Brent Butterworth

We seem to be going through a mini-renaissance in the hallowed tradition of the American hi-fi show, what with this year's burgeoning crop of existing shows and welcome upstarts. Yet Southern California audiophiles, despite living in what some would consider the nexus of the audio industry, haven't been treated to a good show for years.

Back in the days when a decent TV cost $4,000, I never hesitated to recommend spending $300 or so on professional calibration. But now you can get a pretty good set for less than $1,000. Far be it from me to tell you what your priorities should be, but to me, spending three bills to have a $900 TV calibrated seems as silly installing a $10,000 Viking range a 30,000 mobile home. Does this harsh nancial reality leave TV bargain hunters at the mercy of the factory calibration?

Do you trust your ears? I don't. By that I mean I don't trust my ears. Frankly, though, I don't trust anybody's. I've heard laymen enthuse about systems that had little more to offer than a few notes of booming bass. I've heard audio veterans trash impeccably engineered speakers - and praise speakers that showed glaring technical flaws.

Hsu Research ranks high on home theater enthusiasts' "most favored brands" list, largely because of its high-performance, low-priced subwoofers. Indeed, the HB-1 MK2 ($318/pr) seems to be designed primarily as a home theater bruiser: At 15.4 inches high, it's the largest speaker in this roundup, and its 6.5-inch, polypropylene-cone woofer gives it more bass real estate than any but the Axiom M3v3.