John Sciacca

Integra used CEDIA to do a refresh at the top of its cinema surround line-up, displaying two new reference grade receivers in its “Dot 3” series along with a new flagship pre-amp processor and matching 11-channel amplifier. All of the new products are fully featured, supporting Dolby Atmos and DTS:X formats in up to 7.2.4 channels with THX Ultra certification and IMAX Enhanced support along with a host of other top-shelf performance features.

For years, I’ve been telling Sound and Vision readers in my Connected Life blog that they should be pulling extra wiring throughout their home whenever possible — and that although they might not use that wiring today they would be thankful for having it tomorrow. PowerShades has totally validated my suggestion with its new line of PoE (Power over Ethernet) shades unveiled at CEDIA that can be fully powered and controlled by a single Category rated (Cat5/6) cable!

JL Audio has long been known amongst discriminating high-end theater owners as being on the shortlist of companies capable of delivering ultimate performance and chest slamming bass through its Gotham and Fathom subwoofer lines. While the company has offered an architectural line of subwoofers in the past, at CEDIA they demonstrated the new ICS-108 in-wall/ceiling subwoofer system.

Most AVRs have the same, plain, bland look to them. Black chassis, couple of knobs, some buttons, and a two-line LCD display that provides some basic information. NAD has given its new T 778 Reference AVR a gorgeous facelift in the form of a sleek TFT touch display that can be used for full front panel setup as well as provide information during operation, such as VU meters during playback or metadata while streaming music. Of course, because it’s from NAD, the T 778 is also packed with some pretty serious hardware to ensure pristine sound quality.