Photo illustration by John Wilkes

This year’s Sound & Vision Reviewer’s Choice Awards feature a number of home- entertainment firsts, including JVC’s GR-HD1 high-definition camcorder, Sony’s RDR-GX7 DVD recorder, which supports both the DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW formats, and Yamaha’s MusicCAST, the first Wi-Fi music system from a major consumer-electronics manufacturer. Also on the Wi-Fi front is the Omnifi DMS1, the first system to send music wirelessly to both your home and car systems.

Not surprisingly, the Awards also offer a snapshot of some promising trends, including lower prices for plasma TVs and high-definition front and rear projectors. You’ll even find a universal DVD player that sells for less than $250 and a home networked DVD player that goes for under $300.

There’s no shortage of traditional gear, however, with speaker systems from Athena, Mirage, and Snell all winning awards. Especially intriguing are Bang & Olufsen’s groundbreaking BeoLab 5 speakers, a successful wedding of technology and style. 

This year’s roundup of winners shows that, in home entertainment at least, flair follows function.