The best gear of the year, as picked by the editors of Home Entertainment.

Mix together one part amp and one part DAC and you get Hegel's H100 Integrated Amp.

I am loving the influx of high-end audio gear that plays nice with computers.

It's taken long enough, but it seems like the audiophile companies are embracing computer-based digital audio for the future that it is.
    
Whch brings us to this, the Hegel H100 Integrated Amp.

The 60th Anniversary Limited Edition C22 Tube Preamplifier and MC75 Tube Monoblock Power Amplifier aren't exact replicas of the originals—they're better!

McIntosh is commemorating its 60th anniversary with 120 sets of its legendary C22 stereo preamplifier and MC75 monoblock power amplifiers for the U.S. market. Like the re-born, retro-styled, Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger, these components look the part and seduce the eye with classic styling, but inside, they feature modern design touches.

Marantz goes for truth in nomenclature with their new Reference series

The Reference Series is Marantz's no-holds-barred line of audio components, which includes several amps, preamps, integrated amps, control amps and disc players. 

The flagship components in my review system are two MA-9S2 monaural power amplifiers, the SC-7S2 Control Amplifier and the SA-7S1 CD/SACD player.

When Digital Met Analog

Ditch the transistors and go tubing with old-fashioned, oh-so-analog vacuum tube audio gear from Peachtree Audio and Fatman.

No ifs, ands, or Buts

Writing this review is causing me stress. I know the first rule of modern product reviewing: “Always have a good ‘but’.” Sure you can wax breathlessly for a good thousand words about a product, but you’d better wrap things up with a snarky caveat: “The image generated by this display is fantastic, but really, the manufacturer should have built in a Cuisinart."

Honestly, though? I’ve got nothing. If I have but one complaint about Anthem’s new Statement D2v A/V Processor, it’s that it didn’t come into my life sooner.

Wall of Sound: Three new surround formats from Audyssey, Dolby and DTS aim to bring your theater sound to a whole new dimension. Literally.

You want me to buy more speakers? Yeah, I get that. To be honest, that was my first thought when I heard about height speakers. Just a gimmick, right?

Well, to find out, I journeyed up and down the California coast visiting the headquarters of the formats’ creators.

Sonic Solutions

I’m just guessing, but Bel Canto’s founder and CEO John Stronczer must be a contrarian. Don’t get the wrong idea, he’s a perfectly nice guy; it’s just that Bel Canto’s compact, lightweight, cool running e.One Series components use just a tiny fraction of the AC power consumed by their hotter-running, bigger and heftier competition.

Bel Canto does things differently.

Ultimate Hybrid

One of the fastest-growing product categories is high-end audio devices that decode digital audio from a computer or iPod.

This amuses me, as for years many in the high-end audio realm thought of the iPod somewhere above the Anti-Christ but just below one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Not sure which, maybe the green one.

Who needs Digital?

How's this for old school: the new Parasound P 7 has a grand total of zero HDMI inputs. None. Know how many optical inputs? None. The same with coax. No digital decoding, no digital-to-analog converters. If you're looking for any of that, may I recommend a receiver, or one of Parasound's other preamps.

For the P 7, we're just talking analog, and proud of it.