CES 2007

If you're not wandering the floors of Macworld, CES, the Detroit Auto Show or, for that matter, the neighborhood grocery store, you'll likely need some equipment of your own to virtually experience the spectacles in comfort. That's where Empower Technologies comes to the rescue with its iMedia Chair showcased this week on various displays this week.

Not only does this Barcalounger on steroids have a built-in 15-inch LCD, but it also boasts a THX-certified surround-sound system piped directly from your iPod controlled by a separate 3.5-inch touch screen, as BornRich points out. We also appreciate the … Read more

Creative Labs is delivering a wireless home audio solution for the Apple iPod in the form of two products: the Xdock Wireless and the X-Fi Wireless Receiver.

On the surface, the Xdock Wireless is an iPod dock with some better-than-average features, including composite and S-Video output (for photo and video playback on a TV) and optical digital audio output. The Xdock can output DTS surround sound to compatible A/V receivers (via the optical output) or utilize Creative's proprietary CMSS-3D virtual surround processing to deliver a surroundlike effect from stereo speakers or headphones. Moreover, Creative claims that its X-Fi … Read more

The big surprise at CES 2007 has been the dearth of major announcements about new home-audio products. Receivers with HDMI 1.3 and built-in decoding for next-gen lossless audio formats are nowhere to be seen. But at least one receiver has brought something new to the table: Pioneer's VSX-1017TXV is the first model we've seen that offers built-in compatibility with both XM and Sirius satellite radio services. (In fact, it's one of three receivers in Pioneer's 2007 line that offers the dual-satellite option.)

As evidenced by the model number, the 1017TXV is just an evolutionary upgrade … Read more

Klipsch has long been known for its excellent speakers, and now the company is branching out in a big way. Its new KlipschCast family of products promises to deliver a whole-house audio system that's wireless, expandable, iPod-friendly and easy to set up. One hopes they pull this off while retaining the top-notch audio quality we've come to expect from the Klipsch name.

The system is anchored by the CS-700, a 2.1-channel home-theater-in-a-box system, and the company's first HTIB. The CS-700 utilizes Dolby Virtual Speaker technology to deliver a surroundlike effect from its two speakers, which feature … Read more

There are a ton of iPod accessories on the market, but RCA didn't let that stop it from rolling out two new iPod speaker systems at CES. RCA announced, under the Acoustic Research brand, the blackVault 2.1 speaker system, which brings some analog warmth to your digital music by way of a vacuum tube amplifier. The all-black design--along with the exposed tube--is eye-catching, although it definitely will look best with a black iPod. Atop the subwoofer is the dock for the iPod, which--like most of the units we've seen--is capable of charging your iPod. There's also … Read more

Crave first spotted this one a few weeks ago, and now Intellitouch has announced its inexpensive, wireless "whole house" iPod speaker system.

The Eos system consists of an iPod dock/base station with integrated speakers and a subwoofer, and separate Wi-Fi speakers. The base station can transmit audio to as many as four wireless speakers; each speaker has a removable power supply so that you can mount it directly on a power outlet or place it on any surface like a bookshelf system. Intellitouch claims that in contrast to existing wireless speaker systems, its GigaWave technology can transmit … Read more

We heard about Philips' 1.1 virtual surround system, the HTS8100 SoundBar, before CES 2007, but now that we've got the final specs, we're even more eager to give it a whirl when it comes out around the middle of this year, for $999. What differentiates from the single-speaker competition (a subwoofer is also bundled in) is the inclusion of a built-in DVD player, which will catch the eye of minimalists who want to pair it with a flat-panel TV and call it a home-theater day.

The HTS8100 is only five inches thick and features Philips' proprietary Ambisound … Read more

Not to be left out of the ever-growing iPod accessory market, Sharp announced a new line of iPod speaker systems, the iElegance Music Systems. The product line consists of two models, each available in two colors: The DK-A1 and the step-up DK-A10 are white, and both are matched by otherwise identical black models, the DK-A1BK and the DK-A10BK.

Like all the other iPod systems we see, you'll be able to plug your iPod into the dock and play your digital music while also charging up. The boombox-like design makes it look like they'll be easy to cart around, … Read more

At CES 2007 today, Netgear announced the Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000), a media receiver that allows users to stream a wide variety of digital content to their entertainment systems, including HD movies, iTunes content (on Windows machines only), and even YouTube videos, as well as record television content like a digital video recorder. You can stream content from networked PCs, network-attached storage devices, and even locally connected USB media devices.

Connected to your home entertainment system and your network router, the Digital Entertainer HD sucks in all the multimedia content on your network--including photos, videos, and music--from multiple machines and … Read more