Peter Pachal

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.

BACK IN BLACK The Optoma HD7100 front projector takes contrast to a new level with Texas Instruments' DarkChip3 DLP technology, providing an impressive 5,000:1 rated contrast ratio. So no matter how dark things get onscreen, the picture stays sharp and detailed.

ALL IN ONE Of course it has seven amplifier channels at 85 watts for each speaker - that's a given. The reason you get a flagship receiver like the Harman Kardon AVR 745 is the bells and whistles: automatic speaker setup, outputs for two subwoofers, and a USB port for digital music streamed from your PC.

SAVING GRACE In 2006, how can a DVD recorder - even one as snazzy-looking as the Toshiba RD-XS55 - justify a $600 price tag? How about a 250-GB hard disk for starters, giving you enough space for at least 300 hours of shows? Then there's its compatibility with DVD-R/RW and -RAM.