CES 2009

JVC also showed a prototype of its first Blu-ray player, the XV-BD. A tentative release date of September 2008 was announced, but we would not be surprised if certain recent events made it so much sooner. It will be a Profile 1.1 machine (as all models launched from now on must be).

Is this really the world's thinnest television with a built-in tuner? According to JVC, it was as of January 6, 2008. That was the day before the start of CES! This design is 1.5" deep at the thinnest point, but 2.9" at the thickest. While that's svelte, it isn't the thinnest now, by a long shot, based on what has been shown at CES.

Here's "The Poetry," the upcoming center channel for the Vienna Acoustics' Klimt line.

The Phase Technology dARTS system isn't new, but it has never been reviewed in <I>UAV</I> and this is the first time I have been able to actually hear it. It was impressive&mdash;and one of the few surround-sound setups, with video, at the Venetian Hotel. The system includes speakers and all DSP and amplifiers. There are 250W of amplification for each individual driver, and the system controls the crossovers, time alignment, and equalization. Separate room eq is performed via the included Audyssey multEQ system. $20,000 for the audio package, not including pre-pro or source.

By itself, it's probably not accurate to call the PS Audio Memory Transport ($1695) a music server. Built around a Teac DVD ROM drive (though the unit is limited, at present, to music use with two-channel CDs) the Audio Transport can rip CDs at a variety of resolutions (including lossless compression). It has limited internal storage, however. Instead, it is designed to be connected via its Ethernet output and a home network (wired or wireless) to an external hard drive (or even solid-state flash drive) of the user's choice. The latter, which is often a noisy device, may be located in a remote location in the home, such as in a closet. (I don't know about you, but my closets have no AC outlets. But there are ways to fix that.)

My rounds at the high-end audio exhibits at the Venetian Hotel only let me sample a few rooms that looked interesting, or appeared to have some semblance of relevance to both music <I>and</I> home theater. But If I diverge a bit from the home theater tack in a one or two of the following entries, well, it's stuff I found interesting.