Receivers

Sure, it's great to be an "early adopter" of new technology. You get to play with the latest, coolest gear before any of your oh-so-20th-century friends, and you can learn about new trends as they emerge, transforming yourself into a thundering bore . . . er, valued cocktail-party guest.

At first glance, Harman Kardon's AVR 7300, the latest flagship receiver from the venerable American brand, looks little different from its predecessors. And in a lot of ways, it is the same.

Many of us yearn to own a glistening flagship receiver: the prestige . . . the state-of-the-art performance . . . the vast array of features . . . the satisfaction of knowing that you own the very best. But flagships can be prohibitively expensive, as well as awkwardly large and extremely heavy. Ask any admiral. And then there's the complexity issue.

It's a Web, Web, Web, Web world out there, so it's no surprise Onkyo's latest A/V receiver, the TX-NR901, joins that company's family of Net-Tune products, which currently include another surround sound receiver and a compact desktop "client" stereo receiver.