SHAKING IT ALL Ah, subwoofers ... love the boom, hate the bulk. You can get your sub out of sight with Artison's RCC 600 in-wall model, which boldly promises bass performance as good as that of a 12-inch floor-standing model.
STEALTH SUB It's not enough for a subwoofer to boom you anymore - today's bass boxes gotta blend in, too. The triangular design of the Atlantic Technology 10 CSB sub will ensure it keeps a low profile in the corner of your home theater - that is, until a movie soundtrack or drum solo calls upon its 10-inch driver and 180-watt amplifier to rock the house.
GLOSS AND SHINE If you're half as serious about sound as you are pictures, the THX Ultra2-certified System 8200e should be on your shortlist. AT has updated its acclaimed 8200, adding sexy gloss-back sides to the new front LR towers at a lower price!
Oh, say, can you iSee? The first video recorder designed specifically for the iPod, ATO's iSee 360i allows you to record and store movies, TV shows, and photos directly from your DVR, TV, or PC. You can then watch the programs on the 3.6-inch LCD screen, which is 90% larger than that of the video iPod.
TERABYTE POWER Unless you're Sony BMG, you'll never run out of room for your music in the AudioReQuest S4.2500. Its massive 1.5-terabyte hard disk can hold 2,500 CDs worth of music - and that's uncompressed. If you go the MP3 route, there's enough room for 360,000 songs! Even the most dedicated Deadhead could fit his collection on that.
NEW TRADITION Kevlar woofer cones, Nautilus tweeters, elegant lines - these are definitely B&W speakers. But there's a twist: The VM6 integrates the company's trademark components into a thoroughly modern design. It's only 4 inches deep, just enough for the tweeter's tapered tail to fit, so high frequencies sound free and clear.
GREAT OUTDOORS Too many people coming over for movie night? Move the festivities outside with the Backyard Drive-In screen, ready to serve up your flick on a huge screen after about 10 minutes of setup. Just park a projector in front of it, and your entertainment is stretched out on a 12-foot viewing area - 18 feet for the extra-large version.
With a big 65-inch HD screen, the Brillian 6580iFB HDTV ($7,999) already has a lot going on, but there's more in the box to justify its hefty price tag. First of all, it's one of the new high-rez 1080p TVs. LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) technology keeps the pixels small and the space between them smaller, so images always look sharp and clear.
SPIN ZONE Handy and fun! That's the Cableyoyo Pop, a stick-on spool that you can attach to most MP3 players. If you can bear making your iPod a bit thicker, the Pop adheres to its backside and serves as a place to roll up your headphones, which stay in place thanks to a tiny clip.
SOUND COUNTS It's tough to pick the perfect home theater gear: You want something that'll impress your A/V-junkie friends but still be easy enough for your girlfriend to use. Cambridge Audio's Azur 640R receiver comes at you with serious audiophile cred - seven discrete 100-watt amps, all well-isolated from the digital processor and input stages.
Sure, satellite radio is great. But for many listeners, there are still times when they want to come back to earth, so to speak. For those listeners and those times, Cambridge SoundWorks offers a new line of high-performance radios, including this trio of terrestrials.
CLEAR SHOT You'll be able to capture detail that most other camcorders never see when you shoot footage with Canon's HV10. Everything is recorded in the 1080i high-def format thanks to a 1,920 x 1,080-pixel CMOS image sensor, said to be quicker on the draw and more power-efficient than typical CCD sensors. It probably gets more dates, too.
MULTITASKER Although described as a "multimedia" projector, Canon's REALiS SX60 has a Home Cinema mode for when you want images to pop. Its rated 2,000:1 contrast ratio means nice, deep blacks, and the 1,400 x 1,050-pixel resolution is more than enough for 720p HDTV.
SAY WATT Canton's CD 3200 is textbook modern speaker design: a slim aluminum cabinet, sexy styling, and ... an amplifier? Well, that's different. Once you've plugged this tower in, it'll deliver a nominal 200 watts to, uh, itself.
THE RIGHT PROTOCOL Vibe has its own take on whole-house audio: The system uses IP (Internet Protocol) to communicate between components. Music on the Vibe AS1-1250/6 server, which stores as many as 1,250 uncompressed CDs, streams digitally over your network to up to six rooms.