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Home theater enthusiasts with relatively efficient speakers are unlikely to need more than 100 watts per channel, but affordable multichannel amps in this power range are strangely hard to find.

Apex Digital
It might look a bit small if you compare it with the 50-inch big boys, but Apex's 42-inch PL 42HD12W plasma display can hold its own in the category and has a wallet-friendly price. The wall-mountable PL 42HD12W's case is 53 inches wide by 28.5 tall by only 4 thick, and it supports 480p, 720p, and 1080i material. Inside, you'll find a digital comb filter and deinterlacing with 3:2-pulldown detection. On the outside, there's one DVI input and one RGB input, as well as inputs for component, S-video, and composite video and outputs for computer audio and standard speakers. It's a nice overall package that covers all of the bases for $3,999.
Apex Digital
(909) 930-1239
www.apexdigitalinc.com

Founded in 1986, NHT established its reputation by building small, relatively inexpensive but high-value bookshelf speakers. After 16 years and several changes of ownership and design teams, they still do. However, their product range is now far broader, and their top-of-the-line, floorstanding systems have long been respected as among the best available.

Coming into early 2003, the biggest news about the two high-resolution multichannel audio formats, DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD, might be that they're both still hanging in there.