What good is a hard-drive based system if it limits you to just one room? Panasonic just unveiled a very cool all-in-one system that combines a whopping 80-GB HDD with music server capabilities, so you can listen to that database throughout your whole house. The SC-PTX7 ($799) is the main system. It includes the control unit with the 80GB hard drive, a CD/DVD player to rip from, and speakers. The SC-PTX7 uses two main speakers that also create the center channel and there is a separate subwoofer (Panasonic calls this Twin-Center 3.1). It uses Dolby Virtual Surround to create a surround image from these three speakers when playing a DVD.

What is perhaps most exciting about this system is the availability of optional wireless clients. These are self-contained, amplified units with built-in speakers and wireless receivers. It also has the ability to select different sources on each client — you can be listening to the hard drive, while another listens to a CD, or even a connected XM connect and play. An 80GB hard drive gives you will over 30,000 songs; wireless technology has never looked better. — Leslie Shapiro