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In the pro-audio world—especially live performance and commercial cinema—no speaker company is better known than JBL. So it makes perfect sense that the California-based company would apply its considerable expertise to high-end consumer speakers, as it has in the JBL Synthesis line, which includes several models designated Project Array that seem ideally suited for upscale home theaters.

Price: $600 At A Glance: Dual powered subs go low • Single-box analog domain “virtual surround” • Ultra-clear vocal presentation

A Base With Good Bass

Despite the predictable claims that manufacturers make—and the breathless, indefensible hyperbolic shrieks made by computer geeks posing as audio reviewers—no one-box-solution soundbar can really replace a discrete 5.1-channel surround sound system. ZVOX founder and former Cambridge SoundWorks marketing executive Tom Hannaher knows that, and the ZVOX Website says it. Bravo.

Price: $1,410 At A Glance: Middle of Polk’s three main speaker lines • Cherry or black veneers at modest price • Remote-controlled subwoofer

From Baltimore with Love

Did you know that Baltimore was the second U.S. city to achieve a population of more than 100,000, after New York? It has given us great Americans as diverse as Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court, and John Waters, who will probably never serve on the Supreme Court, although I’d love to see him try. Barry Levinson based four movies in Baltimore: Diner, Tin Men, Avalon, and Liberty Heights. Six Fortune 500 companies reside in greater Baltimore. The city’s best known university is Johns Hopkins, which educated Polk Audio’s three cofounders: Matthew Polk, Sandy Gross, and George Klopfer. All of them have since moved on, although Matthew Polk maintained an active design presence until recently. Polk Audio is currently owned by DEI Holdings, which also owns Definitive Technology and the Directed Electronics car technology empire. It remains a Baltimore stalwart as well as one of the few truly distinguished speaker brands available to megachain shoppers.

Mr. Browning (Colin Firth) has seven children he's trying to raise by himself and they need some serious discipline. When the latest nanny quits the job because of their malfeasance, the frustrated father hears a mysterious voice telling him he needs to hire Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson) whose magical ways will set the kids on the proper path and strange things start to happen whenever they make the proper choice.

Writer/star Thompson does an admirable job in both jobs, although the film isn't in the same league as Mary Poppins. I liked the message but the story falls apart midway through the second act with its slapstick humor and I began to lose my patience.