Yamaha’s contribution to the world of high fidelity has been distinctive, sometimes even distinguished, but also more than a touch patchy, with long barren spells punctuating the infrequent highlights. The latter include true world beaters such as the CT1000 tuner and the beryllium tweeter equipped NS1000. But ambitious mainstream high fidelity components have been noticeable by their absence; the new 2000 series components you see here being their first important new introductions for many years.

Yamaha has crammed the DSP-AX761 full of features and DSP modes and added some cool innovations of its own. It looks slick with its titanium livery and trademark orange display.This is a 7.1 channel amp, but there are two additional front channels for an extra pair of 'front effects' speakers, powered by proprietary DSP processing. It trumps 7.1 with a soundfield designed to fill larger roo

Yamaha's DSP-AX759SE has a lot to live up to: its predecessor bagged a Gold Award in our Awards Issue last year. Even a cursory look over the new unit reveals that Yamaha is working on an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy

The first amp I ever owned was a Yamaha, vintage 1978. It had 10W per channel in stereo and four controls – and one of them was on/off. Fast-forward 30 years to the eagerly-anticipated DSP-Z11.

Yamaha's DSP-AX759SE is a respectable surround sound amplifier that sacrifices some home cinema niceties in favour of top-notch audio quality. Its fairly basic home cinema facilities are unlikely to rival models designed as the ultimate AV hub