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For the benefit of those who find it difficult to keep straight all the different manufacturers whose names begin with "Audio," Audio Refinement is the brand name of YBA's affordable line of electronics. YBA itself—if you're really out of the loop—is probably the best-known manufacturer of audio equipment in France. YBA is a family business, the initials standing for the name of the designer, Yves-Bernard André, whose wife, Ariane Morin, is the company's CEO.

To a videophile who cut his or her teeth on CRT units, a 7-pound video projector that is no larger than a fat dictionary and can be mounted inconspicuously on a ceiling or table is hard to believe. It can even be stored out of sight and set up again, when needed, in minutes. How good can it be?

When I hear "Polk," I mentally add a vowel and think back on the happy Bavarians swirling around on Ed Sullivan's "really big shoe." As a kid, I always took that opportunity to run to the kitchen, fix a snack, and be back before the last oom-pah-pah had died away. I didn't want to miss any of the acts that really interested me—the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Topo Gigio, the Little Italian Mouse. Great bands, smart mouse, all heavy hitters—like the Polk LSi9 speaker. Don't let its under–16-inch height fool you. At 32 pounds, this very solid little box proved dense enough to live up to audiophile expectations. This is a serious speaker. As Seor Wences would say, "S'alright!"