LATEST ADDITIONS

A product that impressed me last year was OliveMedia Products' Symphony music server. The size and appearance of a conventional CD player, the Symphony incorporates an 80GB hard drive and a WiFi hub so that it can act as a music-file server, all for just $899. I wrote my positive impressions of the Symphony with its digital output driving my high-end rig in our <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/1105Bstph.html">mid-Novemb… eNewsletter</A>, so I checked out Olive at CES. The company was demonstrating the new Opus, which increases the HD size to 400GB and uses a high-end D/A section. The Opus will be available mid-February for $2999.

There's so much for me to learn.

Walking through the Las Vegas Convention Center, Jon Iverson, Stephen Mejias, and I were stopped in our tracks by a set of sleek, colorful, sexy loudspeakers, Jamo's new dipole Reference R909s ($14,999/pair). I was struck by how nicely Jamo has covered the backs of the speakers with a handsome grille-cloth shroud, only to have Chris Otte tell me that "of course, very few customers will want to cover them up." I'm not so sure&mdash;I suspect most folks can do without the sight of the two woofers' nether regions.

Jon Iverson ponders where he's seen that speaker shape before. He's pretty sure it wasn't in this booth, with the suspicous company name "Forgings Industry."

It was nice to see <I>Audiolab</I> products again&mdash;simple components with simple livery, not the stylish, but incomprehensible faceplates of the products manufactured after TAG Mclaren acquired the firm. Jon Iverson, Stephen Mejias, and I didn't get a chance to hear the new 8000Q preamplifier, 8000M 125W mono amplifier, 8000P 100Wpc stereo amplifier, 8000CD CD player, or 8000S 60Wps integrated amplifier ("all priced under $1000, we hope"), but we <I>wanna</I>. They ship in March. We can't wait.

I don't enjoy feeling like an <a href="http://www.wordspy.com/words/ignoranus.asp">ignoranus</a&gt;, but that's exactly how I feel after spending a day at the Convention Center during CES. The word "hate" keeps coming to mind. As in: "I hate it." But I don't think I really hate it. As I told JI, during one of my many pouts, I'm sure the experience is good for something. I just don't know what it's good for.

I finally found a dog that doesn't make me sneeze.