Audiophile Rob Smith stopped by to absorb some green dots by the record stacks.

Michael Alazard and pal.

Actually his birthday was yesterday, and fans left plenty of presents.

Erin Binal of Bicome finished his lecture on Thielnet by stripping off the front grillw on the small, two-way, IP-addressable, powered SCS4D loudspeaker. There are twin ports above and below the coaxial driver. With the grille on or off, the SCS4D is rated with a frequency response of 48Hz–20kHz, ±3dB. Pricing was not specified. And yes, those are WiFi antennae.

Thiel's press conference at the Sands Convention Center on Day One of the 2008 CES opened with a detailed critique of the complexities and challenge of installing a home theater system. Ekin Binal, Vice President, Product Development, of BICOM, an IT company partnering with THIEL to address these issues, spoke in detail about the complex, labor intensive, time-intensive, cost-intensive installation of multiple speakers and channels. Furthermore, updating such a home theater system is never simple nor convenient, nor is moving a system from an old house to a new house either simple or inexpensive. Because installation is custom work, there is no universal package a single manufacturer can create that can fit most domestic locations.

T.H.E. Show at the Alexis Park reminded us of the new Will Smith movie—the
infrastructure was intact, but there were few signs of life.

"Our Asian and Pacific clients were strongly requesting it," said Mark Levinson's Walter Schofield, VP of Sales and Marketing, "so we designed an amplifier in the older Mark Levinson tradition with external heats."

"Big," I said.

The striking Vivid Audio Giya G1 loudspeaker ($54,000/pair) is the work of acclaimed designer, Laurence Dickie, who is perhaps best known for the creation of B&W's famed <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2008/010908nautilus/">seashell-shaped Nautilus</a>.