CES 2018

RIVA Audio has a great back story. Like a terrific, rock-and-roll, party-all-night back story. And the company’s WAND (Wireless Audio Network Design) series of speakers have gotten solid reviews for terrific sound design. (But don’t take my word for it. Read Sound & Vision editor-in-chief Rob Sabin’s full WAND review here. ) However the initial WAND series was limited to just two products, the Arena and Festival. This is great if you wanted to scatter desktop speakers around your home, but not so great if you wanted to enjoy great sounding tunes using your own speakers. RIVA has heard your cries and come to your aid! Meet the CENTRAL!

Sennheiser has always been known for exceptional sound quality in their headphone lineup, and now they’re expanding into new territory with the new over-ear HD 820 with a closed-back design.

First off, don’t call this beautiful objet d’art an “umbrella.” God, no! ShadeCraft founder and CEO Armen Gharabegian stated, “We are to umbrellas as self-driving cars are to the horse and wagon.” This, dear readers, is an intelligent shading system robot designed to call to mind the elegant beauty of a sunflower as it gracefully traces and tracks the sun’s movement across the sky, keeping you shaded while enjoying the great outdoors and an adult beverage. But the Sunflower is also oh so much more!

Audio software experts from Sonarworks just announced a new app that eliminates the inaccurate coloration introduced by most consumer headphones to create a flat, “studio reference” sound from over 100 popular headphones.

Audio product news is sparse at Sony's booth for this CES, but the headliner at its press conference was a compact, 3.1-channel soundbar/wireless subwoofer combo that touts compatibility with Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks.

Sony’s premier video processor for 2018 may be the X1 Extreme, but there’s something even better in Sony’s lab.

CES, of course, is all about consumer electronics. And as you've probably noticed, today's cars are jam-packed with electronics. But that's nothing compared to what's coming down the road in the near future.