OTHER TECH

Step 4: Listen in the store Now that you've found the right dealer, it's show time. Sound Advice salesman Guillermo Lastres helped me pick out electronics for my audition that were similar to my home gear - in particular, I wanted to use a receiver with power capabilities similar to mine.

I began my listening with a much more expensive surround speaker system than the one I'd come to hear so I could calibrate my ears, get a handle on the room acoustics, and establish a reference. It helped that I was already familiar with these speakers. No speaker is a perfect reference, but this system would prime me to hear any weaknesses in the less expensive speakers I'd come to check out.

Everyone has his own listening rituals, but I start with stereo listening. If the front left/right pair doesn't sound very good, I don't have to bother with the other three main speakers. And since surround sound is complex, it makes sense to start with something simple.

On cue, Guillermo dimmed the lights, and I opened my audition-disc wallet and started with "Amazing Grace" from the Best of Lari White CD. It starts with solo vocals, then one by one each instrument joins the mix: acoustic guitar, kick drum, bass guitar, piano, wood block, electric guitar, and finally drums. On good speakers, the different reverberations on each part should be cleanly audible.

Then I focused on the violin, electric guitar, and acoustic guitar in "What It Is" from Mark Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia. Can you hear the instruments individually? Do they sound natural? Are they realistically placed in the soundstage? While the speakers I'd come to hear weren't in the same league as the reference system, the recordings didn't reveal any fatal flaws. Given their small size and relatively low price, I was impressed by their sound.

Guillermo used a switcher to rapidly go from one speaker pair to the other. Instantaneous A/B switching lets you make much better comparisons than is possible by swapping speaker leads. Of course, I had been careful to compare the two systems at the same listening levels, because the ear will favor the louder of two sources. (By the way, it's not a good idea to compare more than two systems at a time.)

Next step: surround. I began with the DVD-Audio recording of Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily. One of the first surround recordings, it will give you a good taste of midrange. On "San Andreas Fault," I listened to Merchant's vocals to see whether the speakers still sounded clean when she pushed the level meters. The instruments in the surround mix are fairly localized in each satellite speaker, but good surround speakers will also convey a strong sense of ambience.

Next I switched to the DVD-A of Swingin' for the Fences by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band - an exciting recording of big band at its best. The crisp sonics of "Sing Sang Sung" can slice up a speaker like a hot knife through butter, but the ones I was auditioning kept pace, with no undue coloration even on the hot brass solos.

One more: I like to listen to "Chan Chan" on the Buena Vista Social Club DVD-A to see if its sense of small-club ambience is properly conveyed. And I listen to "El Carretero" just because it's one of my favorite tunes of all time. Any speaker system that can make me grin while I'm listening to this tune scores major points, because good music reproduction is all about pleasure. Never buy a speaker that doesn't make you feel emotionally satisfied when you play your favorite music.

It was time for the final test. Just as I would never buy speakers that don't reproduce music accurately, I wouldn't buy any that can't kick movie ass either. So I played the opening sequence from the Fellowship of the Ring DVD. Starting with a voiceover and ending with Hell warmed over, this prologue tests a system's ability to reproduce dialogue, blast out a truly Wagnerian score, plunge you into the midst of battle, and make the earth tremble beneath your feet. Overall, the speaker system I auditioned delivered all of those things. Any small bookshelf speakers will have limitations - by the same token, bigger speakers aren't always better), but this system held its own even against the pricey reference speakers. Maybe not fine wine, but very good wine.