"It's hard to see a payoff--a financial payoff--on this project in my lifetime, " concedes Hodel, 73, from his Lakewood, Colo. living room, near a stack of ski magazines and a book about global energy.

FORBES: Old King Coal

Not surprisingly the sound of the Twenty, which outputs a respectable 20 watts per channel, is transparent and probably a lot cleaner than the stack of gear you had in your dorm room.

WSJ: Stereo Sound, Rekindled

We'd love a wristwatch remote that controlled everything in the room, personally, rather than the stack of black obelisks we have at the moment.

ENGADGET: A fingertap away