OTHER TECH

Outa-Space

Besides the latest subscription numbers - over 6 million for XM, 3.3 million for Sirius - the big satellite-radio news at CES was portability.

SATELLITE TO GO-GO Subway commuters and frequent fliers rejoice: Coming on the heels of Sirius's ultra-cool S50 portable (see our review) were a bevy of XM-compatible portables.

•Samsung's Helix (shown at right) and Pioneer's Inno ($399 each, late spring) are the next generation of the XM2go concept. Both feature styling enhanced over the original 2go models, with color screens and smaller chassis. Along with receiving XM even when undocked, they can store up to 50 hours of programming and your own MP3/WMA tracks, ensuring you'll have great music wherever you go. •Samsung's neXus is touted as an XMp3 player. While it can't pick up XM unless it's in its receiver dock, the neXus (available by late spring) can hold up to 25 ($199) or 50 hours ($249) of XM broadcasts or MP3/WMA files.

SATELLITE SURROUND First the good news: In March, XM channels 76 ("Fine Tuning") and 113 ("XM Pops") began 5.1-channel broadcasts 24 hours a day. The new format, called XM HD Surround, is powered by technology from Neural Audio. Now the bad news: To experience the surround sound, you'll need a receiver with Neural Surround decoding. Yamaha, Denon, Pioneer, and Onkyo expect to have home models by summer.

SIRIUS didn't have a lot to say at the show, except to remind everyone that it's now the only way to experience Howard Stern (Channels 100 and 101) in all his unedited, FCC-free glory.

Other Audio News

MORE POWER TO YOU While several companies were touting the ability to network computers and stream data over your house's power lines, two well-known A/V companies demonstrated a couple of innovative ways to use power.

•Marantz revealed its ZR6001 digital surround receiver ($1,299, late spring), which uses what the company calls DAvED (Digital Audio via Electrical Distribution) to route audio and control signals around your house through existing power lines. Remote rooms can rock out by installing ZR4001 clients ($329 each, late spring). No additional connections are needed. •Monster Cable offered an exciting glimpse into the potential future of high-def video distribution with a prototype system for sending 1080i signals over power lines - and ironically, it doesn't involve any special cables at all. The potential for both Marantz and Monster's power-line distribution is, er, hmm, electrifying....

SURROUND SOUND VERSION HD All those high-def-loaded Blu-ray and HD DVD discs would feel naked without some new, souped-up audio formats to go with them. Fear not! DTS premiered DTS-HD Master Audio at CES. The impressive demo featured 7.1 discrete channels with 24-bit/192-kHz sound quality, bit-accurate to the original studio master, producing the best sound you've ever heard from a movie soundtrack. But if you're not happy with 5.1, 6.1, or even 7.1 channels, Dolby raised the "what if?" ante considerably with demos for its TruHD high-rez format, which featured 14-channel playback. Beyond the standard 7.1 channels, it uses six speakers to place sounds vertically.

SYSTEMS ALERT •Universal Electronics offshoot brand SimpleDevices showed a cool system called SimpleWare. Beyond organizing and managing your digital media and moving it around the house, SimpleWare uses Wi-Fi to automatically sync up your car system with your PC when you come home at night, making sure the tunes never stop on your commute. SimpleWare plans to embed its software in home and car gear from a variety of companies. Products should begin appearing early next year. •If you've been clamoring for a way to integrate the killer Sonos Digital Music System into your existing rig, your prayers have been answered! The ZonePlayer ZP80 ($349, shown at left) gives you all of the great features of the ZP100 - winner of a 2005 S&V Editors' Choice Award - but provides analog and digital outputs to connect to your surround receiver.