LATEST ADDITIONS

The players are in position, and the pieces are now on the board. But this is not a chess game, and the stakes are even higher than in the richest of Grand Master tournaments. This is the beginning of another video-recorder format war, but unlike the VHS vs. Beta conflict of the late 1970s and early '80s, there are three competing formats.

Audio buffs have been known to lock horns over all kinds of things - CDs vs. vinyl, Dolby Digital vs. DTS, tubes vs. solid-state, DVD-Audio vs. Super Audio CD, and on and on. But one of the hottest debates of recent years has been over which kind of speakers work best for the rearward surround channels in a multichannel setup: monopole (a.k.a. direct-radiating) or dipole?

Say anything long enough and loud enough, the old adage goes, and people will believe it.

I've just cut 12 columns on room tuning and system tweaking out of my Home Theater Architect series. I was going to go into some serious detail about how to use analyzers to aim speakers and optimize chair positions, how to position acoustical treatments to get the best bass smoothing and imaging, and how to use things like SPL meters and color analyzers to dial in audio and video performance. But instead, I'm going to quickly wrap up my installation of Jack and Diane's home theater in the next five issues, and start working with new clients (Sam and Janet).