Shure HTS-5200
Little is documented about the Shure HTS-5200 outside of its early 1988 press coverage. The record shows it was Shure's second-generation Dolby Surround processor, the follow-up to the HTS-5000 that High Fidelity had reviewed in September 1986. When High Fidelity (February 1988, p.35) looked at the 5200, it noted the earlier model's complaints and found the new machine's red input LED indicator adequate. With most program material, any slew-rate limiting that occurs is inaudible unless that LED lights.
The 5200 had stereo and mono positions, which encouraged use with ordinary music sources. High Fidelity (February 1988, p.37) found the processor added a substantial amount of realism and live-music presence to conventional program material. A defeat button bypassed the unit entirely and restored normal stereo, and a tape-monitor switch replicated the output. As with the HTS-5000, the 5200's output impedance was unusually high, so matching it to downstream amplifiers takes some thought. The A-weighted noise floor in the surround channel was already excellent at roughly -79 dB. It was lowered to an outstanding -82 dB.
Surviving documentation on the HTS-5200 is thin. No owner's manual or factory spec sheet has surfaced in the Archive's records, and the original price remains unknown. The February 1988 reports in High Fidelity and Audio are the most detailed sources available. By 1991, Audio's Bert Whyte (August 1991, p.18) had moved up to the HTS-5300 in his own home theater system.
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