Wall of Sound: Three new surround formats from Audyssey, Dolby and DTS aim to bring your theater sound to a whole new dimension. Literally.

You want me to buy more speakers? Yeah, I get that. To be honest, that was my first thought when I heard about height speakers. Just a gimmick, right?

Well, to find out, I journeyed up and down the California coast visiting the headquarters of the formats’ creators.

Your iPhone now controls everything those big home automation touchscreens can — from anywhere in the world.

A recent innovation is going to make your life a whole lot better — or a whole lot worse.

It all depends on how you feel about the iPhone.

All ears!

Lucky me, I recently reviewed three of the world's very best headphones, the Audio Technica ATH-W5000, Denon AH-D7000 and Sennheiser HD 800 for Home Entertainment, due in the September issue.

But the advancement of high-end headphones doesn't stand still and now I've heard something even better: The WooAudio WES headphone amplifier and Stax SR-007 Mk2 headphone.

With claims of decreased motion blur, better detail, world peace, and smoother motion, LCD manufacturers are drastically increasing refresh rates. But why?

First it was 120 Hz. Now it’s 240 Hz. Already manufacturers are talking about 480 Hz. I mean, 60 Hz is so 20th century. Are there really any advantages to these faster refresh rates? If so, how do they work?

A mini survey of ear-bogglingly good headphones and headphone amplifiers

I'd like to let you in on a little secret: You can buy terrific headphones for next to nothing. That's not to say they all sound great, but a bigger budget definitely buys better build and sound quality.

For this roundup I've selected three contenders for the world's best headphone: the Denon AH-D5000, Grado Labs GS-1000, and the Ultrasone Edition 9, plus a pair of headphone amplifiers, Benchmark's DAC1 USB and Woo Audio's WA5-LE.

Which is better, or more precisely, which isn't worse

It's not that I hated Time Warner Cable. In fact, in a lot of ways I kind of liked them. For several years, I had the Scientific Atlanta 8000HD DVR box, which, after many updates, was a pretty decent piece of equipment. Then, after my second one died (as hard-drive based equipment is bound to do), they gave me the 8300HDC. This is the worst consumer electronics product I've ever used, and my days with TWC were numbered. And along came AT&T.

Projector's Friend

Projection screens are often overlooked, despite being looked at. Whether you're looking for a motorized screen or fixed screen, gray or white, matching your projector with the right screen can improve its performance, and perhaps the performance of your entire theater.

Head Games

Headphones sound fundamentally different than speakers. The sound is, after all, all in your head; with speakers, it's in the room. And that's the problem.

Room acoustics, your position relative to the speakers and the room itself dramatically affect the sound you hear. Room reverberation, reflections and standing waves—not to mention ambient noise—all conspire to blur detail and obscure quiet sounds. With headphones there's nothing between you and the sound.