OTHER TECH

PSB

Synchrony Speaker system November '07

As I said in my full test report, although I've never heard a bad PSB, I've never heard one as good as the company's new flagship Synchrony Ones. These elegant-looking, truly full-range towers can anchor a high-end 2-channel layout, or join its mates in a multichannel suite with equal grace. On their own, the Ones are a true 95% solution: They'll give you very nearly all the sonic precision and musical accuracy that money can buy, for about one tenth of what the world's most expensive 2-channel speakers ask. In home-theater array, the Synchronys proved superbly capable, too (and capable of awesome clean levels) - although a $10,000 system this good really deserves more/deeper/louder LFE-only subwoofing, which might ultimately make for an $11,000 system. At bottom, though, Synchrony bears the bell away for value. A surprising statement for so costly a system? Not really, because this is truly a product for which the confirmed music/home-theater nut might plan to save for several years, figuring, "Here are my speakers for the next decade or two." psbspeakers.com -Daniel Kumin

ONKYO

TX-SR875 A/V receiver October '07

Onkyo's TX-SR875 receiver ($1,699) delivers excellent video-to-HDMI conversion and scaling, readiness for the latest audio formats on high-def disc, top-grade auto-setup/calibration smarts from high-tech firm Audyssey, and a painless user interface featuring fast, intuitive onscreen displays over all video outputs, including HDMI. Of course, you also get plenty of power (140 watts) for each of its 7 channels, both XM and Sirius satellite-radio expansion potential, and a quite usable system remote, along with Onkyo's usual, highly accomplished audio and video performance. Nothing individually groundbreaking here, but put it all together with the TX-SR875's decidedly value price (for a flagship-class receiver) and you're looking at a winner. onkyousa.com -Daniel Kumin

YAMAHA

RX-V1800 A/V receiver December '07

With new home theater technologies arriving at a breakneck pace, finding an affordable A/V receiver that manages to incorporate all the latest buzzword features without any major omissions is an achievement by itself. Yamaha's RX-V1800 hits the bull's-eye, with a top-quality video processor and scaler that converts any incoming video signal to 1080p; onboard decoding for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio; and easy automated setup. Those features alone are pretty impressive for $1,300, but Yamaha has also included the exhaustive audio DSP functions that the company is well known for, along with options for an XM satellite-radio tuner and an iPod dock. All of this functionality would be wasted if the RX-V1800 didn't cut it sonically, but Yamaha has done a fine job in that department as well, with plenty of power for real-world speaker systems in all but the largest home theaters. yamaha.com/yec -Michael Trei