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Don't have time to catch up with Jack Bauer and every episode of 24? Ever wish you could take all of the programs locked away on your cable company's DVR with you on the road? Now you can with Panasonic and Comcast's new co-branded AnyPlayT...

For one of my last demos of CES2008, I stopped by the Definitive Technology room in the Venetian. There, in addition to showing off the newest Mythos ST speakers, they were putting on demos of the company’s new Solo Surround Array speakers. The SSAs join the growing number of single speaker simul-surround thingees that reduce the multiple speakers of the traditional surround system to one slim one. Of all the slender systems I’ve heard, the Definitive SSA-50 is by far the most impressive, the most surrounding, and the most amazing. Regardless of whether I was standing in the back of the room or in the middle of the room’s “sweet spot”, the effect was stunningly immersive. It certainly won’t replace a full-blown 5.1-channel system, but for the rear-speaker challenged, wire-averse, or stubbornly dcor-driven, this is a single-speaker solution that will make you sit up and listen.

TAD has a new Compact Monitor under development, and while it's still a year or so away from commercial availability, it was on demo at this year's CES. Driven by prototypes of new TAD class A monoblock amplifiers (150Wpc into 8 ohms, 600WPC into 2 ohms), it sounded sensational, with the apparent ability to convincingly replicate the weight and power of a full symphony orchestra, an ability that escapes most loudspeakers.

Thiel's Dawn Cloyd shows off the back panel of one of the powered, wireless Thiel SCS4D speakers that will be the backbone of the THIELnet system.