Peter Pachal

CLUTTER CUTTER Everybody loves HDTV, but enough with all the cables already! Pioneer feels your pain, providing no fewer than four HDMI inputs on its new flagship receiver, the VSX-84TXSi. The Cadillac of connectors delivers both HD video and audio, so you can hook up everything from your high-def cable box to your HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc player and still not get tangled up.

UPCONVERT, MARK DOWN Now that your piggy bank is empty since you blew all your savings on that 1080p HDTV, you probably don't have much left for a receiver. Good thing Pioneer's VSX-917V won't set you back too much, and it's totally ready for your HD set with its two HDMI inputs. So don't feel bad about splurging on that HD DVD player either.

ULTRA COOL If you think it's hard to believe an in-ceiling speaker could sound top-notch, THX would like a word with you. Polk's RTS100 is the first in-ceiling model to earn THX Ultra2 status, thanks in part to its driver array.

You hear a lot about how good speakers look on a wall. What you don't hear is that wall mounting can affect a speaker's performance. Good thing the PSB VisionSound VS300 speakers (center and front, $749 apiece) have special circuitry to compensate for any ill effects (a switch defeats it for off-wall mounting).