Peter Pachal

SIZE MATTERS If you went straight to the extra-large aisle when you were at the plasma-TV store, your next stop should be wherever they sell the Totem Tribe II. Made specifically to match flat-panel sets with 50- to 55-inch screens, the Tribe II is 29 inches long and less than 4 inches deep. Your wall's about to become the place to be.

CLASS SYSTEM With budget receivers packing state-of-the-art features such as 7.1-channel sound and HDMI switching, any manufacturer that has the stones to charge two grand for one had better include some really shiny bells and whistles.

PADDED ROOMS Inspired by control panels on kitchen gadgets, the keypads in NuVo's Grand Concerto whole-house system have no pushbuttons. Instead, the panel responds when something - a fingertip, usually - disrupts the electrical field underneath a button icon, so nothing can get stuck.

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.