Go to the cinema and close your eyes – just for a while – and see how much less you get from the movie without the benefit of pictures. We’re not decrying the benefits of a good surround setup (perish the thought), just emphasising that the all-embracing peripheral-vision-filling image is a vital part of the total cinema experience.

Yet in the home, it’s all too common for systems to be ‘skewed’ towards sound rather than vision, though ideally, you’d spend about the same on each – maybe more on vision, because it’s harder to get a good, big picture than it is a good, powerful sound. Yet we often see THX audio systems allied to large screen TVs, and hefty 7.1 amps with 42in (107cm) plasma screens. This isn’t cinema – it’s just loud TV.

The increasingly simple solution is to invest in a projector – you’ll find that the latest models are not the high-priced bulky beasts of old.