Fred Manteghian journeys to the BAT cave for his review of the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?21">Balanced Audio Technology VK-6200 multichannel power amplifier</A>. Manteghian notes that "this museum-quality piece of modern art was forced to sit on the floor during its stay here&mdash;but if you end up buying one, it deserves a seat of honor somewhere in your room."

Large electronics makers are in a fierce battle to dominate the emerging market for digital television sets. Tactics include better features and bigger screens at unprecedented prices.

As promised <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?1273">last April</A>, Discovery Communications launched their new 24-hour 1080i high definition television (HDTV) network, called Discovery HD Theater, last week. The network has been launched on HD platforms recently rolled out by EchoStar Communications on its Dish Network satellite TV service nationwide, AT&T Broadband's greater Chicago market (where plans are set to launch HDTV service later this summer), and in numerous other markets serviced by cable providers Charter and Cox.

There is no doubt in home theater enthusiasts' minds that high definition television (HDTV) offers far superior picture quality compared to standard definition television (SDTV). So, apart from movie studio piracy concerns, why is it taking so long to roll out more HD content? In a word, bandwidth. HDTV requires substantially more bandwidth than SDTV, which forces broadcasters to consider cutting back SDTV content to make room for high-def.