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Panasonic With portable music players, the question is, how small can you get? About 1 5/8 x 1 3/4 x 5/8 inch, according to Panasonic, whose SV-SD80 digital audio player, shown larger-than-life below, weighs less than an ounce. It uses postage-stamp-size Secure Digital (SD) memory cards and can play music encoded in the MP3, WMA, and AAC formats.

Most home-theater fans are aware that flat-screen televisions and monitors are the hottest products on the market. How hot? Try an almost 400% surge in sales for 2002, compared to the previous year.

Bass: It is undoubtedly the most misunderstood aspect of a home theater system's performance and, in some ways, the least appreciated—especially among the higher-end ranks. Bass' bad rap (no pun intended) derives from a number of sources, but its fundamental undoing is its poor implementation in the vast majority of audio systems—from the genius who cruises around with 10 $50 monotone subwoofers in the trunk of his car to the home theater owner who hasn't put forth the considerable time and effort it takes to properly calibrate low-frequency output. Poor-quality subs, of which there is no shortage, are as much to blame in this situation as user error. The bottom line is that quality bass performance is critical to any audio, music, or home theater system, and its journey begins long before the signals ever reach our speakers.

Plasma, that sexy, newfangled display technology, is growing by leaps and bounds. Not long ago, 42-inch-diagonal, 16:9 panels were the only game in town. Then came the 50-inch HD-ready models from a small handful of manufacturers. Now, we're seeing a few behemoth models in the 60- and 61-inch categories from a few bold manufacturers like Marantz, Zenith, LG, and NEC. Runco has also jumped into the fray with the PlasmaWall PL-61cx, a 61-inch panel and the subject of today's review.