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MartinLogan showed some enticing and very reasonably-priced two-ways with real electrostatic drivers. The Purity (left) and the Source (right) are similar in size and appearance (at least so far as the electrostatic elements are concerned), but differ significantly. The Source ($2000/pair) uses an 8” woofer and has a wedge-shaped base that allows you to tilt the entire speaker to suit the needed vertical listening angle. The Purity ($3000/pair) has a pair of 6.5” woofers and a 200W digital amp, which permits it to be driven by a CD player or preamp or, even, by an MP3 player.

All of us have excuses for why we cannot acoustically treat our rooms but a lot of the underlying reason is that many are not convinced that they should make the physical or financial effort. I’ve discovered what I think of as training wheels for room acoustics. Tom Gorzelski of mytheater acoustic panel showed me his simple and inexpensive kits; these are enough to get anyone started. The panels are only 1" thick and, with their polyester filling, light enough to hang with a single nail. Don't expect them to work into the bass, therefore, but Tom acknowledges that they are most effective at 1–2kHz. Also, they come in packages of four 24x40 panels ($120) or two 24x24 panels ($45) because you cannot expect just one to make a difference. Still, hanging a 4pack of the bigger panels should reduce reflections if placed at ear level and, especially, at the first reflection points on the side-walls. It's likely you'll like it enough, perhaps, to do even more.

Furman's Reference line of power conditioners are handsomely packaged and feature packed. The $1499 20A SPR-20i Stable Power Regulator has linear filtering technology, multi-stage power surge suppression, extreme voltage shutdown, a detachable module for telco surge suppression, as well as three pairs of HD ready cable/satellite TVSS isolated F-connectors.

MIT's Bruce Brisson was determined to shrink his Multipole technology so that his patented networks did not requite bulky boxes near their cables' termination. Naturally, he thought surface-mount components were the way to go. That was until he began measuring them and discovered that SM components were variable and many didn't measure well.

Similar to the MPC line level terminations are MIT's Multipole In-Wall termination systems, shown here by Kent Loughlin. The five-way binding posts fit into an ordinary on-wall quad box and come in three configurations: 11 pole, 15 pole, and 21 pole network. No soldering required.

Canton's Frank Göbl is a busy little beaver. He wondered what it would be like to put the components of Canton's successful Ergo line into new specially designed cabinets that could bring the prices down by 30%. "Cost efficiencies have enabled us to do this without sacrificing sound quality or beauty," said Canto USA president Paul Madsen.

Canton's chief designer Frank G&#246;bl proclaimed the new, improved Vento line "better&mdash;not a <I>lot</I> better, but significantly." What's new and improved?