Labs

Yamaha's AV Package 61 is one of two kits in the group that are really hi-fi separates packages. They consist of an AV receiver and a 5.1 speaker set. This means you can upgrade the speakers or receiver separately in future.

Even this fairly basic AV receiver has a huge number of ports. Two optical and one coaxial S/PDIF, six phono inputs and a multi-channel input should take care of all your audio-visual equipment. There's also a in headphone jack and 3mm mini-jack input for MP3 players. A calibration microphone is provided to ensure an easy and accurate setup.

Component and composite video inputs and outputs are supplied, though like most AV receivers there's no SCART option. If you plug other

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video equipment such as a video game console into the receiver, you can use the Yamaha's remote to switch audio and video at the same time without having to change inputs on your TV. You can also wire up a second pair of stereo speakers for use in another room.

The slender silver speakers don't look very impressive, but they do match the receiver and are reassuringly weighty. Music sounded a little flat, though there was a good balance between bass, mid-range and treble. Surround-sound placement was accurate and our tests showed smooth movement of effects around the soundstage. The Denon and Logitech kits produced a more involving sound, though.

The powered subwoofer isn't quite as impressive as the Z-5500's, but it's still a massive step up from most here. You connect it to the amplifier with a phono lead from the subwoofer output, which means you can place it pretty much anywhere by simply buying a longer cable. Once it was adjusted properly there was a smooth audio transition between the satellite speakers and subwoofer.

The Yamaha kit's audio isn't quite up to the standard of Denon's more expensive DHT1356XP or Logitech's more compact Z-5500. If you'd like to be able to manage several video sources using just one remote, though, it's the home cinema kit to buy.