There wasn't anything brand new in the way of announcements or products - just great sound and video. Meridian's room featured the company's DSP3100, DSP3100C, and SW1600 digital loudspeakers with the G91A DVD/controller/tuner and DVP1080MF video processor along with an unnamed plasma TV. The Meridian gear totalled about $20,000, which makes me remember why I need to make more money. In the back of the room was a static display of one of Meridian's custom install speakers.

Definitive Technology's newest home theater package is at the plate. Will it strike out or strike up the band?

Even if you're not a baseball fan, you've probably heard of Mark McGwire. After crushing the previous single-season home-run record a couple of years ago, McGwire continues to pound the ball out of the park to the delight of Cardinals fans everywhere. Yet, despite his imposing form and incredible swing, McGwire (like most power hitters) strikes out with some regularity. Of course, who's going to complain to a guy who has hit 72 home runs in a single season?

So little, yet so big.

Flat-panel TVs—both plasma and LCD—are wall candy. I've never heard anyone say, "I'm going to buy a plasma TV because the picture looks so much better than what you get from a (fill in your favorite display technology acronym here) projection TV." Nope. People buy flat-panel TVs for one or more of three reasons: they're thin; they're cool; and, boy, do they make your friends RGB with envy. Half a millennium ago, I'm sure that people who could afford it covered their walls with the finest tapestries for exactly the same reasons. Is it any wonder then that panel after panel goes into homes with teeny, tiny, embarrassingly little home-theater-in-a-grocery-bag speakers next to them—or simply with no speakers at all? I blame the salespeople (or lack thereof). I blame the imperialistic, aggressive TV manufacturers who would have us all on bended knee in subservience to the great, glowing flat-panel on the wall. (Talk about must-see TV. . .) And I blame AM talk radio for convincing people that the idea of really good audio cohabitating with nice video is just another wacko liberal concept that will undermine this country. (Yeah, I have issues.)

Mythos the magnificent.

It's not often that I find something to complain about when it comes to Definitive Technology, but, lately, I have cause. Every year, during each of the two major consumer electronics trade shows, CES and CEDIA, I (and plenty of other journalists, dealers, and a few hangers-on who shouldn't have been let in to begin with) have made the traditional pilgrimage to the Def Tech booth. We go there, drawn like corn-bread muffins to butter, to hear the latest Def Tech incarnation, thanks to the genius of head honcho Sandy Gross and company. As you would expect, some of these speaker introductions have been more exciting than others—the unveiling of the first Mythos speakers being one of the extra-special highlights in recent memory. Regardless, the Definitive Technology booth never disappoints.