NEC AVR-1000 (c. 1987)

Documentation on the NEC AVR-1000 is thin, but it was a real and fairly substantial piece in its day: a Dolby Surround audio/video receiver with four channels of amplification — rated at 100 watts for each front channel and 50 watts for the rear pair. NEC's advertising in Audio (October 1987, p.239) presented it as a home-theater product, a single machine for integrating sound and image.

The June 1987 issue of HiFi/Stereo Review (p.61) carried a full Hirsch-Houck test. Julian Hirsch measured 124 watts per channel at clipping into 8 ohms and 190 watts per channel into 4-ohm loads, with the front channels flat within 1.5 dB from 20 to 20 kHz when tone controls were centered. The receiver's FM section offered automatic and manual scanning, preset memory, muting, mono/stereo selection, and switchable IF bandwidth. A distinctive square balance plate shifted the sound field in eight directions, and a yellow "vacation switch" behind a hinged door acted as the master power switch. Hirsch found both the matrix and the Dolby Surround modes effective at adding ambience.

Beyond these period reports, the archive has no further documentation on production years, original pricing, or collectibility.