"Be careful what you wish for, or you just might get it."

"Be careful what you wish for, or you just might get it."

"Be careful what you wish for, or you just might get it."

"Be careful what you wish for, or you just might get it."

"Be careful what you wish for, or you just might get it."

"Be careful what you wish for, or you just might get it."

"Be careful what you wish for, or you just might get it."

Evolutionary. That's the word that comes to mind after strolling about the Alexis Park, home of Specialty Audio exhibits at the 2001 Consumer Electronics Show. The revolutionary stuff usually makes its debut at the Las Vegas Convention Center; here, in the high-end halls, we find manufacturers and designers more interested in perfecting existing technology.

The largest of six divisions of Royal Philips Electronics, <A HREF="http://www.philips.com/">Philips Consumer Electronics Mainstream</A> intends to push the audio industry in several directions this year, according to a presentation made by the division's CEO Guy Demuynck at a January 5 press conference in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Long a dominant force in research and development, as well as in marketing consumer electronics, Philips has great hopes for every segment of the audio market. 2000 was a record year for the company, Demuynck said, and 2001 should be very good as well.

I walked through my local Best Buy recently and didn't see one stereo receiver. Boomboxes, table radios, surround-sound gear, and computer speakers were everywhere. But the hi-fi staple of the 1960s and '70s&mdash;the plain-vanilla two-channel receiver&mdash;was not to be seen. Even if one or two were lurking there, the fact remains that high-quality two-channel audio is now so disconnected from consumer electronics that it's hardly at the "high end" of anything at all. It's a world unto itself.