Our 10 Best Software Award winners.

Nothing less than our picks for the best demo material of the past year.

The 10 Best Movies and Games of the Year

MusicGiants and iTrax give Internet music downloads an audiophile makeover

Say what you will about the ethical and legal issues surrounding peer-to-peer music trading, but back in the good old days of Napster, Gnutella and other such illicit music download services, sound quality mattered.

These spectacularly spooky Show-Offs will ensure your sub isn't the only thing going bump in the night.

Ah, Halloween: the weirdest of all holidays. The night when all the world turns into a Key West street parade and yard decorations run the gamut from tacky carved vegetables to toilet paper. Who could blame you if you decided to stay inside with the door shut tight and wait for the craziness to pass?

Holing up for the night doesn’t preclude you from celebrating All Hallows’ Eve entirely, though.

Make your system sing with these great musical movie moments.

I’ve covered my fair share of music and movies here in Show-Offs over the years. Interestingly enough, as I look back over previous columns, I notice a distinctly never-the-twain-shall-meet approach to the cinematic and lyrical media.

Within half an hour of Tweeting the fact that I finally got my paws on the new stereo Beatles remasters this week, my email inbox was clogged with the same question repeated practically ad infinitum: “So... don’t leave me hanging. How do they sound?” The ellipses were often stretched to the point of abuse, and the question marks ranged from solitary to the obscene, but I read that exactly question so many times I almost started to have Tweet remorse

Honestly, though, who doesn’t want to know how these discs sound? So I’ll cut to the chase and tell you all what I told them:

Put your system (and your foundation) to the test with these spectacular subwoofer Show-Offs

Sure we all enjoy a carefully crafted surround sound mix that oozes ambience and paints a pretty phonic picture in the air, but what we all really love is head-slamming, rump-shaking, rafter-rattling bass.

With that in mind, this installment of Show-Off is all about giving you the lowdown on the lowest of the low—Blu-ray subwoofer demos certain to pin you to your seat, part your hair (assuming you have any) and rattle anything that isn’t nailed, bolted or Gorilla-glued to the walls or floor.

Why just listen when you can watch? Combining the musical with the visual enhances the experience far beyond what you get from CDs, and the better of the 5.1-channel surround mixes found on many DVDs make you and your guests feel like you're right there in the audience.