I've been engaged in an interesting e-conversation with Steve Gutierrez, a builder/developer who won a Panasonic plasma at his workplace and wants to install a complete home-media system. Here's the gist of our dialog, but I welcome any comments from readers with suggestions I might have missed.

As a musician, I'm well acquainted with Steinway pianos, but until recently, I was unaware that the company had entered the home-audio business with a subsidiary called <A href="http://www.steinwaylyngdorf.com">Steinway Lyngdorf</A> in collaboration with Peter Lyngdorf of <A href="http://www.lyngdorf.com">Lyngdorf Audio</A>. Among its super-expensive speaker offerings is the LS line, a modular in-wall system based on the concept of a line source, in which a vertical stack of drivers delivers smooth horizontal dispersion and sound levels that fall off more gradually with distance than point-source speakers. As a result, the difference in volume between the front and back rows is less than it otherwise would be.

Photo courtesy Surround Sounds, Perth, Australia

If you've been reading about home theater for any length of time, you've probably heard of Stewart Filmscreen, a family-owned company that represents the lion's share of the consumer and commercial projection-screen market. Its product range is vast, so I'll focus on three high-end home-oriented offerings—CineCurve, Director's Choice 2.0, and StarGlas.