Destined to Reign

On one hand, the designs of Yamaha's latest devices could have easily been ripped straight from last century, but in another sense, there's a certain level of attractiveness that comes with brushed aluminum AV components sporting retro-inspired buttons / knobs. Nevertheless, the CD-S2000 SACD / CD player (which arrives in silver or black motifs) plays nice with MP3 / WMA files and sports analog, optical / coaxial digital and XLR audio outputs. As for the A-S2000, it's available in the same two hues and can crank out up to 190-watts x 2 at 4-ohms or 120-watts x 2 at 8-ohms. Apparently marketed towards the high-end crowd, neither of these December-bound units come cheap, as the CD-S2000 will demand ¥208,950 ($1,824) while the A-S2000 rings up at an equally staggering ¥176,400 ($1,540).