Fred Manteghian

With most of the same goodies found the $5,500 flagship RX-Z11 I recently reviewed in Home Theater magazine, this $2,700 receiver from Yamaha is a killer bargain! The below black and above white clipping Kris Deering noted in the review has been corrected in the new models (including newer Z11s). You get Internet radio, 140 watts x 7 channels, Rhapsody streaming, XM/Sirius readiness, and web-browser control, five HDMI inputs, two outputs, and scaling up to 1080p.

The CX-A5000 is the new crowning jewel of the Aventage series introduced by Yamaha a few years ago. The 11 channels (not even counting the subs here folks) pre-pro uses Yamaha’s proprietary YPAO room correction software, four distinct zones and more ins and outs than the revolving doors in Washington D.C. The extra channels are a Yamaha trademark, you know the old, you bring a knife, I’ll bring a gun chestnut. But they are used to create front and rear “presence” channels which, if your room and budget allow, could make your movie experience all that much more intense.

The new Vista line by Boston Acoustics may be hard to photograph, but they are stunning and come with end caps in variety of finishes (a striped "ebony" wood was beautiful). In common with all the speakers in the line is a new Super Wide Bandwidth tweeter which is capable of being crossed down as low as 2 kHz while retaining good horizontal dispersion, according to reps in the BA's booth. Pictured are the $3,398 a pair VS 336 floor standers (3-way, with three 6-1/2" drivers) and the $1,699 VPS 210 subwoofer (500 class D watts into a 10" driver / 10" passive). There's a 3 way center and an LCR as well that could be used as a center as well some smaller bookshelves in the line. Special red and Arctic white finishes are available for a 20% premium as well. Unfortunately, the demo material used was worthless for giving any impression on how they might sound.

HDMI cables are subject to misbehaving. The longer the run, the bigger the chance that the desired "I" signal pattern is turned into something that looks more like the oscilloscope sine wave that opens classic episodes of "Outer Limits." But you can control the vertical and horizontal, so to speak, with some HDMI extenders. There are several kinds available, from inexpensive inline devices like the UltraLink that worked for Tom (but not for me) and there are more heavily engineered solutions like the Etheral Restorer.