Your speakers, television, DVD player and iPod all run through your receiver, but you don’t have to spend thousands on one to have a solid aural experience. The Marantz SR5003 provides features found on units double its price, but for the cost of two bottles at the club, you get it all. It has the ability to upscale any source to 1080p HD, as well as the latest HD audio outputs with connections for Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD and DSD. If MP3s make up most of your music collection, Marantz’s M-DAX system replaces the missing frequencies in your files to make them sound as close to CD-quality as possible.

Receiver Screen It’s the heart of your system: Without a receiver, the best speakers are useless.

1. Receiver power is rated in watts per channel. A receiver with between 70 and 130 watts is a good target to power a solid set of speakers.

2. If you’re dropping the money, try to get a receiver with two HDMI connections (you’ll be getting Blu-Ray someday).

3. Look for a receiver that can upscale the audio content you play. It makes a huge quality difference, especially with movies. Home // STYLE // GEAR // INTERIOR SOUND // Marantz SR5003