With an integrated DVD player (remember when they were all the rage?) it's very much styled at those who'd want to slip a copy of Hannah Montana inside. Images are thrown up in a 50-inch diagonal, and while it won't impress Mr Home Cinema Buff, it might just keep his children happy for a few (quiet) hours. Available now for £159.99 (around $260), it's from the guys who came up with one of the first pico-projectors. [Firebox]

The wide-ass seats were installed during the Reagan administration.
The former cloakroom (FDR converted it into a theater in 1942) used to look like this before its revamp. Visitors must have dug that crazy juxtaposition of chintz and magnolia alongside the Bruce Willis movies.

And what speakers do POTUS and the gang get their movies piped through? Massachusetts firm Snell provides the sound. [Architectural Digest via audiojunkies and Home Theater]

Every surface in the room, which seats up to 10 people, has been insulated with orange felt to help with the acoustics. There are 600 five-watt light bulbs set inside the round arches, and positioned away from the viewers' eyes, with dimmer switches to give ambient light—and, I assume, so you don't see the host's hand snaking downwards during the movie. [Coolhunter]

As a bit of appetite-whetting, we were first ushered into a separate room, where we heard the $120,000 sound system - that's a pair of Everests, a $20,460 amp and a $19,096 CD player. Jesus got it right, describing the sound as "crispy and fulfilling." But maybe that was the bratwurst he ate just before that. Weighing 360 pounds apiece, the speakers —not the bratwurst—are selling out as fast as the company can knock 'em out.

Then it was into the cinema. Nice leather seats and enough space for our legs (hurrah!) but no drink holder, which I thought was rather remiss of them. The screen (sound transparent, high-end French) was flanked by another pair of DD66000 speakers, with a third one behind it for good measure.

I noticed more speakers behind us and there were some more on the sides. Total effect, as the headline says: 9.6 surround sound. Add to that a high-end video projector and then the totally crazy six terabytes of DVD storage, you've got your $300,000. We enjoyed our fifteen-minute orgasmatron of Sound and Vision, and then left, with this little pearl of gossip from the Harman International rep.

So, you're a very rich Middle Eastern Sheikh and you want to throw a party on your yacht. A couple of movies, followed by some music and nibbles, maybe dancing. You get on the phone to your people and instruct them to fit out the boat to the best AV gear they can get their mitts on. Boat docks at a port in Europe, then gets itself a brand new sound system. All hidden from view behind panels and the like.

Sheikh turns up, can't see the system, is apoplectic. Where is my $4.092 million system, he wonders. System turned on, screen appears, crispy music plays. Sheikh applauds, hands over cheque. Fin.

PRESENTING THE FINEST LOUDSPEAKER EVER CREATED BY JBL : THE EXTRAORDINARY JBL PROJECT EVEREST DD66000

- Ultimate-Performance JBL Flagship Incorporates the Company's Most Advanced Engineering, Technologies and Materials to Redefine the State-of-the-Art in Loudspeaker Design -

Berlin, 30 August 2007. In a move that reaffirms the company's position as the foremost manufacturer of consumer and professional loudspeakers, JBL today announced that it is launching its Project Everest DD66000 loudspeaker. The Project Everest DD66000 - designed and manufactured entirely without compromise to set a new standard in audio reproduction - is the finest loudspeaker ever created by JBL.

Winner of the Best of Innovations 2007 award in the High-Performance Audio category, the DD66000, designed to celebrate JBL's 60th anniversary, combines the heritage of six decades of loudspeaker design expertise with today's most advanced materials, components and technologies, and exceptional engineering talent. It delivers remarkable sonic accuracy and musical realism.

Project Everest DD66000: Attaining Remarkable New Heights in Loudspeaker Performance