The demo system I heard included an EMM XDS1 CD player, Pass X20 preamp, twin Pass 600.5 monoblocks, and Kimber cables throughout. Listening to Take 6 singing "I L-O-V-E U" from So Much 2 Say was astonishing in its clarity and definition of each sound in the dense mix.

Many booths have giant video walls, but only Sharp has a video room with three walls, floor, and ceiling of tiled LCD flat panels. It's easy to feel some vertigo when the image moves.

Samsung's gigantic 75-inch LED-backlit 3D LCD TV is a concept product, but the D8000 and D7000 with ultra-thin bezels can be yours this year as revealed by Product Training Manager Jermain Anderson.

While I'm in Vegas for CES, I always try to see one show with my friend Melinda DeNicola of the PR firm Detail in Design; this year, it was Blue Man Group at the Venetian. I'd seen the show some years ago at the Luxor, and it was loud, so I decided to see just how loud this time with my Larson Davis Model 700 SPL meter.

The RMS average sound level (technically called Leq) over the entire hour-and-a-half duration was 92.3dB (A-weighting, slow response), while the highest RMS maximum (technically called Lmax) within a 1-minute interval was 104.5dBA, and the highest instantaneous peak was a whopping 137.5dBA. The sound level exceeded 97.5dBA 10 percent of the time, 91.0dBA 33 percent of the time, and 82.5dBA 50 percent of the time. Fortunately, I had my custom-molded earplugs with me, which cut the levels reaching my ears by 25dB.