It's a CD recorder. It's a digital music server. It's a convergence of convenience. The Yamaha CDR-HD1000's 20-gigabyte hard drive can store up to 30 CDs worth of data or music in uncompressed form, and it can dub from a CD loaded in its tray at up to 10x speed. Going the other way, CD-Rs and CD-RWs can be burned from the hard drive at 8x and 4x speeds, respectively. An automatic sampling-rate converter lets the HD1000 record from external sources using non-CD-standard rates through its optical and coaxial digital inputs. There are also analog inputs, and both analog and digital recording levels are adjustable. The HD1000 complies with the Serial Copy Management System (SCMS). Price: $999. 800-492-6242, www.yamaha.com
And the new TV technologies just keep on comin'. The RCA Scenium L50000 is a 50-inch rear-projection HDTV with a liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) light engine that employs three reflective light valves or imagers and a sophisticated prism to project a large, bright picture. A built-in HDTV tuner decodes high-def signals from terrestrial stations or the DirecTV satellite service. Image resolution can reach up to 1,280 x 720 pixels. The set isn't plasma-thin, but it's still impressively skinny (18 inches deep) and relatively lightweight (100 pounds) for its screen size. It has a wideband component-video input and an optical digital audio output. A learning remote control with a two-line backlit LCD is supplied. Price: $7,499. 317-587-4450, www.rca.com
Their glossy piano-black silhouettes will be barely visible in a darkened home theater, but the speakers in Acoustic Research's HC6 system are more likely to be noticed for the sounds they make. The system comprises four 7 3/4-inch-tall satellites with 3 1/2-inch woofers and 1-inch tweeters, a center speaker with dual 4-inch woofers and the same tweeter, and a 10 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 14 1/2-inch powered subwoofer with an 8-inch driver and a 100-watt amp. The satellites are magnetically shielded and have a rated frequency response of 80 Hz to 20 kHz ±3 dB, while the sub is rated from 36 to 150 Hz ±3 dB with a crossover variable from 50 to 150 Hz. Price: $799. 800-969-2748, www.acoustic-research.com
