Walking through the circus that was WCES '95 was like undergoing total neural-synaptic overload. I felt hard-pressed to just keep my head above water separating good sound from bad. Trying to piece together a coherent picture of the show, I jotted down the components in the best systems that I'd heard, and a few items popped up with astonishing regularity. One of these was Audio Research's single-chassis CD player, the CD-1.

<I>A strange disguise; still, write it down,<BR>it might be read. Nothing's better left unsaid.</I>&mdash;Keith Reid

<I>A strange disguise; still, write it down,<BR>it might be read. Nothing's better left unsaid.</I>&mdash;Keith Reid

<I>A strange disguise; still, write it down,<BR>it might be read. Nothing's better left unsaid.</I>&mdash;Keith Reid

<I>A strange disguise; still, write it down,<BR>it might be read. Nothing's better left unsaid.</I>&mdash;Keith Reid

<I>A strange disguise; still, write it down,<BR>it might be read. Nothing's better left unsaid.</I>&mdash;Keith Reid

<I>A strange disguise; still, write it down,<BR>it might be read. Nothing's better left unsaid.</I>&mdash;Keith Reid

What, a high-fidelity product from Magnavox? The company that 20 years ago had a reputation for building massive, polished-console boom-boxes and was scornfully referred to in audiophile circles as "Maggotbox"? Some important things have happened to Magnavox since those days. Mainly, it became a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips company, co-developer of the laser video disc and now the audio Compact Disc. The Magnavox CD players are actually made by Philips for US distribution by Magnavox.