New Products

It's no secret that we're big fans of Oppo's line of universal players; in fact, we suggested last year that the company's BDP-93 would likely be the last disc player you'd ever need to buy.

Well, we were wrong. The just-announced BDP-103 ($499) and BDP-105 ($1,199) replace the BDP-93 and 95, and add enough new features to the enticing Oppo package that we just might have to rethink our position.

Having previously been pretty impressed by Parrot's Philippe Starck–designed headphone, the Zik, I figured the latest update to the Zikmu tower dock line might have a little more to offer than looks.

At this coming weekend's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, Legacy Audio will be rolling out their latest tower, the Aeris, an all-new four-way configuration. Prices start at $15,900, in your choice of Legacy finshes.

Danish manufacturer Jamo's been making a splash with the spherical speakers we saw back at the 2012 CES, and this week they've announced a pair of 5.0 setups in the appropriately named 360 Series, based around their unique architecture: the S 25 HCS ($649.99), including five of the company's S 25 speakers, and the S 35 HCS ($999.99), which groups four of the larger S 35 units with a C 35 center channel.

Our main take-away from the 2013 CES was that this is going to be the year when OLED and 4K-rez “Ultra HD” TVs finally arrive. And by “arrive” I mean sitting in the store, waiting for you to buy ‘em. While this development is no doubt promising, you can also count on the advanced sets scheduled to hit stores later this year being expensive.

Monitor Audio have covered most of the speaker bases, from traditional towers and surround setups to miniscule desktop companions and docks, so it's no surprise that they've decided to enter the burgeoning wireless audio arena.

Samsung’s product preview event, held on Wednesday 3/20 at NYC’s American Museum of Finance (who knew such a place existed?) was notable on two counts. First, the company announced a price for its 85-inch UN85S9 Ultra HD TV — the cover star of Sound&Vision’s April/May print issue. Second, it had another cover star, SI swimsuit model Kate Upton (fully clothed), along with Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning on hand to say how much they dig the company’s 2013 Smart Hub interface.