CES 2008

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CES dedicated a hall to in-vehicle technology presenters, and many of them brought the wildest cars you've ever seen. These cars sprout LCDs, amps, and speakers on any and every available surface. We took a walk around to find the most outlandish, outrageous cars on display.

Click here for photos of show cars at 2008 CES.

The Chagall

(Credit: Loiminchay Audio)

While the mid-fi brands scramble to load on the latest techno gizmos and race to the bottom with ever cheaper prices and quality, high-end audio brands shoot for the moon. Take Loiminchay Audio, manufacturers of limited-edition speakers for well-heeled audiophiles are introducing their wares at CES in Las Vegas today.

The Loiminchay Audio speakers are artisan-crafted from sensually shaped layers of solid Birch MultiPly. The interior space of each speaker is machined out, the driver holes opened, and substantial bracing added, resulting in a tremendously non-resonant driver support structure. The speaker is then finished with sixteen coats of lacquer--Loiminchay's three models are named after great painters--Degas and Chagall and Kandinsky. The speakers are designed in New York by Loiminchay's owner Patrick Chu, and built in China.

The Chagall's cabinet mounts an 8-inch woofer in a 1-inch thick concrete board wrapped with high-quality leather to produce a remarkably rigid, non-resonant driver platform. The woofer's bass extends down to 28Hz, and the speaker's treble reaches up to a remarkable 50kHz with its optional diamond tweeter (yes real diamonds, chosen because diamonds are harder and therefore immune to the flexing of more common plastic and metal tweeter dome materials).

The Chagall is available on order in beautiful MultiClear lacquer finish at $35,000/pr, and in a piano lacquer finish for $40,000/pr. The Chagall equipped with the Diamond Tweeter is $48,500 in clear, and $53,500 in piano lacquer finish.

Just plug the speakers into an outlet and you're set to go.

(Credit: CNET)

Almost everyone who's into home theater loves surround sound, but even the staunchest audiophiles have to admit that the inevitable result--a room full of criss-crossing speaker cables--sours the deal. Just about every manufacturer is on a quest to kill the wires, but the solutions so far have had drawbacks--single speaker surround-sound systems just doesn't sound as good as a full 5.1 system; wireless rear speakers usually still have wires, exhibit an audible hiss or compression artifacts, and/or often use the interference-prone 2.4GHz wireless spectrum. Neosonik's solution avoids most of these pitfalls by using an AV controller (to which you plug in your sources) that wirelessly distributes the audio to all of the speakers, each of which contains a built-in amplifier and a wireless receiver. The wireless speakers need to be plugged into a power outlet, but the whole system looks a whole lot nicer than a standard wired installations.

Watch the Neosonik Wireless Home Theater video on CNET TV.

The Neosonik AV controller.

(Credit: CNET)

We couldn't get a clean shot of the back panel, but rest assured that there are six HDMI inputs.

(Credit: CNET)

Neosonik transmits its data in the 5Ghz spectrum, but does not use the same technology as traditional Wi-Fi. The proprietary wireless audio transmission technology is called as Airpower AV, which is tweaked to improve reliability and latency (Neosonik claims a very impressive 6 nanoseconds delay). In the future, Neosonik intends to license the Airpower technology to other manufacturers, with the idea that any Airpower-equipped device could be seamlessly integrated into your existed Airpower system.

Yes, even the sub can go wireless.

(Credit: CNET)

We stopped by Neosonik's suite for a demo and were not disappointed. While the two wireless stereo systems that were set up worked perfectly, we were most impressed by the full 5.1 home theater setup. All five speakers plus a subwoofer were connected wirelessly and they synced up perfectly--we didn't hear a single hiccup even when the room started to fill up with journalists. The idea of having your living room filled with speakers is never going to appeal to everyone, but eliminating the need to run speaker cable really make a difference in term of aesthetics.

On the video side, the system is capable of transmitting HD video, although not quite as cleanly as with audio. While the Neosonik system has enough bandwidth to transmit uncompressed audio, HD video is transcoded to h.264 in the receiver, presumably to lessen the bandwidth demands. Our quick demo of Corpse Bride on Blu-ray in 1080i didn't reveal any glaring flaws in term of video quality, but we can't imagine it will preserve all the detail of Blu-ray and HD DVD discs that videophiles have come to love.

The Neosonik technology is impressive--especially on the audio side--but our major skepticism is whether it will actually come out in 2008. We've written about Neosonik at CES in 2007 (and before in 2006), but we've yet to see the product actually hit the market. (Likewise, a similar wireless implementation from Avega Systems remains a no show in the consumer marketplace a full two years after its CES day in the sun.) Neosonik claims it is "taking reservations from retailers" for summer delivery--which at least sounds like a serious step in the right direction--but we'll believe it when we see it.

Polk Audio's SurroundBar 360

(Credit: Polk Audio)

Polk Audio has officially unveiled its first single-speaker all-in-one home theater system, the SurroundBar 360. The system is comprised of just two components--a single elongated speaker (44 inches wide) designed to sit beneath your flat-panel TV, and a DVD player/amplifier head unit that houses the electronics. While the SurroundBar concept isn't new for Polk (the speaker-only 2005 version was designed to be paired with an AV receiver), the latest iteration utilizes a new active (powered) design that's said to maximize the speaker's eight drivers. In addition to the disc player and AM/FM radio, the head unit offers all of the standard DVD player outputs (including HDMI). Input capabilities fall short of HD switching, but the 360's analog composite and S-Video inputs will be upconverted via the HDMI output. A USB input is also available for digital photo playback and music players.

Watch the Polk Audio Surround Bar 360 video on CNET TV.

We had the opportunity to hear an early version of the SurroundBar 360 put through its paces by company founder Matthew Polk himself. ... Read more

The Victoria EVO will retail for $5,400.

(Credit: Waterfall Audio)

If you're not supposed to cast stones at glass houses, it's probably not a good idea to throw them at glass speakers--especially when they cost $5,400 a pair. No word on whether these superslick towers are shatterproof, but we're glad to hear that the French company Waterfall Audio is introducing its line of glass loudspeakers to the American market at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show this week.

According to the press release, Waterfall will showcase its two flagship models, the Victoria EVO and Iguascu EVO, which are named for the "famous waterfalls in Africa and South America, respectively."

The release goes on to say that the "Victoria EVO and Iguascu EVO are slim, pure-glass towers standing 40 inches high but just 10 inches wide. The Victoria EVO, a three-way/four-driver design, includes Waterfall's proprietary, downfiring, 8.5-inch passive woofer, the Iguascu (34 inches tall by 10 inches wide) employs identical drivers (including the passive woofer) in a two-way/three-driver arrangement. Both models use a key Waterfall technology: the Acoustic Damping Tube (ADT), which performs near-total damping of mid- and low-frequency 'back-wave' artifacts, and precise damping control of midrange reflections, allowing the speakers to produce superbly accurate, high-end performance within their effectively undamped glass enclosures."

"The Waterfall designs also feature drivers designed and manufactured by French partner Atohm--the 6-inch bass/midrange unit in both the woofer and midrange (Victoria) positions. This custom-alloy-diaphragm driver achieves superbly low-distortion output with impressive dynamic range. The Atohm tweeter is a 3/4-inch silk-coated dome design capable of smooth, unobtrusive, yet remarkably extended treble. Ultra-linear crossover topologies grace both models, with best-grade components such as polypropylene capacitors employed throughout. The use of 'doubled' low-frequency drivers delivers enhanced power-handling, while the exclusive downfiring passive woofer, an exceptionally low-profile design effectively disguised within each speaker's base, extends useful low-bass output to well below 38 Hz (Victoria) and 48 Hz (Iguasçu)."

Waterfall says the speakers will be available by March 2008, with the Victoria Evo retailing for $5,400/pair and the Iguascu Evo $3,900/pair. Unfortunately, there's no mention of a center-channel speaker or I'd be all over this for my new surround sound setup.

BlueAnt SuperTooth 3

(Credit: BlueAnt)

BlueAnt, an Australian manufacturer of Bluetooth devices, came out with a couple of different Bluetooth speakers to display at CES 2008. The first is the SuperTooth 3 Bluetooth speakerphone, which looks like an update to BlueAnt's own SuperTooth Light from last year. Like the SuperTooth Light, the SuperTooth 3 works as a portable speakerphone that can be used at the desk as well as clipped on to a car's sun visor. It can pair up to eight different devices, and will hopefully last you about 15 hours.

BlueAnt M1 Stereo Speakers

(Credit: BlueAnt)

On the music front, BlueAnt also debuted the M1 Stereo Speakers, which features A2DP/stereo Bluetooth capabilities so that you can transmit streaming audio wirelessly via Bluetooth. It also has a 3.5mm audio jack for non-Bluetooth music players. Since it's a wireless speaker, it also has a rechargeable battery pack which has a rated battery life of up to 10 hours.

No pricing as of yet, but we'll get back to you about availability as soon as we hear about that.

[Source: Engadget Mobile]

JVC NX-PN7: His-and-hers iPod speaker

(Credit: JVC)

When it comes to iPod speakers, we thought we'd seen it all--models with vacuum tubes, 2.1 systems, ones that are totally tubular, and others that are as big as a microwave oven. But JVC's NX-PN7 is the first one we've seen with docks for two iPods. Despite doubling down on the music players, the unit is just 13 inches wide. In addition to being able to toggle between "iPod A" and "iPod B," the NX-PN7 features a clock, an auxiliary line-in, and a horizontal light beneath each iPod dock that can be set to any one of nine colors. It has a sleep timer, but apparently no alarm. If you're looking for a more traditional (single iPod) clock/radio, you'll want to opt for the JVC RA-P31--it sports dual alarms and is transportable (powered by six AA batteries when not plugged in). Look for the NX-PN7 ($150) and RA-P31 ($100) in April 2008.