Best 5 home audio products
John P. Falcone
Onkyo TX-SR606 (black)
Best AV receiver for under $500
Last year, if someone wanted to buy an AV receiver and wasn't flush with cash, our recommendation was easy--the Onkyo TX-SR605 offered an unparalleled feature set for the price and sounded great to boot. This year, Onkyo has released an updated model, the TX-SR606, and has made a great product even better, as it now sports four HDMI inputs and offers upconversion up to 1080i for analog signals.
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Logitech Squeezebox Duet
Best digital audio system
From one perspective, it's hard to call the Logitech Squeezebox Duet a groundbreaking product because it follows in the footsteps of the Sonos Digital Music System, which first appeared in 2005. But the fact is that the Squeezebox Duet delivers much of the same functionality of the Sonos at a far lower pricepoint--and without many compromises. (That said, stick with the Sonos if you want the best multi-room option.) Prefer a version with built-in speakers? Go for the equally excellent Logitech Squeezebox Boom.
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Aperion Intimus 4T Hybrid SD
Best mid-size speakers for the money
If you're serious about surround sound, you need to invest in a speaker system with some real gravitas--but most people just don't want the living room overrun with giant tower speakers. But the Aperion Intimus 4T Hybrid SD package manages to downsize the towers without sacrificing the sound. At just 34 inches tall and only 5 wide, these mini-towers gorgeous minitowers will fit into smaller rooms with no problems. And you can choose an 8-inch (shown), 10-inch, or 12-inch subwoofer, depending on your bass (and size) requirements. But if they're still too big, there are some worthwhile alternatives: KEF KHT-3005, KEF KHT5005.2 and the Mirage Nanosat Home Theater System all offer great sound from even smaller speakers, and they're all available for under $2,000.
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Sony HT-CT100
Best single-speaker home audio unit for under $300
Surround sound is a hot commodity, but many just can't handle the aesthetic compromises that come from a full 5.1-channel speaker system in the living room--and the speaker cables that go along with it. That's prompted an expanded "single speaker" home audio category. The best budget one we've seen is the Sony HT-CT100. With its included subwoofer, the system packs quite a sonic wallop without taking up a lot of space--and its built-in amplification and support for up to 3 HDMI sources means you can get away without using an AV receiver.
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Panasonic SC-PT760
Best home-theater-in-a-box system for under $400
As with most budget home-theaters-in-a-box, the SC-PT760 will do its best work with DVDs, and sound less accomplished with music. But it's still going to sound perfectly fine to most listeners--especially those who don't want to invest upwards of a grand or two in their audio system. That, paired with its generally impressive feature set, makes the SC-PT760 a good choice for those on a budget who need an all-in-one home theater system--so long as they don't need a lot of extra inputs.
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