Home Entertainment Your Way

Building the perfect home entertainment system is a bit like baking a cake: Combining the right ingredients is the key to success. Start with a good display, add a sound system that's sweet to the ear, and top it off with your choice of entertaining extras such as a video recorder or gaming console.

Before you whip out your credit card, though, ask yourself a few questions: How much do you want to spend? What kind of space will it all have to fit into? What will you use it for--catching the latest thriller on DVD, or watching football? Listening to concertos, or flexing your thumbs against a great game? Or maybe it will perform an assortment of duties, depending on who's holding the remote.

On the following pages, we present five ideal home entertainment systems (with representative products to consider for each), based on advice from home theater experts. Each is tailored to fit different budgets and uses. Find the one that works for you, or mix and match to create your dream system.

• The Starter Set
• A Family Affair
• Home Office Theater
• The Sports Den
• Dedicated Home Theater