Top Christmas Gifts #7 - #8

7.1 Receiver

#7 - 7.1 Receivers

$300 - $1000

Sitting atop your stack of Home Theater gear, the receiver is the first component seen, casting the perception over your entire systems potential. Here are two receivers at different price points that will do so more than provide the perception of excellence to your sound system.

$300 Onkyo TX-SR503 7.1 Receiver. Wow: What else can you say of a receiver that offers so much at this price? The SR503 features 7 discrete channels at 75Watts with Dolby Digital and DTS decoding including the extended formats DTS-ES and Dolby Digital-EX. It also has pre-inputs for external processing or your high resolution audio formats DVD Audio and SACD and can even decode DTS 96/24. The SR503 also includes enough component video switching for three HD sources, an astounding feature for any receiver let alone anything priced below $500. Onkyos tough build quality shows in this jr. class receiver, endowed with many of the same features as its bigger cousins the SR503 still weighs in at 20.7 pounds packing beefy components and hearty power supply for full detailed sound. This is the no-brainer surround receiver for hi-fi on a budget, now you have no excuses for looking at those Home-Theater-in-a-Box-systems.

$1000 Denon AVR-3805: There are a lot of good receivers out there in the $1K price range, competition is fierce as every manufacturer pulls away from the bare bones models for a few hundred less and gets to strut some of the technology that makes them unique. Few manufacturers are as good at giving so much out of this price range as Denon and the AVR-3805 is a heavyweight champion in the sub kilo-buck price category thats earned accolades throughout the industry including an Editors Choice Award from Audioholics.com. Weighing in at a full 37.5 pounds the its not a component to be taken lightly.

The Denon AVR-3805 can be found on the streets for much less than its MSRP of $1200, and for that price you get a THX-Ultra certified Home Theater receiver that rivals much more expensive components. Seven discrete channels at 110 watts each is enough power for the most demanding speakers. High end features abound; Burr Brown 192 kHz/24-bit DACs, Pro Logic IIx, 3rd Edition Denon Link for DVD-Audio and SACD, and Auto Set-up/Room EQ Adjust feature for perfecting speaker configuration and balance. This is just a taste of what this receiver has to offer, if youre looking for sophisticated performance out of a box that wont gouge your bank account youre getting more out of this price than most other manufacturers would care to admit.

Apple Ipod

#8 - iPod compatibility

$30 - Infinity

The iPod is like that giggly hot chick in your third hour lecture hall, everybody wants to hook up with her. Although convenient connection with such a popular device is never a bad thing, the me-too mentality has lent itself to a largely superfluous iPod-mania. Before getting all starry eyed over the multitude of iPod compatibility options before you, keep in mind one thing. The iPod is just a digital music playback device. Cool yes, but no more or less groundbreaking than the Sony Walkman was 20 years ago.

All you really need to connect your iPod to any audio system is a humble iPod port to RCA adaptor, you can find them for around $30 at any electronics retailer that sells iPods. With this humble device you can take your iPod anywhere and get the cleanest audio connection to any sound system. For slightly more money you have the iPod cradle with RCA outs, does the same thing only now youre plugging it in and recharging the batter in your iPod at the same time. You dont need to buy a receiver with a special iPod docking station or, for crying out loud, wire your whole house and modify your walls to make your home the ultimate iPod compatible peripheral. Lets see just how out of hand this iPod compatibility is getting.

If you and everyone you know are using iPods, there are some convenient ways to get your iPods connected and to make sharing your playlists a snap. Built in compatibility in the form of iPod docks offer the best sound capability because they use the port rather than the headphone jack, they also recharge the iPod at the same time so youre not using valuable battery charges during the time youre playing the iPod through this port.

Onkyo makes a brilliant little iPod remote dock that lets you put the iPod into the stand that is connected to your audio system. Now youre using the provided remote control to keep the music rolling on the iPod. Receivers with iPod docking ports are a great way to share the music and there are offerings from top manufacturers like Denon, Harmon Kardon, Integra and Pioneer. If youre in the market for a receiver and the iPod compatibility is just a bit of icing on the cake, its a great little convenience.

iPod compatible house

Things start rolling down hill when youre looking at household distributed audio systems from Creston and Niles but again, if thats the level of convenience youre looking for and youre price range warrants this level of commitment to a portable handheld device then by all means this is your investment, but not something Id brag about in public. The iPort system takes the cake, and should possibly be sold only with some required counseling. Using the components for the iPort in wall iPod household musical distribution system you can wire your whole house for sound from the iPod. iPort effectively turns your house into an iPod playback system with in-wall docking stations ports that use RJ 45 cabling to distribute the music from the iPod through your house, to any audio playback system. Yes, its officially gone too far!

The iPod is a great little device but dedicating your house to the iPod is more than a little manic, its downright nonsense. Unless youre a major shareholder in Apple this is just way too much dedication to a gadget with a battery that will only last you 2 years before youre buying a new one or simply abandoning the iPod for the next great media handheld that wont hook up to an iPod Port. In another two years its quite likely nobody will be buying iPods anymore, the next big thing might be a 10Gig cell phone with a 100 hour rechargeable battery. There are already devices like Archos handheld media players that are going to give the simple MP3 player a run for its money in coming years.