Audioholics: Products Of The Year

Rather then pick some very pricey components from every catagory, Audioholics rounded up the products that are the best bang for your buck. I think they could have rounded it out a bit better with price categories. 

My favorite of the bunch was the Yamaha receiver and the  Axiom in wall speaker set.

From the article:

Yamaha RX-V659 A/V Receiver
It’s
no secret, I thoroughly enjoyed this receiver.  This is one of the few
times I’ve found a product that I didn’t expect more from.  Instead I
couldn’t help but to be in awe of the intelligent blend of bleeding
edge features mixed with excellent performance typically found in the
more expensive models.  Over the past few years, we’ve seen the
amplifier sections in Yamaha receivers continually improving via more
robust power reserves, lower amplifier output impedance, better
linearity, and lower noise floors.  The RX-V659 is truly an
overachiever delivering much MORE than rated power and not hiccupping
on 4 ohm loads as one would expect of any receiver in this price
class. 

If
you have been riding the sea of receiver options for the last couple of
months or so, your ship has come in.  Although it lacks HDMI facilities
compared to other products in this price class, it more than makes up
for it in the sonic department.  I can’t think of a finer receiver in
this price class.  Kudos to Yamaha on such a well engineered and well
executed product.