Mark Fleischmann

Can't decide what finish you want in an RBH speaker? This demo unit should help.

You hire a marketing firm and what happens? They decided to rechristen your cool wired/wireless music networking scheme with a word containing a diaeresis (look it up). But then, they also come up with cool ideas like festooning your demo room with LP covers. Signal sources included both a turntable and a Blu-ray player. It was tasty. Look for Zöet in 2009.

"Disappearing in-walls" is the concept behind a new Def Tech architectural speaker line. These in-walls install without much fuss or spackling. Small diameters, hidden flanges, and low-profile micro-perf grilles make them nearly invisible. Pivoting aluminum tweeters make them versatile. Woofers range in size from 3.5 to 6.5 inch and pricing starts at $179 per speaker.

Sony shattered the quasi-content-free tradition of pre-CEDIA press events with an awesome exhibition of exhibitionist tendencies. The Bravia Internet Link will host the premiere of the blockbuster Sony Pictures film Hancock with Will Smith and Charlize Theron. The Blu-ray release of same will have Digital Copy. Wait, there's more. Sony attacks lazy liquid crystals with 240Hz Motionflow, which quadruples the refresh rate and interpolates three new frames. Blu-ray has gone from 18 to 32 manufacturers in a year, including Sony of course, which will bow the BDP-S5000ES (pictured) in November for $2000. It has an HD Reality Processor that selectively enhances sharpness in areas of the picture that need it -- not unlike what Toshiba is doing. With rigid frame & beam construction and isolated circuits, this will be the Blu player to beat. Oh, and when the floor opens tomorrow, Sony will be showing a prototype of a 400-disc BD mega-changer to make its debut in 2009. Two new ES receivers will have Faroudja video processing. SACD not dead, judging from intro of XA5400ES player. Huff, puff. If other manufacturers have this much news, I'll be dead by the end of the show.