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According to Wikipedia, a flagship is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels that is usually the fastest, largest, newest, or most heavily armed. In terms of home-theater electronics, a flagship model is the company's top-of-the-line design, with cutting-edge features, capabilities, and technologies.

I've never given a price formula for putting together a system--you know, X percent for this, Y percent for that. But I recognize that impecunious readers may be tempted to save a buck on speakers or amps, if only as a temporary measure. So where's the best place to save? Is it better to mate expensive speakers with a cheap receiver, or cheap speakers with an expensive receiver? I think the first idea is a disaster in the making. The cheap receiver won't let the speakers live up to their potential. A paltry supply of dirty power will make them sound somewhere between mediocre and awful. In addition, if the speakers have low sensitivity and present too great a load, the stressed receiver may even damage the drivers or shut itself down. On the other hand, mating an expensive receiver with cheap speakers (like the nice-sounding and nice-looking Onixes pictured here) just might work. Sure, the speakers may not be the culimination of your high-end dreams, but a good receiver will get the best out of them. Of course you'll have to be careful not to blow them out with too much volume. Upgrade the speakers later when you can afford to. Your goal, of course, is to have both great speakers and a great receiver.

Hold on a second! Before you plug in that spiffy new TV, have you considered its carbon footprint? I don't care if you waste your life watching TV, but I do care if it's going to trash my planet. Apparently, the LCD TV Association cares too. The...

A study of American technology trends conducted by Canadian research firm SRG (Solutions Research Group) had some interesting results. Most marketing companies and manufacturers tend to view women consumers as an afterthought, often with the...