It's tough being a consumer in the home theater market these days. You want eye-popping visuals and earth-shattering sound, but sometimes the only eye popping and earth shattering that occurs is when you find out the prices of some A/V systems. Never fear. We at Home Theater hear your cries for a powerful system that won't give your wallet a beating, and we understand. That's why we've gathered our top minds and put together five excellent home theater systems that cost around $5,000. Loudspeakers, universal disc players, HDTVs, projectors, and screens—you name it, we've got you covered. So take a peek over the next few pages, and see the systems for yourself. With all the money you'll save by purchasing the systems we've shown you, you'll be able to spend a little extra to upgrade your wire, cable, and interconnects—and maybe even purchase a sexy stand to hold your new gear. You definitely deserve it.

Hitachi's latest addition to the HD market is the 43UWX10B rear-projection HD monitor, a 16:9 version of the 43-inch 4:3 set I reviewed back in February. Hitachi has taken a proactive approach in developing convenient-sized rear-projection displays for smaller home theaters: This unit's modest 20.625-inch depth and 39-inch height make it a great fit in a bookcase or for use in a small room, and the 43-inch screen is becoming a very popular size for rear-projection TVs and plasma flat-panel displays. I should point out, though, that this is a 16:9-shaped screen and 43 inches is its diagonal measurement, so it's not as big as you might think. Nonetheless, Hitachi has packed a lot in this small package. The 43UWX10B has many operational and engineering features that make this HD unit worth a closer look.

While the cabinet of Hitachi's new 51SWX20B 51-inch TV isn't exceptionally large by widescreen rear-projection CRT standards, its weight of almost 250 lbs is still intimidating. But as the delivery men were about to schlep it into my den, we discovered the first of many welcome new features, one that's almost unheard of in RPTVs: convenient carrying handles. Well, not actual handles, but well-positioned handholds, two on each side, fore and aft. If they don't exactly make carrying the set a pleasure, they at least make it less of an ordeal than usual.

• $3,499
• 58" single-chip DLP (wobulator)
• 1920x1080
• Key Connections: Dual HDMI and component inputs, VGA computer input

JVC's first foray into fixed-pixel, rear-projection TVs a few years back was a big, embarrassing disappointment. The D'Ahlia, as the product was called, was introduced at a gala Times Square press extravaganza. The sets on display used Direct-drive Image Light Amplifier (D-ILA) technology, JVC's variant of liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS).

We're living through interesting yet complicated times in the video display business. The much-revered CRT is an endangered species, being replaced by a supermarket of different new technologies.

• $3,299
• 61" three-chip HD-ILA
• 1920x1080
• Key Connections: Dual HDMI, component and IEEE 1394 inputs