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5.GO LOW While it reproduces only a scant 0.3% of the audible frequency range, a subwoofer has a big impact on any home theater system. I mean, when is the last time you heard someone talking about kick-ass treble? A subwoofer delivers the emotion in home theater, but the only emotion a cheap sub delivers is disappointment.

Remember those classic movie moments? Arnold pumping shotgun shells into the 18-wheeler? Cannonballs shattering Captain Jack Sparrow's Black Pearl? The Orcs' onslaught on Helm's Deep? These scenes are loaded with bass that can rattle the fillings clean out of your head! Without floor-shaking effects, such moments become ho-hum.

Finding a sub that plays both low and loud used to require a monolith that would be more at home in Stonehenge than your living room. But with new driver designs and digital amplification, this is no longer true. Definitive Technology, Velodyne, Sunfire, and others have subs that produce huge sound from tiny cabinets.

Having a big driver or amp doesn't guarantee great performance, though, and a sub that sounds impressive on movies might be boomy handling a bass guitar or drum kit. Since it's easy to tell if a musical bass note sounds realistic (who really knows what an exploding Death Star sounds like?), bring some music discs when you're auditioning subs.

Having great bass is so important to the sound of your system that you should spend slightly more than you originally budgeted if it will get you a much better sounding sub.