Taking a break from speakers, I stopped in on Swedish manufacturer Bladelius. Designer Michael Bladelius worked on Threshold and Forte amps back in the early 1990s, and now has a complete line of amps, preamps, and home theater electronics bearing his name. They're beautifully done, all named after Norse legends, and all will induce sticker shock. The Grendel 5-channel power amp is priced at $9200. For that you get 350Wpc into 8 ohms and a switching power supply (a conventional supply will make the amp too heavy with that power output!). It's a modular design that may be configured many different ways (prices will vary with other configurations). The Enris pre-pro offers a front-panel widescreen display, HDMI switching, on-board video processing, balanced operation, and a price ranging from $15-$18K. It will ship in the spring.—TJN