Fred Manteghian

Oh, I could tell you about the Yamaha's RX-V2700 7.1 channel receiver's Ethernet connection lets you access Internet radio stations and music stored on computer drives, or how the RX-V2700 has 140 watts for each of its seven channels, or about how they extended the room optimization (equalization) module to go down to 31 Hz instead of 63Hz. Or I could mention that the receiver will supersize your 480i video to 480p, or even 720p or 1080i using the Anchor Bay Technology's ABT1010 video chip. Or I could say that if you use Yamaha's $100 iPod docking station, you can control the iPod with the receiver's remote. Or I could say that the can get all this for only $1,699.

REL introduced three new and highly affordable subs. The smallest, the T3, has an 8" down firing woofer and 8" front firing passive woofer and a built in 150 watt amp. The largest, the T1 (also quite petite by subwoofer standards) doubles the power and brings both drivers up to 10". While I didn't get to hear them, they looked really attractive, especially in cherry wood with black metal (they are available in pure white on white and black ash on black as well). One key feature real "stereophiles" are going to like is that there is both a speaker level input and a line level LFE input and they can both be hooked up simultaneously. REL claims the bass characteristics of your amplifier are better served up in this fashion when listening to stereo than when using an LFE feed, as you would for home theater. Prices range from $500 up to $1000.

When it comes to hard news about consumer electronics, I get it pretty much the same way you do. I read it on the internet. Sure, I could take time out of my day to call a certain Korean hardware manufacturer and ask them if the on-again-off-again combo HD drive is on again or off again, but it would be so much easier just to read someone else's report on the internet which, depending on which temporal continuum you're surfing could be accurate or fallacious or, if you're hanging out with Tim Rice decked out as a transvestite, both.

<span style="float:left;color:#D4D4C7;font-size:100px;line-height:70px;padding-top:2px;font-family: Times, serif, Georgia;">F</span>or less than half the price that my BMW dealer wants to hook my iPod to the 530i's stereo, you can use Belkin's <a href="http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=257270" target=new>TuneBase FM for iPod</a> to hear your music collection through your car's FM radio. It's not an original idea and it's not a first, but it is extremely well designed and implemented. For the most part.