AUDIO COMPONENTS: A Dose of Aural Gratification

Want to hear the sound of Jabba the Hutt laughing as if he were sitting next to you on the couch? Or how about listening to the rumble of the giant boulder in Temple of Doom bearing down on you? Filmmaker George Lucas and his soundmeister Tomlinson Holman claim that such aural thrills can be provided by their new home sound system, called THX. Holman, an audio-design engineer who created the THX (Tomlinson Holman Experiment) system widely used in theaters, has crafted a six-speaker home version that provides distortion-free sound at high volume and gives listeners the impression that the sound is surrounding them. The system will play standard videotapes and videodiscs as well as specially enhanced products.

Pure sound is not cheap. The top-of-the-line system unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago last week will cost about $8,000. Quips Holman: $ "It's a natural for people who are nesting or who don't want to buy an RV." Some individual THX components, which will be built in the U.S. and Japan, will be available later this summer.