LATEST ADDITIONS

The brand new Vision Media Management from Escient plays and imports movies, videos, music, and photos for a complete home entertainment networking system. There are two versions of an all-in-one server/player. The Model VS-100 provides dual 500GB drives, while the VS-200 is outfitted with dual 1TB drives. The VC-1 is a high-performance networked audio/video zone player that streams both audio and video from either Vision servers, allowing playback of music, movies, and photos to any room of the home. All feature HDMI 1.3 support and upscaling to 1080p to ensure the best possible image quality from any source.

For those flat panel owners who want improved sound over the built-in speakers, Boston's Tvee Soundbar provides exceptional 2-channel audio in a slim footprint speaker that mounts on the wall under a TV or rests on top of an entertainment center. A wireless subwoofer comes with the package and all are sold for $399.99. The Soundbar is available in Boston's new P.O.P. colors.

In the wake of a declining market for traditional box speakers, Boston Acoustics has reinvented themselves with a new style [and logo]. Know as the Personal Options Plan or P.O.P. for short, all their new speakers are made of molded plastic exteriors. However, when you rap on the sides or pick up the speaker you become aware that this is just for aesthetics. Inside is the same Boston engineering with a rigid wooden baffle.

Totem Acoustics was demonstrating a speaker they call The One. Its a limited anniversary edition of the first speaker they ever manufactured. Sans a subwoofer, these diminutive $3995 (pr) speakers were extremely impressive, outperforming, to my ears, some of the behemoth tower speakers [with five and six figure price tags] that were being demonstrated by other manufacturers at the Venetian.