LATEST ADDITIONS

The rollout of digital television will continue to be hampered, unless the <A HREF="http://www.fcc.gov">Federal Communications Commission</A> (FCC) assumes a stronger leadership role, according to a semi-annual report filed November 7 by the <A HREF="http://www.ce.org">Consumer Electronics Association</A> (CEA).

Familiar to most of us as laptop computer screens, LCD displays have yet to win many converts among the home theater faithful. The product category is coming along, however, as evidenced by Samsung’s extended-definition SLK407W Tantus television receiver.

RCA's F38310 HDTV is an easy yet high-quality way to introduce your family to satellite and HD programming.

RCA, that good old standby brand name, is still around and doing well. About two years ago, the company's entry into the HDTV market, the F38310, made a big splash. I saw this display at the National Association of Broadcasters show in 1999, and I was surprised not only by the set's excellent picture quality but by the fact that such a big CRT display could produce that quality. Back then, RCA showed high-definition images through the Sencore video streamer, an early version of the unit I now use in my test lab. Of course, back then, the Sencore was about the only source for displaying 1080i demo footage, and no 720p material was available. Since then, RCA (now officially known as Thomson, although they still trade under the RCA name) has made improvements to the F38310. In keeping with Home Theater's general philosophy regarding product reviews, senior technical editor Mike Wood and I agreed to wait and review the new version of the F38310. It was worth the wait.

The B&W DM303 speaker system proves that bookshelf speakers are far from obsolete.

Badly named and generally underrated, bookshelf loudspeakers are possibly the most misunderstood of all speakers. First of all, they don't sound their best when placed on shelves; stands are usually recommended. Second, even though they haven't got the bottom-octave authority of powered towers, their smaller enclosures cause fewer acoustic problems, making them a perfect vehicle for vocals and the midrange frequencies in which most music resides. They lend themselves to wall-mounting almost as well as the smallest satellites, with the added benefit of genuine midbass response. The best bookshelf models—B&W's DM302, JBL's N24, NHT's SuperOne, Paradigm's Titan, KEF's Coda 7, Polk's RT-105, and PSB's Alpha Mini—deliver versatile stereo and surround sound for music or movies at an affordable price. So, it's good news that B&W has a new—um—bookshelf offering, the DM303.