LATEST ADDITIONS

We spent almost all of today proofreading the April 2008 edition of "Recommended Components." One day of proofreading, however, is not enough.

On February 5, <I>This Week in Consumer Electronics</I> announced that Polk Audio had announced plans to sell its I-Sonic ES2 iPod docking tabletop hi-fi ($499) and miDock Studio portable iPod speaker through the Apple website and freestanding store network. This came less than a week after Polk announced that Best Buy would carry its TSi loudspeakers, PSW powered subwoofers, select RM series drive-units and, of course, the SurroundBar 360 DVD Theater (all of which are currently available from the rival Circuit City chain).

Recently, I assessed four disparate room-correction systems based on digital signal processing (DSP): Copland DRC205, Lyngdorf Audio RoomPerfect, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/1105mitr">Velodyne SMS-1</A>, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/706mitr">Meridian DRC</A>. I concluded that Meridian's approach&mdash;which applies IIR (Infinite Impulse Response) "anti-resonance" filters to suppress room resonant modes, if only partially&mdash;was, in many respects, the best. What I particularly like about Meridian DRC is that, unlike the Copland and Lyngdorf processors, its approach to system tonal balance is largely hands-off. Yes, it lightens up the extreme bass a little, as you'd expect, but it doesn't recast the system balance in any way that might prove undesirable. If you like your system's tonal character as it is, Meridian DRC behaves just as you'd want a room-correction system to behave: it quells room resonance effects while leaving the system's essential sound well alone.

Omar and I left my apartment and stepped into the chilly night air, on our way to Binny's Liquors.

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When I arranged to review the Bryston 28B-SST monoblock power amplifier, I wanted to be certain that the 1kW amplifier wouldn't be starved for current. Bryston advised me that Plitron, who manufacture the 28B-SST's toroidal transformer, also make Power Isolation Units (PIUs), under the brand name Torus Power. Torus explained that its PIUs combine surge suppression with massive toroidal transformers to provide AC power conditioning and protection from voltage surges.

I had planned to feature a few intriguing new products I saw at CEDIA's Expo 2007 held last September in Denver, but I did that on the <I>Stereophile</I> <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/cedia2007">website</A&gt;. Instead, I'll just tell you about the only big audio trend I saw there: HDMI.