LATEST ADDITIONS

By now, LCD technology has all but taken over the small-screen TV category. You can still buy a small traditional tube set, but most folks looking for a TV to stick in a bedroom or kids' play area will find LCD more appealing. The main reason, of course, is the space-saving flat-panel screen.

The Lure Nightclub at the Wynn Las Vegas was the scene of our Editors' Choice Awards on January 5 at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Among the highlights:

<B>Vidikron Vision Model 90</B>
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The first trade show I covered as an A/V Journalist was a CEDIA expo many years ago. The jaw-dropping, three-dimensional images I saw from 720p HD clips on the Vidikron Vision One 9" CRT projector are still among the best these eyes have ever seen. A lot has changed since then. Vidikron is not only out of the CRT business, the company was out of business entirely until being acquired by Runco International in 2002. As a Runco brand, Vidikron has released a steady stream of digital projection products, the latest of which is the Vision Model 90.

The concept of "investing" in a rapidly depreciating commodity strikes me as patently stupid. Just look at EBay and Audiomart. They are chockablock full of yesterday's stratospherically priced audio components now available for ten cents on the dollar. I believe the best values in audio or video components come from companies that refine bleeding-edge, hyper-expensive technology into attractively priced products.