LATEST ADDITIONS

Polk Audio introduced the $1200/ea. RTS100, "the first in-ceiling speaker to meet THX Ultra2 performance standards." The RTS100 has a 14" diameter enclosure containing dual 5¼" midrange drivers and a 1" Ring Radiator tweeter mounted between them. Polk’s exclusive Sound Shape baffle floats the sound waves toward the listening position for "imaging that seems to hover in front of the listener rather than being localized in the ceiling."

Lionel Goodfield gave us a taste of things to come: The $3500 P5.3 balanced, full-feature preamplifer. It's slated to replace the P3 and P5, and introduces technology pioneered by the P7 Evolution.

Lionel Goodfield gave me a look under the hood of Simaudio's new $1400 LP5.3 Phono universal phono preamp. That huge power supply in the front? Well, Simaudio already has plans for an outboard, higher current model—and the umbilical connector is already resident on the rear panel.

CEDIA is filled with niche products that most charitably can be labeled weird. Here Primedia's Laura LoVecchio poses with a MLB-themed television. Die-hard Mets fan that she is, she's pointing in revulsion at the Yankees logo hidden on the back.

I want to be secure when I fly, but many of the new restrictions strike me as absurd. I was forced to check my rolling carry-on yesterday because it "was larger than a computer bag." Great. I had visions of arriving at CEDIA sans computer or camera.

Paul Quincey said it, not me.

There are very many high-end audio websites out there. I know this because I've spent all day working on our "Audio Manufacturers on the Web" directory, which may be published in our 2007 Buyer's Guide.