Series 1

Amphion continues to impress with new speakers, this time the top-of the-line Krypton ($16,500 per pair), which sounded detailed and delicate. The series of holes in the Krypton's cabinet are actually a sophisticated venting system that, according to Amphion, "leaks out-of-phase information, which creates a hypercartioid dispersion pattern."

Small and very powerful, the new Jeff Rowland Design Model 501 monoblocks ($6500 per pair) produce a very surprising 500W each.

Shunyata Research has created new Hydras for every application and budget, with two-, four-, and six-outlet versions now available. On top is the Hydra Model 6 ($995), with the Model-2 ($395) resting on top of the Model-4 ($595). All offer many of the Hydra Model-8's benefits at reduced prices. [www.shunyata.com]

Although not new, the 800W VTL Siegfried mono amps ($40,000 per pair) could not be missed, looking great in silver and sounding detailed and very powerful driving Wilson Audio MAXX speakers.

What is new is the VTL S-400 stereo amp ($20,000), which looks identical to a single Siegfried. The S-400 puts out 200Wpc from a dozen 6550C output tubes, all of which the amp biases automatically.

The gaming industry is booming, and Canada's API is poised to take advantage with its new Spherex Xbox 5.1 system ($499), which not only includes all speakers and amplification, but does Dolby Digital, DTS, and Pro Logic II decoding.