I love that last sentence. Thing that also struck me funny is the upgrade was only $995. My 97' Eldo had an upgrade that was $1500 and all you got was DSP, a feature I never use on my Bose system. I love that cars are getting better in the audio department though. There's a big difference from my 77' 280Z, which its original tape deck still works by the way, and my Caddy. I can't wait for Carputers/CarPCs to get installed factory or aftermarket versions get better. Oh, and you are so right about Lincoln. They are a joke, lol, and I work at a Ford/Lincoln/Mercury Dealership. Is there going to be a Coach on your list?

The push-button radio in my '75 914 worked too...till I ripped it out.

Hard drives in cars is a dicey idea, as regular hard drives hate motion. Solid state drives, on the other hand, should be fine. I think some company has a hard drive in a car already, but I don't recall which one. Perhaps that will be Apple's next big thing, the iCar.

Yeah, a Mac Mini will fit in the dash easily. Just for the love of God would they stop with the iStuff. Maybe its ok for Apple to do it since they started it, but everyone else doing the same is just plain dumb and annoying. There are companies that make carPCs that fit in a single/dual din slot or in the trunk. I know they have fanless heat syncs but I don't know what hard drives they use. Samsung came out with that 64gig piece of sweetness that can read 64 mb/s, write 45 mb/s. Four of those would be sufficient, for now. The new CTS has a 40 gig hard drive. 20 for GPS, 20 for music. I have got to learn more about getting the internet in the car. With internet radio/television, GPS, and whatever else would be nice to have. Plus, I'm not a fan of satellite radio. We have it at work and I have more music on my computer than they ever play. They repeat the same songs 2 to 3 times a shift. That's just wrong. So might as well just save my money and listen to what I have on a hard dr

last word was drive obviously. I did double space between paragraphs so it wouldn't all run together. Sorry, guess it didn't transfer.

I wish we could comment on your news and reviews like we can here. I just read your "1080p Projector Rodeo" and am in full agreement with you on projectors. I see a 6k plasma and a 5k projector and there is only one choice for me. I love that huge screen. Of course, I don't know how much longer my wife is going to let me keep our livingroom a cave for. One day, I will have a basement for my theater. Anyway, I was wondering about screen size for high def. For example, when people email pictures to you from a 1.3 meg cell phone and from a 8.0 meg digital camera there is a particular size each one looks good in. If you zoom in too close you really start seeing the nasty pixels. So for a projector at 1080p, is there a particular size that is its correct native intention. I've heard that 42" and within 10' is when you can actually see the difference between HD and standard. Your review was the first time I read an "expert" using a screen bigger than my 106". I

I can't tell right now if mine is too big because I have not made the jump yet to HD. Hopefully very soon I will. I do know that for DVD it is too big. You can definately tell there is a need for HD on that big of screen. Thanks for all the help you and everyone else has been on helping me find the right gear for my home.

The review should have focused only on the audio system and left out the amateurish editorializing on the car itself. Frankly I'm tired of magazine reviewers who trendily extoll foreign cars and just as trendily bash the domestics without applying any kind of objective criteria to judge the substantive differences (of which there are few). Every mainstream automobile today has a plastic interior, so calling the Lincoln's interior "plasticy crap" is a meaningless statement. I do business with all the major Tier 1 automotive interior suppliers, who supply complete interiors to both foreign and domestic brands, often out of the same plant and the same production lines. They use the same grade of materials and same techniques of design and manufacturing regardless of the final application.

Hank, your ignorance is showing. I am all for American cars. I love my Cadillacs and my Corvettes. But Lincolns are a joke. This MKX is nothing but a rebadged Edge. The Lincoln Mark LT is the biggest joke. It's a stinkin' F150, or what we at the Ford Dealership call the Ford Fiso, with different tags. The motor, frame, suspension, body are all the same. When you go from a Tahoe to an Escalade, there is a world of difference. Granted the first Escalades weren't, but they are now. All domestic cars aren't the best though. The Vette may be the most bang for the buck, but what domestic compares to a Bugatti or even Benz. Don't get me started on the love for Toyotas and their Hybrids. That Prius does hardly anything to help the environment. If people really cared they would take a bus, subway or ride a bike. Making a car get a couple more mpg's than a Corolla has very very little affect on anything. Make a useful vehicle, truck/suv, more efficient than you have accomplished

continued... at least something. GM's Hybrid buses will save more fuel and cut down more harmful gases and CO2 than all of those Toy' Pods will. Of course, I'm not much on all this hooplah about CO2 causing Global Warming. In the seventies, they said we were heading for another ice age. Then in the nineties we were warming. Now some say we are cooling again. Can we accept that maybe the Earth goes through cycles already? Oh, throw out the fact that the sun has been having more solar flares lately and Mars and Mercury have shown warming too. Must be all the SUVs they are using. Ok, I have vented. I feel better.

Whereas once I was blind, now I see. You have my deepest condolences Mr. Morrison.

Off Topic- plamsa t.v question. Geoff, I was thinking about buying a 50" Panny until I was blown away by the 58. Two questions. Do the smaller t.v.'s have better processing? Do I lose anything by going bigger? Second, Are the plasmas becoming more technologically advanced whereby you can violate the distance rule to a certain extent? I'm not sure I'll be able to be the 11-12' away.

Hey Greg, Take a look at Pioneer's new KURU line of plasmas. Geoffrey talked about them a while ago before they came out here: http://blog.hometheatermag.com/geoffreymorrison/051007pioneer/ The sister site for here is UltimateUV and if you look at their listings for plasmas they only list Pioneer as the Ultimate choice. I don't think they really can be beat and they are reasonably priced, well I don't know about the Elite models yet, but the Pioneers are. Of course, I would still recommend a projection screen because they are comparible in price with flat screens and you get so much more.

Bruce:
There is no specific size, it has to do with the distance you are from the screen. Scroll a few pages into the blog and you�ll find a number of posts about viewing distance versus resolution. There�s also some articles in the Gearworks section.

Hank:
Your own biases are showing. I can say with total confidence that I know more about cars than you do. Also, the fact that I am paid to do this means by definition not an amateur. Of course all cars use plastic, but the plastic looks and feels a whole lot different in a Ford or GM versus a Toyota or a BMW. I�m sorry, but a $35,000 car shouldn�t look so cheap. I own a Ford, my second, and in its 35,000 miles it has been in the shop more, and has more squeaks and rattles than my father�s 170,000 mile 8-year-old Honda CRV. And he his has to contend with actual seasons (which mine thankfully doesn�t). Just because you disagree doesn�t make me wrong. American cars are crap, and have been for some time. This is why they can�t sell them. (cont...)

Greg:
Within the same line, the different sizes probably have the same processing. With a 1080p display, you can sit pretty close before you start to see pixels. So close, in fact, that you�ll feel like you�re in the front row at a movie theater. As in, under 2 picture heights away you�ll probably still not see pixels. The new Panasonic�s look great, but I agree with Bruce, the new Pioneer�s look pretty amazing as well. We�ll get them in for review next month, so look for a review online in a few months and in the magazine shortly thereafter.

"Hank: Your own biases are showing. I can say with total confidence that I know more about cars than you do." Wow, I have to say I didn't expect this sentence, but I love it. I know when I was a teacher and one of my students would come up and say they didn't understand a math problem, in my head I was like, "well, that's because you are an idiot." But you can't say those things. I guess those rules don't apply here. Good stuff. Anyways, thanks for the direction to gearworks. Didn't see that before. Very helpful. I'm on auto blogs and sites more than I am here and I agree with you some but you have to admit, domestic cars are getting better (excluding Lincoln). Look at the new Buick Enclave and Cadillacs. There is still room for improvement but they are much better than before and comparible with other auto makers. The Vette is in a class of its own though. Maybe not interior wise, but you cannot get more bang for the buck which helps us forgive it

Man, that counter doesn't work. (cont.) its mild shortcomings. Plus, my Lumina went to 226,000 miles and only died because of neglect to change the timing belt. And it was a 92' which is supposed to be GMs bad years. My theory on reliability is for nowadays, if you take care of your care, it will last longer than you will want to keep it.

I don't know about getting better, but there are some gems in the mire. For every Corvette or CTS-V, there�s three Fusions or Malibus. I guess what�s frustrating as a car guy is that someone at these companies may know how to make cars, but the end results so completely miss the point. I own an SVT Focus, which was a spectacular car when it came out. Then Ford killed SVT and our Focus is riding on a chassis that is 8 years old. Europe has a new Focus that looks and from what I�ve read is awesome. Where�s that?

I have no loyalty to any specific brand, country, or genre of cars. I just love cool cars. I have a Porsche 914, but wouldn�t own a tail-dragger 911. I have an SVT Focus but wouldn�t buy a Mustang (except for maybe a �68 GT-390�).

Where American car companies so often fail is that they just don�t make cars that are interesting. They don�t make cars people want, just cars that people who don�t care, buy. That�s my �objective criteria.� (cont�)

I�ll admit that �interesting� is subjective, so lets talk numbers. American cars, almost universally, get worse gas mileage than their European or Japanese counterparts. Even the Chevy Aveo, the smallest car GM �makes�, only gets 24/35. The much larger (and subjectively nicer) Corolla gets 26/34.

How about interiors? Have you sat in a Volkswagen recently? Now compare that to a similarly priced GM.

And that doesn�t even discuss performance, which is an argument all on it�s own. All I�ll say on that is there is more to the world than 0-60.

What does this have to do with TVs? Beautifully nothing.

Bruce, the number count is characters, including spaces. 1024 characters is not a lot.

I was over 30 characters under when I ended the last post that got cut off. No biggie though. "Where American car companies so often fail is that they just don�t make cars that are interesting. They don�t make cars people want, just cars that people who don�t care, buy." This is what I would say about Toyota. They make good cars, but they are boring. I think we agree on a lot though. My Buick has a huge piece of nasty plastic for a dash and my Caddy could have done better. I'm probably going for an Audi S8 next. If not, Benz or Bimmer. I have been in a VW and was very impressed. They ain't the old bugs any more. And the new Beetle they are thinking about will rock. Fords in Europe and especially Australia are so much better. Have you seen the Falcon? The thing I don't like is people are still crucifying domestics for mistakes in the past. (cont.)

and ignoring any shortcomings of foreign cars. They make them to be perfect when they are not. Toyota's recall book now is huge compared to even Ford's. There are some nice domestics now and a lot of good foreign cars as well. Heck, Toyota has a huge luxury car with a V12 but you can only get it in Japan. There are so many cool cars we can't get here. I admit that gas mileage never has effected me. You will never see me in a Prius, Focus (no offense), or Metro. I like luxury, power, and speed. I love to drive and if it cost me more at the pump, so be it. I have no real loyalty to brand anymore, but I do like to see when a domestic comes out with a winner. Warms the heart.

Hey Geoffrey, check out the FT-SX under Toyota's future concept vehicles. It's an exact copy of the Ford Edge. Grant it, if Toyota puts it in production it may be a better vehicle but come on, what hacks. It has the same shape, same grille, even the same headlight design. It looks more like the Edge than Lincoln MKX. Toyotas are good vehicles, but they are so boring and unoriginal.

My question is this:

What is a foreign and what is domestic anymore? My "domestic" was built in Mexico, and many "imports" are built here. So wouldn't buying a Toyota be "Buying American?" in some cases?

I guess it's all in who you want your money to support. Buying a US built Toyota will support the workers in that area, but also their foreign suits, while buying most "domestic" cars will support foreign workers and domestic suits.

Doesn't matter to me, but it's just not as clear cut as some make it out to be.

True dat, lol. I found a site that told you the top ten cars that the majority of your money spent on them stayed in the US. #1 was the F150, #2 the Silverado, and #3 was the Camry. The Sienna even made it to #7. The big three, back when they were riding the great wave, were able to put a lot of money into their workers. Now that the tide is reseeding, it has really hurt them to stay competitive. They had talks though recently, so we will see what happens in Detroit. But yeah, I work at a Ford Dealership and about 1% of the parts I hand out are made in America. They are usually made in Mexico, Canada, Japan, or Germany. So, I saw the blog on posting. Too lazy to do the paragraph thing but if I send to that email address, does that go directly to you, or do I have to put an attention on it. This way I can ask questions when I need them, or talk cars, and leave only comments on the blogs.

If you send it there, I'll read it.

And after you get done with the Levinson/Lexus system, perhaps you could take a look at the Linn/Aston Martin combo - now that would be an interesting review!

I wish! One of my colleagues got to do just that, in the Scottish Highlands no less. It's a tough job...

"Hank: Your own biases are showing. I can say with total confidence that I know more about cars than you do. Also, the fact that I am paid to do this means by definition not an amateur." Whether or not I as a reader have biases is a non sequitur regarding whether or not you have them as a reviewer. You can say whatever you want with total confidence and still be wrong. Since you don't know anything about me, your confidence is clearly unfounded and can be dismissed as braggadocio. I didn't say you are an amateur, but obviously it's possible to be a professional yet still deliver an amateurish result; just ask Lloyd Carr of Michigan about his coaching performance against Appalachian State this year.

"How about interiors? Have you sat in a Volkswagen recently? Now compare that to a similarly priced GM." Hmm, VW is your standard-bearer for quality? Well, I realize that you're a self-proclaimed auto savant, but you might want to bop on over to jdpower.com and note that VW at #35 is dead last in the entire industry in brand quality. Yep. And "American crap" Lincoln is all the way up at #6, only one step behind #5 Jaguar (another Ford brand) and one step ahead of #7 Mercedes-Benz. Mercury, another "crappy" American Ford product, appears at #8, only one step behind Mercedes-Benz and one step ahead of perennial "quality-leader" Toyota at #9. Shocking, huh? Yeah, I guess driving a Porsche 914 means you're stuck in the '70s in more ways than one.

"Hank, your ignorance is showing." Ad hominem. "'Hank: Your own biases are showing. I can say with total confidence that I know more about cars than you do.' Wow, I have to say I didn't expect this sentence, but I love it." Sycophancy? Yuk, Bruce, please wipe Geoffrey's boot polish off your tongue. You guys seem to think I'm here to argue domestic vs foreign. OK, let's get that out of the way. My view is that American cars don't automatically stink and foreign cars aren't automatically wonderful. You can find examples of horrible design and quality from all brands regardless of national origin. You can also find very well-done vehicles from both domestic and offshore sources. My original point, still unrefuted: Geoffrey evinced unreasoned universal bias against American cars in the review, amply confirmed by his subsequent posts here, which rendered the review worthless to anyone wanting an objective take on the vehicle's sound system.

Reviews are inherently subjective, a point completely lost on you, I'm sure. You don't agree with me, so therefore I must be wrong. An amusing and highly common sentiment in this anonymous internet world.

J.D. Power and Associates Reports: Ford Motor Company Captures Most Awards in 2007 Initial Quality Study WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 6 June 2007 � Ford Motor Company garners five top model segment awards�more than any other automobile corporation this year, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Initial Quality StudySM (IQS) released today. In the study, Ford Motor Company earns model segment awards for the Ford Mustang, Lincoln Mark LT, Lincoln MKZ, Mazda MX-5 Miata and Mercury Milan. �The 2007 IQS results contain some encouraging and positive news for Ford Motor Company,� said Neal Oddes, director of product research and analysis at J.D. Power and Associates." (cont.)

(cont.) �Fourteen Ford Motor Company models place in the top three of their respective segments�an achievement unmatched by any other corporation this year�which is a testament to the improvement in quality for Ford Motor Company vehicle models and plants. In addition, their Lincoln nameplate, which receives two segment awards, improves considerably to rank third in 2007, from 12th in 2006.�

"Ford beats Toyota in quality rankings - Automaker takes lead spot in five of 19 segments in survey" Associated Press - updated 6:24 p.m. ET, Wed., June. 6, 2007 "...Ford Motor Co. supplanted Toyota as leader of the pack in J.D. Power and Associates� annual initial quality rankings released Wednesday, grabbing more individual awards than any other automaker for the first time since 1998, when it tied for the top spot." "...Toyota Motor Corp., which grabbed the top spot in 11 segments last year, captured only four this year � the 4Runner, Sequoia, Tacoma and Lexus RX350/RX400h." "...'We saw dramatic improvement from Lincoln,' said Neal Oddes, J.D. Power�s director of product research and analysis. 'It was a fantastic year for the Mercury Milan, with dramatic improvements in terms of defects.' Overall, he said, Ford�s strength came from new launches such as the Edge and the Lincoln MKX and MKZ."

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