If you’re an audiophile, you know what a big difference it can make to your listening experience to have good components. And they don’t necessarily have to cost more than your house payment. These home audio products offer the best value for the money, and some pretty amazing sound, too.
ELAC Debut B6
Product Review: http://www.cnet.com/products/elac-debut-b6/#ftag=CAD187281f
CNET rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 (Outstanding)
The good: The ELAC Debut B6 bookshelf speakers look sharp, and boast excellent sound for a bargain price. Home theater buyers can easily partner the Debut B6 with ELAC’s matching Debut Series tower, center and subwoofer.
The bad: The Debut B6 is only available in a black vinyl finish.
The cost: $279.99
The bottom line: The ELAC Debut B6 bookshelf speakers offer stellar, best-in-class sound quality that no other speakers can match at this low price.
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Yamaha YAS-203
Product Review: http://www.cnet.com/products/yamaha-yas-203/#ftag=CAD187281f
CNET rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 (Outstanding)
The good: The Yamaha YAS-203 sounds great for the price, with excellent soundstage depth for surround movies and very good music playback. It offers a host of useful features including Bluetooth and DTS decoding, dedicated source indicators on the front panel and a great remote control. The sound bar comes with a rear-mounted IR blaster just in case the speaker blocks the IR port on your TV.
The bad: No HDMI inputs; it has slightly harsh Bluetooth sound with non-aptX devices.
The cost: $399.95
The bottom line: The Yamaha YAS-203 breaks free of most of the performance constraints of budget sound bars, sounding bigger, more spacious, more dynamic and clearer than anything near its price.
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Chromecast Audio
Product Review: http://www.cnet.com/products/chromecast-audio/#ftag=CAD187281f
CNET rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 (Outstanding)
The good: Google’s budget audio dongle pipes music to any stereo from the most popular streaming apps on your smartphone. It’s simple and works well, with direct compatibility for most major music services, and even more supported via the Chrome browser plug-in and on the Android app. And did we mention it only costs $35 USD? It’s the easiest way to enable multiroom music in your house. The ability to feed 24-bit/96-kHz music to an external digital analog converter will please audiophiles.
The bad: Some notable music services, including iTunes, Apple Music and Amazon Music, are not supported on iPhone and iPad. In analog sound quality it’s beaten by the Fon Gramofon (which costs twice as much). You can’t use Google Cast devices as part of a multiroom environment.
The cost: $30.00
The bottom line: The ultra-affordable Google Chromecast Audio is one of the best music-streaming devices you can buy — especially if you’re an Android user.
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Onkyo TX-NR646
Product Review: http://www.cnet.com/products/onkyo-tx-nr646/#ftag=CAD187281f
CNET rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)
The good: The fully-loaded Onkyo TX-NR646 delivers cutting-edge technologies such as both Dolby Atmos and DTS-X surround formats, in addition to AirPlay, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Its sound quality is excellent for movie replay with exciting sonics and class-leading dynamics. Its superb connectivity includes eight HDMI inputs (one front, seven rear) and two outputs in addition to a phono input.
The Bad: The Onkyo TX-NR646’s Dolby Atmos height channel capabilities are limited to only the front-left and -right channels, not the surround height channel. Its external design is generic and bulky, and the user experience isn’t helped by its terrible remote and an ancient menu system.
The cost: $398.96 to $499.00
The bottom line: Considering the Onkyo TX-NR646’s generous feature set and superlative sonic skills, it’s one heck of a value.
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The following CNET staff contributed to this story: CNET contributor Steve Guttenberg, Senior Associate Editor Ty Pendlebury and Senior Editor Laura K. Cucullu. For more reviews of personal technology products, please visit www.cnet.com.
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