Another ask-the-editors session, this one about improving your home theater, was full of sage advice and even a few pretty good one-liners. We made it through almost 40 minutes of give and take until someone asked us which high definition disc format was better, Blu-ray or HD-DVD. Bottom line, we're not sure. The only thing about which we all agree, however, is that this format war stinks for everybody.

UAV's Fred Manteghian and Shane Buettner hard at work searching for video far and wide.

At the Classic press event, Michael Fremer correctly identified "Leeds" as the venue where the jam from the side long version of "My Generation," from the album "Live at Leeds" was played thus winning the test pressing. There was one guy from Italy there that might not have been able to guess that. However, Michael managed to guess before the needle hit the mystery groove. A clear case of "I can name that tune in no notes" if I ever saw one.

Hyperion (not to be confused with Aperion) may be a small speaker manufacturer, but expect to hear more from them and about them in the future if their new HPS-968 speakers are any indication of what they're up to. Yes, like most exhibitors at the show, they were demonstrating 2-channel only, and with 35W monoblock tube amps to boot. (I didn't catch the amp brand, but wasn't looking closely at amplifiers at the show). Judging speakers with tube amps if you plan on using them with solid state can be dicey. Apart from any inherent sonic signature the amp may have, the output impedance of many tube designs often interacts with the impedance of a speaker to produce very real frequency response deviations that can be both measured and heard. That's fine if you plan on using tube amps with the speakers (even more appropriate if you plan to use the same tube amp you listened to in the audition), but solid state amps are generally far more neutral in the way they interact with speakers. That's why if I'm auditioning speakers at a show, I prefer that they be driven by a good solid-state amp. Nevertheless, the Hyperion HPS-968s sounded wonderful—in my opinion one of the best sounds at the show. And yes, Hyperion does make both a center channel and smaller models, the latter suitable for use as surrounds.

He's not so scary in a pashmina, is he.

Jacob George has built the Rethm horn loaded speaker for the purist. A single driver system with no crossovers whatsoever. The speaker itself has a sort of wheezer device that almost looks like the tail of a badminton, but the fact that he was getting full range sound out of a single speaker was impressive enough. The speaker is available in two models, with ($9,500/pr) or without ($7,500) the extension (shown) that drops the speaker's low end from about 50 Hz to 38 Hz. It does make you rethink where you're going to put the TV though. With extension careening off the back end, this isn't designed for those living the i-Life.

The folks from, Classic Records did announce new LP releases, as described by FM below. But they also announced the release of six new, audio only, 24-bit/96kHz DVDs (they call them HDADs). Playable on most DVD machines, these classical recordings originate from the old Everest label and were originally recorded on 35mm magnetic film. The photo shows the LP of one of them, but the cover art on the HDADs (which will be available this summer) should be the same. The kicker here is that the original recordings were 3-channel (left, right, center) and the same three discrete channels will be recorded on the discs. (RCA has provided enthusiasts with a similar service in their SACD releases of classic 3-channel recordings.)