Tom Norton

Funny, it looks a lot younger with the introduction of a new integrated amp, a CD/SACD player, DAC, and preamp. All of them are 2-channel only, of course. The first three are expected to come in at $10,000 or under when they appear in mid-2012. The preamp, however, will set you back $25,000. All four offer a full complement of digital inputs (including asynchronous USB). The preamp and integrated amp also have analog inputs. The player has external digital inputs, and both it and the DAC have volume controls and may be used as digital preamps for direct connection to your power amps.

Martin Logan was featuring its flagship electrostatic speakers, but also in attendance was this small, stand/bookshelf design that incorporates An AMT (Air Motion Transformer) tweeter--a technology developed by Oscar Heil in the 1970s and made popular, briefly, in a series of speakers from ESS. The demo was brief, but the sound very promising. The speakers will be available in February 2010, with models at $400 and $600 and a pair of floorstanders also are in the works. Here they were used with a pair of the currently available Dynamo 700 subwoofers (wireless, $695 each--there's also a larger $995 Dynamo 1000))

McIntosh announced its first video projector MDLP1 single-chip, 1080p DLP. Expected to sell in the mid $20,000's the new Mcintosh VP1000 video processor is recommended for use with it.

Another big theme this year is enhanced contrast, for which we have SED, Pioneer Kuro, LED backlighting with local dimming, and Home Theater mag to thank (OK, we're blowing our own horn here a little bit for continuing to make a big deal out of better blacks). Clearly, LG believers it is Mega-ready.