As an A/V enthusiast, you might well be familiar with Kaleidescape, a California-based maker of high-end movie servers. UAV hasn't covered its products lately because we are dedicated to high def, and they have been limited to serving DVDs—until now. The company today announced the introduction of full support for Blu-ray with its new M-Class architecture.

It seems I spoke too soon. Last week, I profiled the Audio Note Gaku-On monoblock, calling it the most expensive power amp I know of on a per-watt basis, which was a true statement at the time. But as soon as I posted that profile, Cornelia Davis of Audio Federation informed me of another tube-based monoblock that, watt for watt, costs even more—the ML3 Signature from Brooklyn-based Lamm Industries.

Transducers—devices that convert one form of energy into another—are among the most mature technologies in the audio world. The most common musical transducers are microphones, which convert the mechanical energy of acoustic sound waves into electrical signals, and speakers, which do exactly the opposite. Both have been around for a century or so, and despite a few innovations and variations, they haven't changed much in all that time.

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.