AV Receiver Reviews

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

Paring Down to Essentials

In this economically tough climate, we all have to trim expenses to the essentials. Just this week, I instructed my manservant to take my suits to the dry cleaner only if they’ve been worn for more than three hours. My nightly meals at five-star restaurants will be cut back to six nights a week at 4.5-star restaurants. During the summer, I’ll raise the thermostat in my 25-room summer house from 70 to 71 degrees (unless I’m actually there). The pilot of my personal jet will have to cut back the monthly Caspian Sea caviar run to every other month. And no more caviar for the pool boy.

Ready for Takeoff

Paring life down to the essentials is a fine art. You should aim to reduce the quantity of stuff in your life and increase the quality of what remains. This may take some work. You may need to sit down with the entire contents of your sock drawer and discard all the ones with rather large holes. But then you experience the joy of buying (and wearing) beautiful new socks. And the daily need to find two good ones that match will become less onerous.

Need Supersizing?

Has the concept of supersizing peaked? The McMansion-driven housing boom is a bust. Some SUV owners are trading in their gas-guzzlers for more efficient hybrids of the same size, while others are opting for more efficient hybrid sedans. Fast food addicts are counting the calories in their Happy Meals.

The Brand That Rolls Its Own

At first glance, the Yamaha RX-V1065 A/V receiver seems to be missing several of the latest and greatest features. By that I mean it doesn’t have the licensed goodies and their accompanying logos, the little things that manufacturers use to encourage the feeling that things are getting better all the time. However, when you look closer at the specs—or better yet, page through the manual—some of those features are in fact present, in Yamaha-approved form, under other names.

Powerful But Clever

The AudioControl Concert AVR-1 embodies the paradox of high-end A/V receivers. Befitting an audiophile product, its Class H amplification can take an input signal and fill a room with commendable transparency and power. At the same time, it departs from strict fidelity to the input signal by offering pragmatic features like Dolby Volume and room correction. Let’s take a closer look at its dual nature.

Should You Go Wide?

Surround sound is fully half of the home theater equation. Like any technology, it presents certain complexities, and mastering at least a few of them will reward the patient listener. However, surround almost makes a fetish of complexity. It turns a lot of people off, which inhibits its household penetration. It also puts a technology critic like me on the spot when I take keyboard in hand to tell you about the Denon AVR-4310CI A/V receiver, with Audyssey’s DSX, which introduces a new complexity: width channels.