I told you some things about Onkyo sometime in the past; these Japanese guys are sworn to taking sound beyond the usual frontiers both technically speaking and fashion-wise as well. After releasing the acclaimed HDC 1.0 audiophile grade multimedia-oriented PC (which did not look like one but did its job amazingly), Onkyo decided it was time to move up and pull some new gear from the hat. And since silver/platinum were sort of hyper-used in almost all gear around and gold was known to express sheer luxury and opulence... why not making a "shot at glory"?

The new gear from Onkyo is the tool you'd buy for your hi-fi 7.1 speakers at home, if you really care for what goes in your ears, of course. While being able to pump some blasting 160W per channel (thus summing the demolishing power of almost 1,300 Watts), the Onkyo TX-SA505 sports a new technology which promises to eliminate pretty much of the digital equipment noise often met even in the highest tech, best-filtered gear.

The Vector Linear Shaping Circuitry (no idea about what it looks like, so far) seems rather a fancy trick but as the new amp will end up in owners' homes, it will definitely prove its worthiness; not that I don't trust Japanese but if it really eliminates the digital hum, it can easily become a bestselling standard... this remains to be seen...

The golden Onkyo 7.1 amplifier is 24-bit/192 kHz capable and will handle Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, DTS, DTS-ES, AAC and Dolby NR Professional Logic. The coolest thing so far is that it's going to be a real steal for the $425 announced price. Since May the 18th is the declared launch date, you'd better prepare for some "thousand Watts 7.1" shopping!