Thursday, May 5, 2005
All prices are quoted in euros unless otherwise noted.
1 €  is approximately 1.29 US dollars at time of report.

Sony's new STR-DA7100 audio/video receiver retails for 2500 € and is said to deliver 170 watts through seven channels. It features two HDMI inputs along with the requisite Dolby Digital Surround EX and DTS-ES processing modes, among others.

Sony also showed the 1600 € DVP-NS9100 DVD player, which supports SACD as well as CD and other music formats, but not DVD-Audio. Its video section features a 14-bit/216MHz video DAC along with an HDMI output.

Tannoy certainly hasn't forgotten its roots, showing a brand-new product with an old-school appearance. The mahogany-finished Kensington features the dual-concentric driver technology that the company is well known for (a 2" aluminum-alloy-dome tweeter and a 10" treated-paper-pulp cone woofer all in one). The Kensington, which is part of the Prestige range, retails for 10.000 € per pair.

Germany's Lindemann showed two brand-new components: the 6900 € 850 dual-mono power amplifier (on the bottom shelf of the rack) and the 5000 € 830 preamplifier (on the top shelf of the rack, and in the close-up). Because the products are very new, the company could supply no specifications. On the center shelf of the rack is the 6900 € 820 SACD player, which was on display last year at this show.

Linn showed some interesting new speakers for audio and home-theater use, all housed in aluminum cabinets. The Komponent speaker system features the 110 four-way floorstanding loudspeaker, which utilizes the company's 2K tweeter-midrange driver array. The 110 sells for 1800 € per pair. All of the Komponent speakers can be wall-mounted, including...

...the 120, which is one of the most interesting-looking powered subwoofers we've seen. The 120 features an 8" driver powered by a 170W amplifier and is priced at 1800 €. The Komponent line also includes the 106 center-channel speaker (800 € each) and 104 floorstanding speaker (800 € per pair), which can be used in front or rear.