LATEST ADDITIONS

In addition to showing the Nanosat Prestige, which uses Mirage's familiar spoon-shaped device to emphasize reflected sound, the brand also showed three new subs including the Prestige S8. The strategy is less acoustic output for the surround and more for the shiny eight-inch woven-fiberglass cone. There's a wet-sanded high-gloss lacquer enclosure outside and 400 watts inside. Look for it in late November.

The new speaker lines from Mordaunt-Short include the Alumni, shown, with compact satellites, a fairly big center, and sub for $1000. Also new is the larger Mezzo, a step down from the Reference Series, with tweeter top-mounted in separate subenclosure.

The Tannoy Ellipse is part of the Studio Monitor range. Long available in versions with eight- or ten-inch woofers for $4000-8000, this egg-like speaker's dual concentric drivers and top-mount super-tweeters are common fixtures in recording studios, we're told. It's been available for years but is new to us, and we like to make every CEDIA a voyage of discovery. What is in fact new is the i30 iPod docking system, not pictured, because we're perverse that way. It has two 4-inch drivers and will be out in October for $499. Worth it? We'd like to find out.

The Clark Synthesis Stringless Quartet actually had sound coming out of a stringless violin, viola, cello, and bass. There were voice coils in back making the instruments resonate like magnificent speaker drivers. Unfortunately it was an attention-getting tactic for a more prosaic seat-activating product.