LATEST ADDITIONS

There was a definite shortage of home theater exhibits at this year's home entertainment show. But no shortage of interesting products. When faced with limited home theater presence, I go to plan B: look for loudspeakers. Speakers do of course, handle two types of program material in most homes: music and films. If they sound good on music that's more than half the battle. And if they don't, even Angelina Jolie can't help them.

Two makers of one-box solutions for virtual surround sound were at the show. ZVOX was covered earlier in our show report (below). Soundmatters is the other. The Soundmatters SLIMstage40 Surround Console ($899, available in July), available in either silver or black (the silver version is shown in the photo, just under the flat panel set) uses four seven active drivers and eight internal amplifiers (170W total) to simulate a full surround sound experience. At 3.4" deep, it's designed to fit under a wall-mounted, flat panel television.

Pictured here is the Vandersteen Model 5A, which is my reference loudspeaker. This pair is finished in striking carbon fiber. This speaker has bult-in powered subs and an 11-band EQ that allows its response to be tailored for flat response below 20Hz in virtually any room. This also allows you to put the speakers out in the room where they image best without sacrificing bass response as is typical as you move out from the room boundaries.