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There's more to setting up a subwoofer than just plugging it into your system and turning it on, but it's not rocket science. Follow the steps below, and you'll get solid, powerful bass with a minimum of headaches.

Most people will think twice before plunking down $500 to $1,000 on one of our ten subs for their home theaters. But if you love your bass and money's no object, there are subs out there for you, too - monster subs like Genelec's HTS6 ($7,750) and Velodyne's Digital Drive 1812 Signature Edition ($15,000) that are in a (whacky) class all by themselves.

I'm a huge fan of the video hard-disk recorders (HDRs), also known as digital video recorders (DVRs), that have revolutionized the TV viewing habits of millions. As the ads say, you can watch what you want when you want. But the options for time-shifting high-definition programs have been limited.

As faithful readers with good memories will recall, I reported that after checking out various DLP and LCD projectors, I settled on the Marantz VP-12S2 as providing the best overall performance, and bought one to serve as a reference in my home theater system. (See my "Take 2" of the VP-12S2 in the November 2003 issue, and the sidebar in my review of the Primare SP31.7 and A30.5 Mk.II in January 2004; see also Peter Putman's original review of the VP-12S2 in May 2003.) For the past year I've been enjoying the VP-12S2 a great deal, and whenever I saw demos of DLP or LCD projectors at shows and dealers, I felt ever so slightly smug that the picture quality I was getting at home was better.