LATEST ADDITIONS

I've only been living with the new Optoma HD81 DLP projector for a little over a week, but it's already becoming obvious that new 1080p projectors selling for more than the Optoma's $7,000 price are likely to have a difficult time in the market. Even the sub-$7,000 price category is destined to be a battleground. There have already been announcements from Sony (SXRD), Mitsubishi (LCD), Panasonic (LCD), Sanyo (LCD), and BenQ (DLP) of new 1080p projectors priced lower, and in some cases considerably lower, than the Optoma. We expect to see more, and perhaps a lot more, such models at the 2006 CEDIA Expo in Denver later this week. We'll be reporting on them, and other new developments, in daily reports from the show floor. Stay tuned.

As I leave Denver after three days of being under the gun to pump out show reports (don't worry fans, it was only friendly fire), I can sit back and shoot for the bigger picture.

Approximately 87 percent of all speaker models introduced at the show were from Paradigm. Bill VanderMarel shows off the new Signature line with beryllium tweeter. Even more significant, to me, is the fourth-gen revision of the Studio line--the second-gen Studio/20 happens to be my longtime reference speaker--with the aluminum tweeter upgraded to a better one and the polymer woofer giving way to satin-anodyzed aluminum. Highlight of the revised Monitor series is a new and larger version of Paradigm's classic budget bookshelf model, the Titan. Millenia is the new "lifestyle" line, and there are in-walls galore.

These two Canadian speaker brands may now be under the Klipsch umbrella but they retain their distinctive identities and sounds. I was most impressed by Energy's in-walls including the RC-6W left/center/right speaker ($350), RC-8C surround ($325), and RC-8C sub ($600). They have the clarity that is Energy's signature at affordable prices. Pictured is the Mirage OMD-15 tower ($1250/each), a relatively more affordable member of the OmniSat series. It bounces tweeter output off a spoon-shaped object to achieve surround-like spaciousness even with just two channels, though it would also form a surround system with the matching center ($750) and satellite ($375/each).