Mark Henninger

PRICE $850

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Inexpensive
Fanless
RCA and balanced XLR inputs
Auto standby
12 volt and Signal power trigger
Minus
Needs six-inch clearance when rack mounted

THE VERDICT

A rock-solid, affordable and attractive amp for powering seven channels in a surround-sound AV or home theater system. It delivers audiophile-quality sound for about a buck a watt.

Audio amplifiers have but one task: take an electrical signal and make it more powerful without changing its character. A good amplifier is as transparent as possible, neither adding nor subtracting anything from what you hear. The OSD Nero XA7180 promises all that plus high efficiency at a very attractive price.

Bluesound, a leading name in hi-res multiroom streaming, today introduced the NODE X streamer, a limited Anniversary Edition product marking the company's 10-year milestone.

2023 marks the 10th anniversary of both consumer OLED TVs and Ultra HD TVs. In those ten short years we have seen the demise of plasma and 3D and curved screens. We witnessed the rise of HDR and high frame rates and the dawn of the gaming TV era. 4K has become dominant and 8K exists for those who want it. The focus of what makes a great TV has shifted from home theater to a broader spectrum of streaming, gaming, displaying art and other applications, but the fundamentals of what makes a great TV are largely the same: Color accuracy, gamut, contrast, and motion rendering need to be top-notch.

PRICE $3,998/pair

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Excellent soundstage and imaging
Powerful and adjustable bass output
Disappears when the lights are out
Integrated Atmos module support

Minus
Each speaker requires a power outlet
Cloth grill is not removable
Can't be placed up against a wall

THE VERDICT
The Verdict: A tall, powerful speaker that dazzles with its superb soundstage and imaging, delights with its visceral bass output, and stuns with its starkly minimalist aesthetic.

The new Dymension DM70 Tower speaker is an evolution of a design that's signature Definitive Technology: An adjustable bipolar array combined with a 10-inch powered subwoofer that's integrated into the cabinet. It is not your typical 2-way or 3-way cone-and-dome tower speaker, it has a distinct sound that's larger than life.