LATEST ADDITIONS

You're enjoying a lovely evening in the park - sandwiches and softball. A nice-looking kid comes over and offers to sell you an iPod for $100. You're reluctant, but it's a really sweet deal. You agree. The next day, you find out you've bought stolen goods. Congratulations! You're a business partner in the latest crime wave: stolen MP3 players.

In-wall speakers have come a long way since the first models, which were essentially re-purposed car-stereo speakers. That dramatic improvement over the past decade is due largely to the boom in "architectural" audio products driven by the advent of flat-panel TVs, any-room home theater systems, and whole-house audio.

Although I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, I was a high-school A/V geek. Some kids go out for track or baseball, others for student theater. But I, along with my (still) best friend Burt, found my haven in a small interior office full of rolling TV carts and overhead projectors.