Premiere Design

Theta Digital is one of the most venerable companies in high-end audio, offering many well-regarded products over 25 years. Even more impressive, many of those products are still available after years of upgrades and refinements. Take, for example, the Casablanca preamp/processor, which was first introduced 15 years ago. Its latest incarnation, the Casablanca III HD, adds HDMI 1.4 I/O and the ability to decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

Last week, I profiled the first power amp from Marten, which was introduced at CES in January. This Swedish maker is otherwise known for its high-end speakers, including the new Coltrane 2 that was also unveiled this year in Vegas.

When you think about home-theater gear, what usually comes to mind are things like displays, source devices, processors, amplifiers, and speakers. But these are nothing more than very expensive boat anchors without AC power—and that power had better be clean if they are going to perform at their best. This is where PS Audio comes in with its new PerfectWave Power Plant 5 and 10 AC Power Regenerators.

Based in Berkeley, California, Magico made a splash at CES with its new Q3 speaker, which is a slightly scaled-down version of the well-established—and more expensive—Q5. But what makes the Q5 so special?

MBL has its fingers in just about every audiophile pie there is, from CD players and DACs to preamps and integrated amps to power amps and speakers to cables, racks, and speaker stands. In terms of source devices, the company's ne plus ultra is the 1621A CD transport and 1611F digital-to-analog converter (DAC).

One of the biggest audio sensations at CES wasn't a megabucks speaker—it was the Triton Two tower from GoldenEar Technology. The company was recently started by Sandy Gross and Don Givogue, who had been partners at Definitive Technology (Gross also co-founded Polk), to raise the bar on speaker performance and value. They seem to have hit a home run with the Triton Two, which is available in a stereo pair or as part of the TritonCinema multichannel system for a price that will surprise you.