Sound and Vision magazine has just published its 1993 Critics Choice awards for home stereo. A quick peek at the winners ought to make choosing a home stereo system as easy as 1-2-3: One, how good is the equipment; Two, how much does it cost; Three, how quickly can it be delivered? The problem the magazine ran into is the same one which afflicts buyers of home stereo equipment everywhere: too much choice. Sound and Vision lists nearly 500 award-winning stereo components, and suggests that there may be as many as 20,000 products on the market for the bemused consumer to choose from.

Home stereo is a sprawling, chaotic world inhabited, all too often, by salespeople who drone on about impossibly arcane topics such as spatial fuzz, mid-range sensitivity, and, most discomforting of all, peaky glare.

So if there is more equipment available at hugely differing prices than you would be able to sample in two lifetimes, how should you choose stereo equipment to live with in the one lifetime available? Easy.

First, define where you will listen.

The space in which your stereo will operate is the basic criterion. Not everyone has a large, square room with a couch front and centre, from which to extract superb listening pleasure from today's top-of-the-range, sophisticated equipment. Will you want to take your system to work, to the beach, or out in the back yard? Then, too, format counts. You won't need a CD changer capable of playing half a dozen discs in random track sequence if all you want is to listen to the World Service or play some scratchy vinyl platters your older brother left behind when he moved in with his new girlfriend.

Once you've determined where you will listen to what, price becomes the crucial factor.

"For a lot of our customers, the first question is price,'' says Danny Correia of M & M International, the Island's largest stereo retailer. "Having decided how much they want to spend on a system or a component, they usually trust us to make the informed decision for them.'' Having picked the right salesperson, allow him or her (but usually, in Bermuda, him) to guide you through the choices.

"People often come to us with a price range in mind,'' says Elroy Eve of Pearman Watlington's. "Where I can help then is to recommend choices within that range, and maybe suggest the best of what we have in that category.

Prices are dropping right now, so it's a good time to buy.'' Take a favourite CD or tape cassette when you visit the stores. Choose music with which you are intimately familiar, and which represents, if possible, the style you're most likely to want to listen to.

"The correct specifications for equipment fall into a narrow band,'' says Barry Fitzsimmons of Great Sound. "What varies is the way in which you listen. That is one factor which no sound designer can ever build in to a component's construction, so it makes an enormous amount of sense to listen very carefully before buying.'' Take your time. Have the salesman set up the equipment you want to hear, and then send him off to talk to someone else. Adjust whatever controls you can make sense of, and (perhaps most difficult of all) try to imagine that immaculate sound in whatever circumstances you will listen to it when you get the boxes home.

"People make their final decisions based on a number of factors,'' says Correia. One component of the decision is whether to buy on the Island, new or used, or deferthe decision until your next overseas trip, where prices will likely be cheaper. Remember to factor in any taxi fares to deliver your system to and from airports, and the duty payable at this end.

Do not ignore in the decision process the lack of warranty on overseas equipment. Modern stereo components are reliable, but one break-down could cancel any savings you may have made by buying off-Island. Changing formats are the industry's way of saying: "Pay up all over again.'' If you've already made the switch to CD, it is fair to assume that, for most home listening purposes, you won't have to think about upgrading to newer formats for a while. "A combination of CD and tape cassette offers the best of both worlds,'' says Eve, and many single-piece systems acknowledge that fact by including a CD player and two tape decks, to give you complete flexibility when buying or borrowing music from friends.

Extra bass sound is the biggest recent development, with huge arrays of speakers now apparently necessary for you to enjoy the full range of listening pleasure. Nowhere is this more true than in your car. With a phone and some crisp CD equipment, the vehicle is merely an extension of the home.

Again, written material is not much help. Car Stereo Review lists the specifications for 6,500 car stereo components. The same rules apply: listen before you leap. In the world of car stereo gadgetry, removable faceplates are this year's rage, adding greater security to whatever investment you may choose to make in your motile sound system. Remember to remove the plate when you leave the car. Then, try to recall which pocket you left it in when next you drive the car.

A review of equipment available on the Island is likely to be outdated by the time you're ready to purchase, but the following items are among the best Bermuda currently has to offer.

Affordability: Worthwhile home stereo can be had for less than you might think. M & M will put you into a basic home system for around $1,000, comprising mostly Onkyo components. Correia says that he has "sold a lot of Onkyo equipment, and hardly ever, in fact never, seen one come back in for repairs.'' Onkyo has consistently come out tops for reliability in several recent industry surveys. The TX-930 stereo receiver, DX-701 single CD player, TAW-202 double cassette deck, and a pair of highly-regarded Boston Acoustics speakers would cost about $1,135, and deliver everything you need for a basic home system.

Medium priced: For the consumer with a little more scratch, PW's recommend a Technics system comprising an SL-PC705 multi-CD carousel, RS-TR515 double tape deck, SA-GX500 receiver, 14-band SH-8017 equaliser, and a pair of SB-CX700 speakers with passive radiator speakers in the back to disseminate the sound more evenly. Around $2,560, including a stand to tuck it all neatly away.

Top of the range: Correia's eyes lit up at the sound possibilities when he was asked to recommend equipment without regard to price. "We recently installed a system in a boat,'' he says, "where quality was the only concern. We worked very hard on imaging the sound, tailoring it exactly to the needs of the space.'' For the home, he would again suggest mostly Onkyo components, which speaks volumes for the quality of the range. An M-508 power amplifier, P308 pre-amp, AV-801 laser disc capable of reproducing laser or compact discs, a TA-2800 single cassette deck, EQ540 graphic equaliser, and a pair of Bose 901 speakers with a Velodyne sub-woofer system to fill in the bass end and deliver surround-sound, can be had for a touch over $8,000.

Portability: The totable "boombox'' can be played conveniently in any room in the house, is usually inexpensive, and may be taken in the car or onto the beach. Avoid the really cheap models if you want your fi even remotely hi. One system which does not skimp on sound quality, while delivering all the sound a medium-sized room can bear is the JVC PC-X100 CD portable system with two tape decks and extra bass. It's at M & M for $395.

Driving force: Great Sound has made a name for itself in custom-designed car systems. Aaron Bleeker, who works alongside Fitzsimmons, was asked to recommend a system suitable for the average car. He went with all-Clarion equipment: a multi-CD changer, model 6201CD, which will sit anywhere in the car, and bring programmable CD music to your tape deck by remote control. With two pairs of speakers, a model 73-EQ equaliser, an A-1200 four-channel amplifier, and another for the bass speakers, and installation, you're looking at spending in the region of $1,500. "We have lower- and higher-priced systems,'' says Bleeker, "but what I've just described is well worth the investment.'' You pays your money, and you takes your choice. So complex are today's home stereo options that a Ph. D. in electronics is not much more useful than a good ear. With new models brought to market annually, fascia colour-shifts (jet black making way at the top end for a revival in earth tones), and the ever-changing world of formats, buying a home stereo has never been so complicated - nor so simple if you can just find a salesperson and a bank manager to help you sift your way through the minefield.

Happy listening.

Affordable: Onkyo's TAW-202 double cassette player (top) and TX-930 receiver, available from M & M. Portable: JVC's PC-X100 boombox, available form Pearman Watlington.

AUGUST 1993 RG MAGAZINE