I didn't spend a lot of time at the show scoping out in-wall speakers. Yes, they're big in the custom installation market, but don't really get an audiophile's juices flowing. I discussed this with one manufacturer of premium high-end speakers, who is pondering his first in-wall designs. The problem, he said, is not designing them, it's simply getting excited enough about them to actually sit down and do it.

Samsung's new SP-A800 1080p projector, (under $10,000, available Q4 2007), was being demonstrated by video expert Joe Kane, who was heavily involved with Samsung in its development. It exhibited technically flawless color, crisp but natural detail across the entire screen, outstanding optics (I didn't sit close enough to judge for color fringing, but Joe said that superior optics to eliminate this aberration were a key element in the design), and excellent brightness on a 10-foot screen (a new Stewart Studiotek 130) screen using that company's new, fine-trained screen finish optimized for 1080p projection. It also has an iris with Light, Middle, Deep, and Auto settings (no word on how or how well the Auto iris function works, and Joe used the Middle and Light settings for the demo).

Sharp is a progressive company and, while they might not categorize themselves as Heroes, their 3.2 $B expansion in Sakai City (Osaka) is designed not just for making energy saving LCDs, but also for expanding production of energy producing solar cells. TFT LCDs and thin-film solar cells depend on the same thin-film technology so improvements in LCD production will trickle over solar cell development as well.

Ron Phone was deep in discussion when I wandered by and I didn't disturb as I was in a rush too, but I did snap this picture of their pre/pro. I've had great things to say about Sherbourn amps in the past but was disappointed when I saw this pre/pro had no HDMI switching on back. Good thing I checked their website. The PT-7010A will have a separate HDMI switcher, controlled by the processor via an RS-232 port, for, hopefully seamless operation.