New Products

Americans love trucks. Whether they're for carrying stuff, commuting, or just cruising, pickups are so popular that they've been the best-selling vehicles in the US for almost 30 years. For this installment of System Builder, we picked the '06 Dodge Ram 1500 ST Quad Cab (sticker price: $22,050) for an audio-system makeover.

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.

MEDIUM MEDIA Fans of portable video face a stark choice: squinting at microscopic cellphone and iPod screens or lugging around a bulky laptop. Staking out the middle ground is the Pepper Pad 3, which sports a roomy 7-inch touchscreen and a 20-GB hard drive.

ROCK ON Are you still dragging your old boombox out to the backyard for your barbecues? Son, it's time for an upgrade. StereoStone's DaVinci Cinema Rock speaker can fill your patio with sweet sounds without messing up the outdoor ambience, thanks to its rocky camouflage, available in seven colors or your own custom color.

It really is a pit stop when you park your 'Pod in Corgi's Nissan Silvia iCar ($35). Yes, we're talkin' that Corgi, the British maker of die-cast scale-model cars, celebrating its 50th anniversary. Here, you get a 1:24-scale Silvia atop stereo speakers.

$400 Pro- $795, 1200C- $2,195

RGPC's staple device is the four outlet 400 Pro, and it stands out in a very densely crowded category as a no BS product that actually works. Inside each RGPC is a large inductor core, or choke, and a fast-blo fuse. Unlike so many of the surge protectors or line conditioners out there the RGPC is wired in parallel with the incoming AC, which means there's no current limiting, and components don't have to be plugged directly into the RGPC units to receive the full effect. The RGPC simply has to be plugged into an outlet on the same circuit as your gear. Several RGPC units can be "star clustered" in groups for improved performance, and the 1200 Custom is in fact two 400 Pro devices in a single box with 12 outlets. Inductive power filtering is becoming very popular in many high-end products, and the results that can be reaped from the RGPC devices with both audio and video systems can be noticeable, if not staggering (especially with power hungry components like CRTs and plasmas screens). RGPC devices are the only PLC devices in SB's reference system.

FULLY ARMED That sweet flat-panel TV you just bought demands to be mounted on a wall. Problem: The spot you've set aside for it has you seeing mostly glare. Don't give up and get a floor stand - get K2's X-Arm mount.