Fred Manteghian

Michael Kelly stands next to his updated 20T speaker. German manufactured speaker material includes carbon fiber. The cast ribbon guide is a custom piece as well.

The front panel LCD screen is an integral part of the new SSP220. It looks great, as does the rear panel connection which feature both single-ended and balanced outputs. Video processing includes converting component to HDMI up to 1080p. It's good to see some high end companies like Halcro getting into the home theater game, even if the SSP220 is $12,000!

French audio manufacturer, heretofore excelling in two channel audio has put their toe into the home theater waters with their YA701 multichannel receiver. Okay, first off, there's no video switching built in, but YBA offers a video box with two HDMI inputs (one output) and two component and two composite inputs (and outputs). There is no accommodation for HD audio formats, but YBA plans an upgrade in the future for Dolby TrueHD and dts-HD MA. Pretty cool and we're looking forward to the next generation.

There are 12 coffee can sized driver housing lined up facing each other and porting out that long slot you see. It takes four of these units in total to get the THX seal of approval during install, but the price of $7,000 is actually pretty reasonable compared to a couple of $3,000 discrete subs.