You only have two ears--why do you need a surround sound system to play music?

Granted, home theater and multichannel sound go together like peanut butter and jelly, but music, even now in the twenty first century is pretty much a stereo-only affair. Ergo, if you listen to more music than watch movies, ditch the hassles of the 5.1 channel, satellite/subwoofer model and get yourself a decent stereo receiver and a pair of really nice speakers.

Outlaw Audio's RR 2150"Retro Receiver" sounds spectacular with music and better yet, it's a refreshingly simple to use alternative to all of the stupidly complicated seven-channel A/V receivers I've used.

Don't get the wrong idea, it's no throwback to your Dad's stereo receiver gathering dust in the basement. The Outlaw has a USB input for your PC and a sweet sounding AM/FM tuner. The 100 watts per channel amplifier has more than enough power to drive man-size stereo speakers, and if you have to go with baby satellites, the subwoofer output and bass management circuit will come in handy. The Outlaw is the only stereo receiver on the market with bass management (BM routes midrange and treble frequencies to the satellites and bass to the sub). Sure, the receiver has a high quality phono input for moving magnet and moving coil cartridges, so vinyl playback is part of the deal. The headphone jack has its own volume control, and there's a front panel stereo mini-jack input for easy connection for iPods.

Oh, and one more thing, you can also use the RR 2150 in a 2.0 or 2.1 channel home theater system. Hook up the stereo analog outputs of any DVD, Blu ray or HD DVD player and you're good to go. It'll sound great. The Outlaw Audio Model RR 2150 Retro Receiver is available for $649 exclusively at the Outlaw Audio website.