Talon Audio's newest speaker is the Raven, which closely resembles the company's top-of-the-line Khorus X but is a two-way design. The Raven sells for $6950 per pair in optional finishes like gloss black, $5950 in standard textured black.

Peter McGrath of Wilson audio used his laptop and Music Server software from Electronic System Consultants as a source during setup of a pair of MAXX speakers. The rectangular box to the right of the computer is a 100 gigabyte external hard drive that was tethered to the laptop via a FireWire connection.

Dahlquist's System 4 ($1650) embodies the company's system-building approach by including speakers that can be mixed and matched to create other home-theater systems. Left to right are the QX8 floorstanders, QX50C center-channel speaker, QX125S subwoofer, and QX4 minimonitors.

Another CES, another terrific-sounding Merlin/Joule Electra room. This year, a pair of Joule Electra VZN-100 Mk III monoblocks ($12,000/pair) in custom cabinets drove Merlin VSM-Millennium speakers in optional ruby heart clearcoat finish ($8150). Joule Electra also showed a brand-new preamp, the LAP-150, with onboard phono stage ($6775).

The Kirksaeter Silverline 60 ($698/pair) may be small, but its bass response will have you asking, "How do they do that?"

Lamm's new LP2 phono stage ($6690 in its Deluxe version) is surprisingly heavy due to a steel plate in the bottom of the chassis. Look for a SoundStage! review.

Legend Audio's new Moonlite preamp ($3250) matches the look of other recent Legend products and is also available in a number of finish schemes.

Silverline's portly Sinfonia speaker ($19,999/pair) has a rear-firing 12" woofer in addition to the one in front. The rosewood finish was impeccable.

Audio cables as industrial art: Stereovox interconnects (left, $2500/meter pair) and speaker cables ($6950/eight-foot pair) are new high-purity silver cables.

The large Swans F1 loudspeaker ($8299/pair) uses matched quads of drivers.

More fours. Symposium's Quantum isolation shelf ($1200-$1600 depending on size) has four double-isolated sections. We thought it perfect for analog, but its designer says it's "amazing with digital."

Falling into the "nightmare for digital photographers" category due to its abundance of highly polished chrome (which reflects carpet very well), the Audiopax Model Eighty-Eight SET mono amplifier ($9970/pair) shown here came with painted side panels that matched the Avantgarde Duo 2.2 speaker it was driving.

Gallo Acoustic's Dué ($599 each) comes with the small stand shown here as well as wall-mounting hardware, but the screen grille is optional.

Digital need not apply. Lloyd Walker of Walker Audio makes adjustment to his elaborate Proscenium Gold Reference turntable ($27,000), which is directly wired to his Reference Phono phono stage ($9000).

Also from Walker Audio comes the heavy Ultimate Valid point ($425/set of three with resonance-control discs). The weight of the component with which the Ultimate Valid Point is used dictates if either the single- or three-point end comes in contact with the component.

Blue Circle's CS integrated amp ($1150) was announced last week and made its debut at the CES. Its stainless-steel face plate and wooden knobs are Blue Circle aesthetic trademarks.

Harmonic Technology introduced new Harmony-Rainbow six-channel interconnects ($310/meter pair) as well as standard Harmony-Link interconnects ($79/pair) and Harmony-Wave speaker cables ($139/eight-foot biwire pair).

The Zingali HM112 horn-loaded/dynamic hybrid speaker ($13,900/pair) makes notable cosmetic use of wood and are a claimed 95dB sensitive.