Most of Hitachi's current line was announced last spring and is already in the shops. But two new developments will find their way into new models this year. A new blinking backlight system, which will show up first in 37- and 32-inch models, is said to significantly clean up motion blur.

These sister companies may both operate under the Harman International banner, but they produce very different speakers. Nevertheless, both put on very good demonstrations in the Hilton Hotel near the convention center. Revel set up its new F52 ($8000) and C52 front and center speakers (together with M22s for surrounds and two B15 subs). The amps were the Mark Levinson No.431 for the rears and the 3-channel No.433 for the three fronts.

The pre-pro was the Levinson No.40, now updated with a very flexible video switcher (including HDMI) and video deinterlacing and scaling up to 1080i. And the disc player was the new Levinson No.51 at $18,500 (it's not a universal player). All the pieces are available now, excerpt for the No.51 (um, March). The sound in this room was strikingly life-like, and never edgy or more aggressive than the programming demanded.

In another suite, two JBL 1400 Arrays (from the new Project Array series) were making 2-channel music with a sound balance that suggested they might, together with the matching 880 Array center and smaller 800 Arrays (for surrounds) produce a full-bodied, dynamic sound for both music and films soundtracks. There's also a 1500 Array subwoofer. It's been too long since we tested a surround set of JBL speakers and these might just be the ones to break that drought. Specific prices for each model were not given, but they start at $3000 each.—TJN

Taking a break from speakers, I stopped in on Swedish manufacturer Bladelius. Designer Michael Bladelius worked on Threshold and Forte amps back in the early 1990s, and now has a complete line of amps, preamps, and home theater electronics bearing his name. They're beautifully done, all named after Norse legends, and all will induce sticker shock. The Grendel 5-channel power amp is priced at $9200. For that you get 350Wpc into 8 ohms and a switching power supply (a conventional supply will make the amp too heavy with that power output!). It's a modular design that may be configured many different ways (prices will vary with other configurations). The Enris pre-pro offers a front-panel widescreen display, HDMI switching, on-board video processing, balanced operation, and a price ranging from $15-$18K. It will ship in the spring.—TJN

Conrad-Johnson has two new home theater components to go with its current CAS200 6-channel preamp. The latter offers no processing, but instead relies on the Dolby Digital and DTS processing in most DVD players. To go with this, an updated universal DVD player will be available both from C-J and McCormack (essentially the same player, but with different face plates). It's an extensive updating of the previous McCormack player, using premium parts, and will be called the Conrad-Johnson Edition of the McCormack UDP-1. The price will be $3995. There will also be a MET150 multi-channel power amp ($8500) in the spring, with 150Wpc into 8 ohms and single ended triodes used for voltage gain, with solid-state output stages.—TJN

Genesis Advanced Technologies had two major new introductions, plus new subs. The Genesis 3 employs midrange/tweeter line arrays in a dipole configuration, together with an on-board subwoofer. But the new, small F7.1p ($2950-$3250/pair, depending on finish) might be more home-theater friendly. I heard them in a 2-channel configuration, along with the new S2/8 sub ($TBD), and they sounded very honest and neutral. And while they could be used with a Genesis center, they are small enough that they could work nicely in all channels. A bit pricey, perhaps, but Genesis speakers have never been low-end designs. —TJN

Finally, the Pioneer EX series speakers mentioned in my Day 1 report (below) were producing some of the best sounds at the show—at the Alexis or anywhere else. Thew demo here was 2-channel only, using the big S-7EX floor-stander. I found very little to criticize in what I heard, but hope to get the chance to review these speakers very soon in a full mulichannel array. I'm not convinced that Pioneer's decision to market these speakers under their own name is a wise one. US audiophiles have never made a beeline for Japanese speakers (though many of them are now listening to Chinese ones!!). But the speakers are actually a hybrid of Japanese manufacturing, British design (from speaker designer Andrew Jones, who also designed the up market TAD speakers that use similar but not identical drivers) and French (cabinet) styling. If you're in the market for a $9000 pair of speakers, or a surround package built around them, they definitely deserve a listen. I'll have more to say in an upcoming review. .—TJN