LATEST ADDITIONS

Steven Stone takes a good, long listen to the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?54">Tannoy Dimension surround speaker system</A> to determine what the design's 100kHz upper limit offers the critical listener.

Rotel's $1299 RSX-1055 is an elegant addition to the company's line of surround sound receivers. Replacing the RSX-972, the 1055 is compatible with 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1-channel formats. The RSX-1055 handles Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby EX, Rotel XS, dts ES and dts Neo 6.

Plasma displays are a hot ticket in today's video market, generating a nearly universal "Wow!" reaction from first-time viewers. Fujitsu's new 61-inch-diagonal PDS-6101 has a picture nearly as big as the largest rear-projection sets, but weighs less than half as much. Even better, like all plasmas, it takes up no floor space when hung on a wall. That feature alone has probably accounted for much of the technology's appeal, despite the still high price of admission. Yes, prices are dropping rapidly, but while some of the smallest sets are getting close to the target sought by most manufacturers&mdash;$100 per diagonal inch&mdash;larger screens are still a long way from that goal.

Within a year or so, EchoStar and DirecTV may not be the only satellite broadcasters over North America. <A HREF="http://www.cablevision.com">Cablevision Systems</A> may join them.