Wall of Sound: Three new surround formats from Audyssey, Dolby and DTS aim to bring your theater sound to a whole new dimension. Literally.

You want me to buy more speakers? Yeah, I get that. To be honest, that was my first thought when I heard about height speakers. Just a gimmick, right?

Well, to find out, I journeyed up and down the California coast visiting the headquarters of the formats’ creators.

When Digital Met Analog

Ditch the transistors and go tubing with old-fashioned, oh-so-analog vacuum tube audio gear from Peachtree Audio and Fatman.

The best gear of the year, as picked by the editors of Home Entertainment.

Ultimate Hybrid

One of the fastest-growing product categories is high-end audio devices that decode digital audio from a computer or iPod.

This amuses me, as for years many in the high-end audio realm thought of the iPod somewhere above the Anti-Christ but just below one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Not sure which, maybe the green one.

The Crestron Experience Center in Las Vegas is one of the few places in the world delivering hands-on demos of the wonders of home automation.

With its new Las Vegas Experience Center, Crestron—which in home automation is perhaps even more pervasive than Microsoft is in the computer business—seeks to make its creations more accessible to dealers and customers. The Experience Center is one of only a few places in the world where one can witness home automation at work.

Silver Sounds

Well, it looks huge. Maybe not huge, but certainly hefty.

And yet at 38 pounds, it’s not.

There must be some kind of magic in there doing something.

One receiver to rule them all

The consumer who is looking for one receiver to deliver stellar audio from their iPod and Internet radio stations, while also featuring HD radio need look no further.

Yamaha has risen to the demanding challenge of designing one integrated receiver that combines all of those elements and even more with the RX-V3900 7.1 Home Theater receiver.

An Audio Lover’s Video Player.

Over the past year, Denon has quietly assembled an interesting array of Blu-ray players designed to suit a host of budgets and systems—from the digital-only DVD-2500BTCI transport ($999) to the recently announced “entry-level” DVD-1800BD ($749).

Residing at the top of the chain is the reference DVD-3800BDCI ($1,999), a beefy unit whose build quality and high-end components befit that higher price tag.