LATEST ADDITIONS

Photos by Tony Cordoza

Over the years personal stereo has evolved from an offensive weapon (think boombox) to a defensive one. When you're wearing earphones in a crowd, you're ensconced in a zone of privacy. People don headphones at a health club or on the street in part to signify they don't want to be approached.

Many home theater fans have come to the hobby from an audiophile background. For these folks, sound quality is equally important to picture quality in the pursuit of the ultimate home entertainment experience. Integra has designed the DPS-7.2 DVD player with these customers in mind.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael Powell has replied to criticism from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) over FCC insistence that new television sets include digital tuners. The CEA has long maintained that digital tuners are superfluous additions in a market where most viewers use cable provider–supplied set-top boxes, and that cable compatibility problems and lack of HD programming were far bigger impediments to the digital television changeover. "What continues to be a mystery to us is why the cable industry's view on compatibility continues to be so different," said Thomson Multimedia spokesman Dave Arland.