usually requiring a big heavy box loaded with large woofers to achieve ultimate impact and performance. Until my experience with the Velodyne SPL-800, I was happy with this stereotype about subwoofers as until that point, I haven't heard a small subwoofer that could do both music and movies justice. Enter the SPL-800.

The Yamaha RX-Z1 proved to be a very competent preamp and home theater processor. In movie theater modes, the RX-Z1, when driving my (admittedly hard to drive) reference speaker system, did a bang up job at turning my living room into a state of the art surround sound theater rivaling a majority of THX Cineplex's I have recently visited. This flagship Receiver offers two advantages over all separate Processors currently available, that I know, of: DTS 96/24 processing and 100MHz Component Video Bandwidth switching. I undeservedly recommend adding the Yamaha RX-Z1 to your shopping list if a state of the art, one box, high performance; reliable and reasonably priced home theater Receiver is in your future.

The Yamaha RX-V1 is the successor to the infamous and highly regarded DSP A1. The RX-V1 means business with its massive 20lbs high current power transformer and large heat sink area for the discrete output devices. The RX-V1 uses some of the best internal components, including high voltage, low ESR Audiophile grade capacitors on the power supply section.

The first thing I noticed about the Axiom Epic 80 System was the incredible presence and detailed highs. The clarity and imaging put forth by the M80s was refreshing and worthy of designating them as a movie theater killer. As good as this system was, Axiom's recent dramatic price increases have put their products into a price class of much higher caliber competitors.

The Sony STR-DA4ES and the STR-DA7ES offer the processing options and completeness that those who prefer affordable separates are seeking after even if they don't have the power for the higher end speakers. These Receivers recently replaced the STR-DA5ES and lists at a price of $1,100 and $2,300 respectively. Both come with all the latest software decoding, 64-Bit processor, and a host of DSP Modes as well as Pro-logic II (music and movie) and DTS-Neo (music and movie). With its 6-channel inputs, they are equipped to handle DVD-Audio and SACD as well as having 6 channel outputs for connecting to any powered Amplifiers. This makes them ideal for those that want a processor with the latest features and are on a budget. But which one is for you? We break them down for you.

The Marantz SR-18 is one receiver with need for little introduction. It is basically a state of the art piece of hardware and one of the best all in one box home theater solutions on the market. Marantz has recently come a long way with their A/V receivers, as this powerhouse flagship best illustrates here. Build quality of the SR-18 is second to none within its respected class. The SR-18 is endowed with a high-current toroidal transformer power supply, premium high storage, low ESR power supply capacitors, fully discrete preamp and power amp output stages, and premium 96KHz / 24 bit DAC's. While the interface needs a bit of work, our listening tests proved the Marantz SR-18 to be a very musical, powerful and dynamic receiver.

When Sony revealed their new flagship DVD / SACD Player, Audio and Video philes alike began dreaming of owning such a machine. Sony's High End ES line of products continue to display superb quality with reasonable pricing. The new Sony DVP-NS999ES player is no exception as it is one of the foremost DVD Players on the market today in its price range.

Aluminum must be bullet proof. At least that has been my experience when dealing with speakers from RBH Sound, Inc. My first impression of this company was made when I demoed the fabulous 1010-SEP subwoofer from their Signature series. I remember saying to myself, how can (2) two 10 inch woofers play so much clean, articulate, deep musical bass? The answer lies in the excellent proprietary aluminum cone woofers with powerful motor structures developed by RBH Sound. Such is the case with the new Signature 61-SE bookshelf loudspeakers.

Monitor Audio offers a very impressive package with the new GR-10 bookshelf speakers. They have managed to create an excellent sounding, finely crafted, and relatively affordable bookshelf speaker system that rivals many of their more costly competitors solutions. My only minor gripe is mostly a cosmetic one. I wish they would have rounded off the corners of the cabinets as I feel it would have made these speakers even more visually pleasing and possibly added a tad bit better imaging of the tweeters by reducing lateral baffle surface area and reducing tweeter diffraction. That said, the GR-10's are a must audition if a small, attractive and high performance bookshelf speaker system is what you are after. They are an excellent successor to their flagship discontinued Studio Series and should provide countless years of musical enjoyment to even the most critical listeners.

See how 5 budget speaker towers from Pinnacle, Polk, Infinity, Bose stand up to each. Does price and size dictate performance? Read our comparison review to find out.

Speaker companies are a dime a dozen these days in a market flooded with gimmicky products that claim improved fidelity via unverifiable audio tweaks or using exotic cables to achieve their full potential. It is a rarity to find a company that doesn't give into these tactics to market a substandard product. Instead Status Acoustics took the high road by building these no nonsense speakers with some of the finest components available making them to this day a benchmark product unrivaled in performance.

Six years ago Onkyo rocked the industry with the release of the first THX receiver and raised the bar for surround sound excellence. Today the TX-DS989 isn't just posed to change home theater, its here to revolutionize it. As the first receiver to offer True 7.1 amplification, true THX Surround EX playback ability (other 5.1 receiver offer THX Surround EX but all require an additional amp) and 192kHz/24Bit DACs for all channels, the TX-DS989 is built to be the absolute ultimate-home theatre centerpiece.

This is an preview article of the Energy C6 Tower speaker, C-300 center channel, RVSS surround speaker and ES-12XL subwoofer system we had the opportunity to demo at a local dealer back in 2000. The setup was good, and the system overall performed well, but did have some shortcomings which are discussed in this article preview.