Featured Gear

Photos by Tony Cordoza Television is here to stay, but the days of the tube are numbered. Admittedly, cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), the devices that create the entertaining, enlightening, and sometimes mind-numbing images in nearly every American living room, will likely remain for many years in direct-view sets with screens that measure 40 inches or less (diagonal).

Photos by Tony Cordoza Anyone interested in an ultra easy-to-set-up home theater system usually has only one recourse: a system-in-a-box, comprising a combination DVD player and A/V receiver, five satellite speakers, and an optimistically designated "subwoofer." The weakest links in most of these systems are generally the speakers.

Photos by Tony Cordoza When buying a 42-inch widescreen HDTV, you pretty much have two cut-and-dried choices. On one hand, you could plunk down around seven grand for the privilege of owning a plasma monitor, with its ultra-thin design and futuristic cachet.

Beginning as barely a trickle, it is now becoming a steady stream as more and more "universal" optical-disc players reach store shelves. The latest models can play DVD-Video discs (and home-burned DVD-R/RWs recorded in the DVD-Video format), DVD-Audio discs, CDs (including CD-R/RW discs and those with MP3 files), and Super Audio CDs.

Photos by Tony Cordoza Cutting-edge tech your thing? Flat-panel plasma TVs are where the action is! Over the past few years, the image quality of these space-saving sets has improved tremendously, and prices have moved steadily downward.