OTHER TECH

What's the next home-entertainment frontier? There are three things: wireless technology, all-in-one portable devices, and speaker design. If wireless is done right and is convenient, people will become more comfortable with it. Our KlipschCast system can transmit CD-quality sound, and we plan to make that even better over time. And it can already sniff out if there are other signals around. If you're using a cordless phone, for instance, it can transmit around it to avoid causing interference.

Portable devices will become more important as more people look to one device to deliver their entertainment. When I came back from the Super Bowl, I looked around on the plane and saw people carrying separate cellphones, PDAs, handheld gaming machines, and iPods and other MP3 players. What's interesting is that most of these can play music, so it stands to reason that there'll be some major convergence with all these products. At Klipsch, our goal is to provide the best sound solution for those devices, whatever they end up being.

With speakers, their look and shape will continue to evolve to match people's changing lifestyles. People don't have as much time as they used to, so having whole-house sound makes more sense that sitting on the couch and listening to a pair of speakers. Regardless of what form factor they take, speakers will still be the driving force of the entertainment experience. If you want a high-quality experience, you need high-quality speakers.

Where do you see the industry 10 years from now? That's a hard one. Obviously, our industry has been experiencing a lot of supplier consolidation. Larger conglomerates will continue buying up smaller companies for years to come. We'll end up with fewer players, but bigger ones. I've heard some people in our industry say that the iPod is ruining the audio business, but I feel exactly the opposite. People are listening to more music because of it. When I was traveling the other day, I listened to my iPod all day. People are listening to more music because of the innovative devices out there, and that's great news. Our industry will continue to grow as long as we're smart about meeting the exact needs of customers while keeping our products easy to use.

For more on Klipsch, see our review of the RF-83 home theater speaker system.

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