Take a look at any modern rock or classical CD and I bet you'll find a Yamaha product used somewhere, either in the generation of the sound or in the recording process itself. This tells us 2 things - firstly, Yamaha make a vast array of musical instruments and secondly, the Yamaha Music Group is an extremely powerful, proactive organisation. As music and Home Cinema fans, these 2 facts are very important to us, because with that wealth of experience, Yamaha ought to know how things 'should' sound, plus the Yamaha Music Group has just taken over the distribution of all Yamaha audio products.

This last development is very exciting, because Yamaha Music don't mess about and have already made some very significant changes, which may well have a major influence on the Home Cinema market this season. What they've done is to take a look at the new Yamaha amplifier range, decide which models are strongest, then slash their price to a point where they should dominate the marketplace. This is particularly true of the AX863SE, which looked pretty good at £799, but is now virtually unbeatable at £599. This amp is only available in black and doesn't have a built in radio, but what is does have is 3 HDMI 1.3 inputs, a genuine 105 watts per channel, 1080p upscaling, iPod connectivity and full blooded Yamaha sound. It's early days yet, but the 863 looks destined to be one of the bigger selling amps of the season