OTHER TECH

KEF

Reference 207/2 Stereo speakers November '07

Some people listen to sound, and some really listen to sound. If your hearing is in the italics category, then you understand that poor sound quality to an audiophile is like Kool-Aid to an oenophile: You'd rather just die of dehydration. Which brings us to the most impressive speakers I heard in all of 2007, the KEF 207/2 Reference series. I've always liked British speakers, and I've always liked KEFs, but the boys from Kent outdid themselves this time. At $20,000 a pair, I was expecting awesomely handsome sound. But I wasn't expecting that my breathing would get fast and shallow and my toes would curl. These speakers really are good enough to trigger physiological reactions, not to mention the warm, fuzzy feeling you get from basking in their luxuriously warm sound waves. In my review, I compared these KEFs to a Rolls Royce. Actually, I was wrong. These speakers are better than a Rolls. kef.com -Ken C. Pohlmann

MERIDIAN

G95 DVD surround receiver December '07

Plug-and-play home theater for the very well heeled. The "DVD receiver" concept might have been pretty well poisoned in the U.S. market by the innumerable cheesy home-theater-in-a-box systems stacked next to the over/under washer/dryers down at the big-box store. But to a rational mind, a high-end execution like Meridian's G95 ($8,495) makes enormous sense. Slim yet powerful (thanks to advanced Class D digital amplification) and intelligently exploiting the British firm's famed audio- and video-DSP chops, the G95 is an enormously elegant solution that delivers legitimately high-end home theater with matchless class. If I'd gotten an MBA (as if!) and gone to work on Wall Street instead of Broadway, I might very well own one today, and you can't say anything fairer than that. meridian-audio.com -Daniel Kumin

PARADIGM

Reference Signature Series Speaker system December '07

The Canadian maker's latest version of its long-running Paradigm Reference family includes this quintet of jewel-like compact speakers ($9,395). Dramatically curvy and beautifully finished, they sounded as good as they looked on both music and movies, with accurate, uncolored reproduction and dynamic power that was incongruous from so physically modest a suite. They also effortlessly delivered you-are-there chills from great surround-music productions. I was particularly enamored of the super-space-efficient DP1 dipole surrounds - and although the Signature Servo subwoofer is the very opposite of compact (what a beast!), it proved to be one of the best-performing subs we've tested. paradigm.com -Daniel Kumin