CEDIA 2013

Russound knows what people want most at a convention: coffee and sugar. In this case, the sugar was in the form of ice cream and sugar-laden toppings. Thanks, Russound. I’ll be back…

I can’t help it. I’m a sucker for a good star ceiling, so it’s not surprising that I had to stop at the Epic Sky Technology booth for a quick chat. Epic Sky Technology specializes in lighting control systems with proprietary controllers that can integrate lights – and especially the company’s pre-built and DIY star ceiling panels – with music or soundtracks. On demo was a star ceiling panel programmed to turn various LEDs in the panel on and off in conjunction with an audio recording of a thunderstorm. An LED strip behind the panel also flashed in time with the sound of thunder. Pricing varies by panel size and number of LEDs installed.

Olympica is a new speaker line from Sonus Faber, whose speakers have always been luxurious in both build and looks. A 1.1-inch silk dome tweeter and six-inch paper-composite woofer are built into a curved enclosure that is asymmetrical and built in mirror-imaged pairs. This allows the slot ports, located toward the rear of the side panels, to interact with the room in different ways, so if you audition these, you'll want to experiment with positioning, facing the port inward or outward. Available in light walnut and dark graphite veneer finishes, these were easily the most beautiful products we've seen on the first day of CEDIA 2013, and we suspect we won't see anything finer. Pricing is $6500/pair, shipping now. A matching center model is also available.

In the past, we've found Phase Technology's three-channel passive soundbars quite persuasive, so we happily greeted the new TeatroTSB3.0. Here's the cool part: Spatial Field Expander drivers at the sides of the extruded aluminum bar push the left and right channels outward for a most un-bar-like, room-filling effect. Each of the three channels gets a classic Phase Tech 0.75-inch soft dome tweeter (this is the company that invented soft dome tweeters) plus a couple of polypropylene woofers; the SFE side drivers are one-inch aluminum domes. Shipping in late fall, price n/a. Phase Tech also showed the SB60 CA (Classic Audiophile) monitor to honor its 60th anniversary. Ken Hecht, son of the late founder Bill Hecht, remains actively involved in the company.

Paradigm has refreshed its world-beating Millennia CT sat/sub system as the CT 2. It still has the same one-inch tweeter and four-inch woofer, both S-PAL, the company's satin-anodized aluminum, with an eight-inch driver built into the flat-form-factor sub. The new elements are in the control module and they include Dolby Digital decoding and Buetooth with aptX. Current CT owners should check out the upgrade. Price for CT 2 is $849, shipping first quarter of 2014. Paradigm has also added a Soundtrack II to the existing Soundtrack soundbar. The new one has 2.1 channels, two one-inch S-PAL tweeters, two four-inch woofers, two 4.5-inch passive radiators, wireless sub, Bluetooth/aptX, and will sell for $899. Also new is a Soundscape soundbar designed to go with TVs 60 inches and up. This 5.0-channel bar (sub extra) has three tweeters, each mated with a midbass driver, except for the center tweeter which gets two. Each of the seven drivers is powered by 25 watts. Dolby Digital, DTS, and Bluetooth/aptX are included. Price is $1499. Both bars will ship in the first quarter of 2014.

Sony’s 4K UHD Media Player (FMP-X1), together with the Sony Xperia Z Tablet controller, are available for use with Sony’s 4K home theater projectors.

Sony’s VPL-HW55ES HD 3D SXRD projector is the follow-on to 2012’s VPL-HW50ES. It offers a claimed dynamic contrast ratio of 120,000:1 (using Sony’s dynamic, Advanced Iris 3), an advanced cooling system, a stated lamp life of approximately 5,000 hours, and a peak brightness of 1,700 ANSI lumens. It will be available in October at $4000.