January 10, 2005 - Part 1

The "Hansen Composite Matrix" cabinet of HDX Audio's The King looks like a modern sculpture, but it is said to be "acoustically inert." The price of The King is a princely $50,000 per pair.

Shunyata Research's new Orion speaker cables ($4995 per eight-foot pair) and Antares interconnects ($1995 per meter pair) helped produce Standout sound in the Audio Research room. Both are new and joined by the Altair interconnect ($995 per meter pair). [www.shunyata.com]

The Audience adeptResponse power conditioner has a dozen individually filtered and isolated outlets. On its front panel is a magnetic breaker for turning it on and off and a voltage readout. The price is $3800. [www.audience-av.com]

How many zones do you have? B&K showed the new $1998 CT300 three-zone A/V receiver, which is based on the company's existing CT600 receiver.

Samsung unveiled its new flagship receiver, the AV-R3000, which is claimed to be the world's first all-digital A/V receiver and said to deliver 7 x 250Wpc. The AV-R3000 is THX Ultra2 certified and is priced at $5999.

Lite-On's slim $199 LVW-5007 DVD recorder is DVD+R/RW capable and has TV Guide's On Screen Electronic Program Guide (EPG) built in.

Single-speaker surround-sound systems are becoming more popular as sales of flat-panel TVs increase. Yamaha's YSP-1 is shown below the television monitor and is described as a "digital sound projector." It contains 40 1-3/8" full-range drivers and two 4-3/8" woofers, all driven by their own digital amplifiers. The YSP-1 is priced at $1300.