LATEST ADDITIONS

When a speaker company changes hands, particularly when it is sold by its founders, a new design team often comes on board. That can be a tricky affair. Like passing a baton in a relay race, if it's not handled smoothly, or if it's dropped, sometimes there's no catching up and the race is lost. That almost happened to giant Harman International when it bought Infinity from Arnie Nudell and Cary Christie. Both men ultimately left to pursue other ventures. It took years for Infinity to fully regain its footing, which it did with the rollout of the outstanding, high-tech Prelude system, reviewed by Joel Brinkley in the July/August 2000 issue of SGHT.

Sony's first Super Audio CD players were audio-only machines that did not play back DVD-Video discs. Fair enough—those machines were aimed at the top of the high-end audiophile market, and were priced accordingly. But with the DVP-S9000ES—the first DVD player to carry Sony's upscale "ES" badge—we have not only a first-class SACD player, but one priced within the reach of many home-theater enthusiasts.

Last week, several companies announced what they describe as a "unique, innovative project which will demonstrate the future of home entertainment." The project, named "CompleteTV," is intended to enable 20 families in Raleigh, North Carolina to take part in a pilot program beginning during the second quarter of 2001, giving them access to a home entertainment "experience" which will attempt to combine the worlds of broadcast HD programming and Internet-based information and entertainment.