Mark Fleischmann

At CES 2008, THX began talking about Media Director, a program that would get hardware and software to talk to one another via metadata, automatically running movies with the right audio and video parameters. THX is now assembling a database of 1000 popular movie titles, codenamed Aardvark, to assemble the metadata needed for each piece of content. And it's now using the HDMI Infoframe Analyzer, shown here, to test audio and video devices to ensure that they shake hands and exchange metadata with one another, sort of like digital beings swapping business cards in a bar.

Yamaha probably doesn't get enough credit as a speaker manufacturer, so let's start with the new NS-700 line with their gleaming black gloss enclosures. I especially like the truncated-pyramid shape of the 300-watt NS-SW700 sub ($800). Other models include a tower ($800/each), monitor ($400/each), and center ($500/each). All have aluminum tweeters and PMD woofers. Sometime I'll have to get Yamaha to tell me what PMD is. Of course Yamaha is also a major power in receivers. New ones include the second from top-line RX-Z7, with 140 watts times seven, Anchor Bay video processing, and web browser for $2700. There's an RX-V3900 with the same power spec and fewer features ($1900), though like its higher-priced sibling, it is Sirius/XM-ready, and boasts both internet radio and free digital over-the-air HD Radio reception. Another notable feature is a new HD-savvy GUI that I'd really like to have a look at -- Yamaha has been stuck in 1980s-style monochrome graphics for too long. There's an RX-V1900 with 130 watts times seven ($1400) and more modest feature set. Yamaha also showed the YAS-71, a 2.1-channel soundbar with 70 watts times two plus a further 70 watts for the sub channel.

In-wall models have always been thick on the ground at CEDIA and in recent years good ones have proliferated. Among the best I heard at this show were Totem Acoustic's Tribe In-wall LCR. Even amid the noise of the show floor, it immediately began communicating musically with a sonic signature that should be very familiar to Totem fans. Bass was strong, dynamics good. Price is $995/each. Totem also showed and demoed the Tribe In-Ceiling, with its dual angled baffles, and considering the acoustic challenges facing any in-ceiling model, it sounded almost equally good. Both have multiple woofers, passive radiators, magnetic grille, back box, anodized aluminum front frame, and biwire terminals.

Oops, Paradigm has done it again. The original Reference Series Studio 20 was a simple rectangular solid. In version 4 it acquired a curved tweeter-on-top portion. And at CEDIA, Paradigm showed yet another new version with side curves. The former vinyl wrap has also given way to wood veneers. As a user of two generations of Studio 20s, including the now-outgoing one, I'm more than interested in this. How amazing that it should happen in the same show where Rotel updated my reference receiver. The new Studio 20 ships in January, pricing to be determined.