Series 5

Is excess best? Krell's new Evolution components are strictly mono throughout. Shown are a pair of Evolution Two preamplifiers -- each is a two-chassis unit (separate power supply), and you need two for stereo listening. The price is $37,000 per pair.

Krell Evolution One amps are, again, monaural designs with separate power supplies, are said to be stable into any load and can deliver 450W into 8 ohms and 3600W into 1 ohm. The Ones are priced at $45,000 per pair, and both the One and Two use Krell's proprietary CAST connectivity.

Although the Evolution lineup is rather complex, we were impressed with the simplicity and elegance of the One's power meter.

Ayre Acoustics' C-5XE is a two-channel, audio-only universal player that was designed from the ground up for superior two-channel sound. It costs $5950.

A venerable name in audio equipment, Grommes-Hi Fi was relaunched, and its product line is growing. The new Phono 8 phono stage (left) and PHI-26 integrated/headphone amp look to offer very high value at their $995 list prices.

Italian audio company Mel Audio makes a huge number of products -- from analog to digital, from amplifiers to speakers, even interconnects, speaker cables and speaker stands. The system pictured above features a pair of Horama speakers ($5690 per pair), a Rechav II CD player ($3590), and a 21Wpc Casaq II integrated amplifier ($4150) and would fit nicely into many living rooms.

A close-up of the Mel Audio Rechav II CD player, which can be ordered in a number of automotive colors.

Another uniquely styled CD player is the Opera Consonance Droplet CDP-5.0, a fully balanced, tubed unit that has simulated droplets of water on its top -- "for damping," the distributor told us. The price is $3000.