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FireWire, or IEEE1394, as it is technically known, has been bandied about as a leading contender for transmitting digital video for several years now. HDTV FireWire demos started popping up as <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?189">early as 1998</A>, but to date, little actual product has emerged for the consumer to buy.

<I>Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Aspect ratio: 1.85:1. Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround 2.0 (English, French). 152 minutes (film). 1987. Warner Bros. 89391 17532. PG. $24.98.</I>

The question is an old but still fundamental one: Can you make small speakers perform like big speakers? This isn't necessarily the question that creators of small speakers ask themselves during creation, nor will it probably enter the mind of the small-speaker consumer at the time of purchase. Still, I'll wager that it's the first question your ears will ask when you place them in the middle of your new compact home theater system. Let's face it: All other factors being equal, it's easier for large speakers to do certain things, and many of these things are especially critical in your home theater.

Killing time on an airplane is never an easy thing to do. Thankfully, over the past couple of years, I've developed an entertaining way to do just that on my return trips from our industry trade shows: reliving all of the bizarre things people have told me over the previous days. The source of these statements is broad-based: manufacturers, PR people, dealers, and even my fellow journalists (yours truly, of course, has never said anything dumb at a show—as far as you know). Maybe it's the long hours and lack of sleep or the rivers of free booze that wind their way through these events. At this year's CEDIA Expo, a representative from a large manufacturer (which will go unnamed) resolutely declared that, outside of the lowest price ranges, nobody is going to buy a DVD player that doesn't process DVD-Audio or SACD. Maybe he was trying to appeal to my well-documented affinity for these high-resolution formats, or maybe he hadn't quite sobered up yet. I imagine that my dumbfounded look made it clear that even a biased audio fellow like myself certainly couldn't agree at this stage in the game—if ever.