Receiver & Amplifier Reviews

Back when Jimmy Carter was president (or was it Ford?), my first audio system featured a Pioneer SX-434 receiver. Even then, manufacturers had figured out that SX sells. My old receiver was rated at 15 watts per channel and weighed 18 pounds. Today,...

3 expert reviews

Price: $15,800/pr. Channels/Power: Monoblock; 400-Watts per channel into 8 ohms/650-Watts into 4 ohms Inputs: Single-ended and balanced Theta's Dreadnaught amplifier represented something of a sea change in multichannel power amplifiers. Although a...

2 expert reviews

Half-rack audio compressor/limiter shows a master designer's touch

2 expert reviews

PS audio began in 1975 as two guys' effort to create affordable high-fidelity audio equipment. Paul McGowan and Stan Warren (the P&S) parted ways after a couple of years with Paul continuing PS and Stan going on to Superphon. After a good run Paul sold...

3 expert reviews

Imagine what it would be like if shopping for a new car involved the same number of decisions we must make when buying a home theater system. First, we would pick an engine, then we'd need a chassis to mount it in, and, to top it off, we would hire a...

2 expert reviews

Power amps get little respect in the home theater world. They're the heavy, black (or silver) boxes that sit somewhere in the dark, serving your speakers with a generous supply of power. And they're not even all that popular in the home theater...

2 expert reviews

The feature set of the Denon is so rich, in fact, and its operation so flexible (or complicated, depending on your point of view), that it takes a 191 page manual--all in English--to explain it all!

2 expert reviews

Arcam FMJ AV8 Around the BlockIn the world of high-end audio, the more expensive and higher-performance a product is, chances are the fewer knobs it will have. The opposite seems to be true in the A/V world, where more money means more knobs, more...

3 expert reviews

Cutting Edge rates this amplifier at 1,000 watts into one ohm. The amplifier can be bridged with a second CE1000M to achieve...

2 expert reviews

Boston Acoustics has been perfecting the art of speaker design for 26 years, so I guess they're ready to try something new. For 2005, the company set their sights on the fiercely competitive A/V-receiver market and released a classically handsome,...

3 expert reviews

That lead and the rest of the review had to be delayed because by the time it was ready to run, the Ultimate II version was announced. It adds Pro Logic IIx and video upconversion, from composite to S-video to composite. Otherwise, as far as I can...

3 expert reviews

The first thing that you notice about the Planet Audio PA2500D is that it is a substantial power amplifier. The unit weighs...

2 expert reviews

The amplifier market has a lot of good things going on these days. In addition to incredible technological advancements,...

2 expert reviews

Most human beings have 10 fingers and 10 toes. Therefore the number 10 is a big deal to us. We use a base-10 number system, bestow honors in top-10 lists, and think in multiples of 10. So it's inevitable that makers of surround receivers have fixated...

4 expert reviews

Many consumer-electronics pundits may deny it, but sound matters in a high-end home theater. How much? I would hazard to say that the sonic character of a home theater is even more important than its picture quality. To give you an example, let me...

3 expert reviews

Now a division of Lenbrook Industries, NAD continues the tradition of high value with its line of home theater products. I spent a couple of pleasant months with this year's flagship receiver, the T 773, where it saw extensive duty, first in my...

4 expert reviews

Unpacking the 2800E reveals an unusual looking power amplifier. The amplifier is finished in either a chrome plate or bright...

2 expert reviews

Creating a short list of the better audio-video receivers (AVR) requires gathering a great deal of information and specifications. (TPV has your back here.) But it also involves knowing a little something about your own nature. Is yours a cutting-edge,...

3 expert reviews

While specialist manufacturers can still make a good case that their separates maintain an edge in sound quality, the gap separating them from the best receivers is not nearly as big as it was in the early days of the still-young home theater market....

3 expert reviews

After making and refining tube amps for several years, Stronczer began to explore the possibility of making a solid-state model. After examining and discarding conventional solid-state designs, Stronzer learned about a new circuit: the Tripath...

3 expert reviews

This receiver's front panel is black but sets itself apart with a high-gloss finish and Pioneer's traditional (and rather attractive) amber display. It doesn't depend excessively on the jog dial. To the left, above the jog dial, are buttons labeled...

2 expert reviews

For $3,400 you can acquire a beautiful, 68-pound music machine decked out in a rosewood-looking base, chrome top and front plates, and accents to complement the big-ass tranny covers. Like the Diavolo, it's a zero-feedback design but does not offer an...

2 expert reviews

Cosmetically identical to the original Dreadnaught, the II includes sonic upgrades, an upgraded power supply providing a small increase in maximum available power, and options that include the ability to equip the amplifier to drive as many as 10...

2 expert reviews

When the dust settles, Lexicon's CX-7 won't simply be known as the LX-7's little brother. It has plenty of power, plenty of design and build quality, and plenty of swagger to forge its own identity in the amplifier arena. I expect it will grab a...

4 expert reviews

The Parasound Halo C 2 is a 7.5-channel controller offering coonventional 7.1-channels output needed for the latest soundtrack formats, plus four user programmable auxiliary channels. Two of the auxiliary channels are intended as subwoofer outputs (one...

4 expert reviews