Fred Manteghian

Denmark is home to Dynaudio, one of the world's finest speaker manufacturers. After beginning modestly as a maker of speaker drivers, Dynaudio rapidly gained accolades from OEMs and the international do-it-yourself speaker-building conspiracy. But don't let their industrial background mislead you. Dynaudio's Contour and Confidence speaker lines are among the most classically striking speakers in the market today: business and beauty bundled together, in a high-end showroom near you.

<I>Joe Messina, Robert White, Eddie Willis, guitar; Johnny Griffith, Joe Hunter, Earle Van Dyke, piano, organ; Bob Babbitt, James Jamerson, bass; Richard Allen, William Benjamin, Uriel Jones, drums; Jack Ashford, vibraphone; Eddie Brown, bongos; Bootsy Collins, Ben Harper, Chaka Khan, Gerald Levert, Me'Shell Ndeg&#233;Ocello, Joan Osborne, vocals. Directed by Paul Justman. Aspect ratio: 1.85 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1 EX, DTS 6.1 ES, Dolby Stereo 2.0. Two discs. 110 minutes. 2002. Artisan 13780. PG. $22.98.</I>

When I hear "Polk," I mentally add a vowel and think back on the happy Bavarians swirling around on Ed Sullivan's "really big shoe." As a kid, I always took that opportunity to run to the kitchen, fix a snack, and be back before the last oom-pah-pah had died away. I didn't want to miss any of the acts that really interested me&mdash;the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Topo Gigio, the Little Italian Mouse. Great bands, smart mouse, all heavy hitters&mdash;like the Polk LSi9 speaker. Don't let its under&ndash;16-inch height fool you. At 32 pounds, this very solid little box proved dense enough to live up to audiophile expectations. This is a serious speaker. As Seor Wences would say, "S'alright!"

In this case, Thiel isn't a color, it's a lack of color, and nothing impressed me so much during my time with these five Thiel CS1.6 speakers as their colorlessness. One color particularly notable by its absence is green, as in the minimal amount of greenbacks you'll have to peel off your roll&mdash;the CS1.6 is one of the more affordable floorstanding speakers in the Thiel line. For only $2390, you can get a pair finished on five sides in a wood veneer, like the beautiful natural-cherry ones I used for the front channels&mdash;or, if you want to save a cool grand on a quintet, the $1990/pair matte-black models I put in the rear are all the color you'll need.