Darryl Wilkinson

Anthem’s new Statement M1 mono block Class D amplifier puts out a paltry 1,000 watts into 8 ohms and doubles that (2,000 watts) into 4 ohm loads. The Class D design allowed the Anthem engineers to jam all the amplifier circuitry into a chassis that’s only one rack unit high. To keep things cool, there’s a special heat pipe cooling system – no fans! – and multiple M1s can be rack mounted directly on top of one another. Ideally, you’ll have a dedicated 240V circuit for the M1s in your system; however, Anthem designed the amp to still be able to generate temporary outputs of up to 2400 watts even when connected to a 120V/15A line. Get one, or seven, for $3,500 each.

Griffin’s new smartphone universal remote control uses Bluetooth to send commands to an IR emitter that sits near your home theater system. As a result, the $69.99 Beacon doesn’t require the user to attach any dongles or special transmitters to the phone (something that makes other smartphone remotes a pain in the butt). The IR emitter is battery powered, so it can be placed wherever is most convenient without the need for running a power cable to it. Models are available for both iOS and Android smartphones.

There’s a bit of a buzz in the industry – okay, there’s a huge roar – about whether one HDMI cable is better than another. There’s certainly plenty of marketing gimmicks from some of the cable manufacturers that will be noted in the long history of snake oil selling. Out of courtesy (and to keep him from sending any more text messages), I made of visit to the Audioquest booth to see our old Editor, Shane Buettner. There, instead of the sickening scent of snake oil, Shane simply laid out the case for why there are performance differences in HDMI and USB cables from an audio standpoint. But hearing is believing, as they say, and so he finally stopped talking, handed over a set of headphones, and proceeded to play music from a CD through three different HDMI cables. Even in the ludicrous environment of the show floor, there were definitely differences in the sound quality of the audio being transported through the HDMI cable. Interesting stuff, and definitely something I’m going to look into a bit deeper.

Proclaiming that “the era of smartcookers” has arrived, Instant Pot displayed its new “iPot” – a programmable electric pressure cooker that the company calls “the Industry-First Bluetooth Smart Connected Smartcooker”, which is shown to the right in the photo above. (iPot is a much better - but easily misinterpreted – name for the kitchen appliance.) According to Instant Pot, rather than being a gimmick, Bluetooth was added because the product designers had run out of space on the smartcooker’s control panel to support all the programming features that have been requested by users of the other Instant Pot models. Instant Pot says, “Once the limiting factor of a control panel is removed, the “iPot” app can implement complex cooking functions, expand and upgrade those functions at will. This offers unparalleled simplicity, a huge variety of functions and most importantly a consistent result.” The iPot is expected to be available for sale in the US sometime in the second quarter of 2014. Pricing info was not released. Belkin is also joining the smartcooker revolution. The company announced it has partnered with Jarden Corporation, the maker of Crock-Pot and Mr. Coffee to incorporate Belkin’s WeMo technology into everyday kitchen appliances, such as the WeMo-enabled Crock-Pot Smart Slow Cooker shown on the left in the photo above, which is to released in the spring of 2014. The MSRP will be $99.99.