LATEST ADDITIONS

We thought the tiny sat CDT showed at last year's CES sounded great, and after a year of further tweaking, it's shipping as the Sonapod. In a 5.1 set with any of various subwoofers, it might sell for anywhere from $900-2000. CDT also showed a small triangular sat that was like nothing else we've ever seen. Possible review material.

The Mordaunt-Short Mezzo line already included a tower, and the Mezzo 6 continues in the line, but now it has a big brother in the form of the Mezzo 8 ($2495/pair). The latter's a three-way with two 6.25-inch woofers, 5.25-inch mid, and one-inch aluminum tweeter mounted at the top of the enclosure. The excellent Alumni sat/sub line has another upsized model, shown -- the Alumni 8 ($1095/pair), a tall, slender speaker with four passive woofers, two active ones, and a tweeter. It complements the similar though not identical Alumni 3 center. Stand or wall mount, high gloss black or white with black grilles.

For the indecisive consumer, Pioneer just made your life a whole lot harder. The company unveiled a new lineup of A/V receivers at CES for every budget, need, and desire. As one of the first companies to deliver iPhone and iPod certification in its AVRs, Pioneer focused on the growing populace of iPhone and iPod users in its new group. The top new models (including the VSX-919AH and VSX-1019AH) employ this certification, and each one includes features that bring out the best in your iPhone or iPod. One of these new features includes a full color graphic user interface with album art and information. This way you’ll be able to see exactly what you are listening to.

By the way, iThing is my lonely protest against having to type both iPod and iPhone in blog after blog. The Marantz IS301 is a wireless Bluetooth dock package consisting of four pieces: dock, cradle, receiving station, and card remote. You can detach the wireless dock from the cradle, with your iThing in it, and wield them as though they were a remote control. The cradle is hardwired via dual CAT5 (one for audio, one for video) to the receiving station which has the usual jacks to connect to a receiver.