What is it with glass speaker enclosures? I've profiled several such speakers here, but I remain puzzled by this choice of cabinet material. Is glass really that much better than MDF, wood, carbon fiber, or other materials? Crystal Cable seems to think so—this Dutch high-end cable company recently got into the speaker business with the striking Arabesque.

The Moon brand from Canadian high-end stalwart Simaudio is well known among audiophiles, but I didn't realize that its premium Moon Evolution line also includes some multichannel home-theater products. Submitted for your consideration are the CP-8 preamp/processor, HDS-8 HDMI switcher, and MC-8 modular multichannel power amp.

In my never-ending quest for the best performing, most beautiful, and/or most expensive A/V gear, I recently happened upon the Signature Titan speaker from Moon Audio. Said to be the first in a series of "ultra-limited-edition functional-acoustic artworks," only three pairs will ever be made.

Among the myriad speakers introduced at CES 2010 was the Grand Master, the new flagship of Canadian maker Hansen Audio. A behemoth standing over six feet tall and weighing 650 pounds, it's packed with proprietary technology that promises exquisite sound.

When it comes to hotbeds of high-end audio, South Africa is not the first place that comes to mind. Yet this is the home of Vivid Audio, maker of beautifully curvaceous speakers, including the flagship Giya, which is available in two versions—the original G1 and the new, smaller G2 introduced at CES 2010.

North American distributor Aaudio Imports was quite busy at CES last January, introducing many audiophile products to the US market. Among them was the 882 integrated amplifier from German boutique maker Lindemann.

When I first heard about the flagship 069 CD player from German high-end manufacturer Burmester Audio, I was surprised to learn that it is belt driven. Of course, many LP turntables use belt drives, but I'd never heard of a CD player with such a mechanism, which is said to decouple the platter from the rest of the chassis, eliminating vibrations and allowing the data to be read with considerably higher precision and less jitter.