Featured Gear

Photos by Tony Cordoza Great sound used to mean opting for speakers in generic rectangular boxes, while curvy, stylish designs had all the hi-fi credibility of a Blue Light Special boombox. No longer.

Finding a product that performs better than its price would lead you to expect is always a pleasure for a reviewer. Toshiba's SD-4800 is just such a product-a relatively inexpensive DVD player that's packed with all the latest features. For example, it plays DVD-Audio discs through its multichannel analog outputs, which also serve for Dolby Digital playback.

Photos by Tony Cordoza

Riding the bus to school was always a drag, so it felt great to be able to slide behind the wheel of my new car and drive there on the morning of my 16th birthday. Each day after that I'd wake up late, then get halfway home before all the losers who didn't have wheels even got on the bus.

Photos by Tony Cordoza

At a glance, you'd probably think that Panasonic's $1,000 DMR-HS2 looks pretty much like every other DVD recorder out there-including the Panasonic DMR-E30 that I reviewed just last month. But the DMR-HS2's chassis carries clues that something more is going on here.

Photos by Tony Cordoza Check it out: In the Lab Features Checklist At the height of the stock-market bubble a few years back, I'd occasionally field a call from a rich guy - or his assistant - seeking advice on the cool, new flat-panel plasma TVs he'd been hearing about.