Fred Manteghian

Feeding the self-powered ML trio above, an Oppo 983 DVD player ($400 at Amazon) with multi-channel analog outputs. The SACD and DVD-Audio playing, DVD-Video upconverting (to 1080p) Oppo offers discrete level control, so you won't need a pre/pro if movies and music is all you do.

Designer Kevin Voecks accepts the Ultimate AV magazine's 2007 Speaker System of the Year award for Revel's Ultima2 Studio2 system. This $36,000 system <a href="http://www.ultimateavmag.com/news/1207poty/" target="new"> (click here to see a full list of this year's award recipients) </a> earned high praise indeed from Tom Norton in his review when he referred to it as the best sound he has ever heard in his home theater.

Show conditions usually make getting sufficient bass out of a system a real challenge. In the case of the ESP Concert Grand speakers ($40,000/pr), driven by Wavestream Kinetics V-8 tube amplification (300 watt monoblocks, as shown, $35,000, 150 watt stereo model, $20,000), the opposite appeared to be true. Even with the speakers about eight feet out from the wall behind them and a bevy of sound absorbing panels (they looked like widescreen Magneplaner panels, an irony not lost on me) the ESP were definitely coming on strong in the bass though they were in no way muddled.

One of the myriad benefits we can enjoy now with the end of the high definition disc format war is the elimination of competition that threatened to drive down prices of hardware and software. Imagine what would happen if cars came in different colors. What a mess.