Premiere Design

I don't typically cover so-called multimedia speakers in this blog, but when I came across an ad for the GLA-55 from <A href="http://www.harmankardon.com">Harman Kardon</A> in an upscale magazine, I was intrigued. The cabinet looks like it was chiseled from rock crystal, and its beauty turns out to extend well below the surface.

As you may have surmised by now, the Ultimate Gear blog is dedicated to A/V products that are extreme in terms of performance, design, and/or price. I normally try to find items that embody all three elements, but sometimes, one of them takes center stage. So it is with the PrestigeHD Signature Rose LCD TV from British luxury purveyor <A href="http://stuarthughes.com">Stuart Hughes</A>, which can be yours for only &#163;1.5 million, or about $2.2 million as of this writing.

As an A/V enthusiast, you might well be familiar with <A href="http://www.kaleidescape.com">Kaleidescape</A>, a California-based maker of high-end movie servers. <I>UAV</I> hasn't covered its products lately because we are dedicated to high def, and they have been limited to serving DVDs&#151;until now. The company today announced the introduction of full support for Blu-ray with its new M-Class architecture.

Audiophiles know well the name <A href="http://www.musicalfidelity.com">Musical Fidelity</A>, a high-end British manufacturer for more than 30 years. The self-proclaimed culmination of all that experience is the Titan 2-channel power amp.

I've written about line-array speakers in this blog several times, and for good reason&#151;tall stacks of drivers deliver smooth horizontal dispersion and sound levels that fall off more gradually than point-source speakers, creating a coherent, open soundstage. That's the idea behind the so-called iso-linear speakers from American maker <A href="http://www.scaena.com">Scaena</A>, whose name is Latin for "stage."

Ever since its founding in 1926, German speaker maker <A href="http://www.elac.com">Elac</A>&#151;short for Electroacustic&#151;has never been one to rest on its laurels. Its engineers continue to improve the company's already well-regarded speakers with refinements and innovations that push the performance envelope. Take, for example, the FS 609 CE, Elac's flagship tower speaker that packs a lot of advanced technology into a slender form factor.