The winning record Paradigm's Special Edition (SE) series of speakers racked up in blind testing piqued our interest, but now it's time for John Q. Public to take the taste test. If the promise of Studio-like sonics at Monitor-ish price points holds, the SE series should help Paradigm add customers to its ranks, that's for sure. If you're chasing after a matched surround setup, it's simple -- pick between bookshelf (SE 1, $299 each) or floorstander (SE 3, $699 each) left/right channels, and then add in an SE center ($499), SE subwoofer ($699), and additional SE 1s as surrounds to your heart's content. As you'd expect from Paradigm, there's some emphasis on high-efficiency -- so you can bet that these will sing well together, even with a smaller amp. Judging from the press photo, the cabinets are a little boxy, but the glossy finish (in slimming black, no less) and radiused edges should help you sneak these into your setup. Full press release after the break.

We know, life's tough. You want to buy the latest ultraslim HDTV, but find that your home theater speakers will look monstrously bulky sitting alongside it. JVC wouldn't want to cause you such headaches, which is why it's trotted out the above pair of 31mm thin speaker satelittes -- known as the SP-FT1 in black and SP-FT2 in their white garb -- and the AX-FT amplifier squeezed in between them. While you should probably not expect Telos 5000-like output, the amp will deliver 80W of total output over 4 independent channels, and has support for Dolby Digital, DTS and AAC formats. Prices are expected to be around ¥24,000 ($267) for the amp and ¥20,000 ($223) for the speakers when their black iterations hit Japan later this month, with the willowy white option showing up in November.
[Via Akihabara News]

If you've somehow managed to hold out from joining into the HTIB revolution, the time for caving is upon you. LG has just tapped Sir Mark Levinson to engineer the acoustics behind its latest bundle, the HB954SP. Packing a 5.1-channel sound system that includes 1,000 total watts of power, a quintet of oval drivers and a ported subwoofer, the system gets direction from a BD-Live-enabled Blu-ray player that's actually a fair bit more stylish than the tried-and-true black rectangle. You'll also find a pair of HDMI inputs, an iDock function for charging and controlling your iPod / iPhone right from the BD deck, 1080p upscaling of traditional DVDs, touch sensitive controls, a USB port for loading up external media and an optical audio input. There's nary a mention of price, but it should splash down this November for a hefty premium.

Paradigm doesn't move models in and out of its Reference Signature lineup very often, and the SUB 25 was introduced less than a year ago. Progress never stops, though, and the SUB 25 has been displaced as top dog by the SUB 2 and its "little" brother SUB 1. These new designs feature six drivers (10-inches in the SUB 2, 8-inches for the SUB 1) arranged in three radially symmetric stacked pairs -- the end result being a lot of effective radiating area with in-cabinet forces that balance each other out. In the real world, that means more boom and less buzz, especially with the kilowatt range Class D amps Paradigm includes in these subs. Yeah, we want one too, but even with just six drivers this isn't going to come cheap. The $3,500 price tag on the SUB 1 is comparable to the outgoing SUB 25, but the SUB 2 will sink your wallet to a $7,500 crush depth. Pick yourself up off the floor and read the full release after the break if you're interested.

Sometimes a move can necessitate rethinking one's home theater setup, which was exactly the case for our friend Amani. A shift from a room with carpets to run wires underneath to hardwood floors has him wondering what the easiest and neatest way is to hook up the rear speakers:

Ok, here is my dilemma. I used to have carpet in my main area where my TV is and surround sound is. Speaker wire would run under carpet. I just got hard wood floors installed so now there will be wires all over the place for my sound. What creative options do I have to set back up my surround sound but perhaps eliminate the wires or use wireless.connection to connect my speakers. I need help because I can't have speaker wire all over my pretty new floors! Thanks

So is the best route to drill right into the walls, some kind of invisible speaker cable, or is there a good wireless speaker setup that doesn't involve falling back to a HTIB? Let us know how you solved this kind of problem and save Amani some heartache and time.

It's a bit hard to tell if Artcoustic's latest wall-mounted, ultrathin loudspeakers, the Crystal line, are incredibly horrid or insanely awesome. There's no denying that high-end loving audiophiles are enticed by the brand -- but the Crystal line? Well, let's just say that adding a bunch of Swarovskis to any product won't necessarily make it better. Regardless, these bad boys are customizable and if you're into ostentation, they probably belong in your apartment. There's also a matching iPod dock available, and it'll run you about $3700 to get one, speaker included.

Don't get us wrong -- we love subwoofers -- but honestly we've been pretty satisfied with the formula that combines a driver, strong box and large amplifier into a more or less (we prefer less) inconspicuous cube. Changing the physical design always looks kind of strange, even when the results are great. Horses for courses, however, as KEF has introduced its HTB2SE-W subwoofer that has us thinking of one George Jetson. That impression is only enhanced by the wireless connection (hey, it was futuristic a few years ago) that promises "CD-quality sound," which is probably more than sufficient for even lossless LFE tracks. If you don't like the flying saucer look, simply put the HTB2SE-W on its side -- the 10-inch driver and 250-Watt amp promise to deliver bass so non-directional that you won't be able to tell the difference. Available next month for $1,200 -- head below the fold for one more pic if you're not sure if this is the look for you.

Receivers keep growing more channels, but few people have developed an affinity for running more speakers and their tethers 'round the living room. Yamaha's doing its part with a series of products that integrate things together -- soundbars, HTIBs, and the like. On the lower end are the YHT-S350 and YHT-S400, pictured after the break. Both offer a receiver with an integrated subwoofer, through which your various devices can be connected and the output end of their HDMI cables tickled with bass. The two differ only in how they get their highs out, with the S350 including a pair of squat stereo speakers and the S400 offering a three-channel "air surround xtreme" soundbar. On the higher end is the updated YSP-4100, above, a rather tall but only 9cm deep soundbar with the receiver integrated that can be mounted on the wall right beneath your giant HDTV and then paired with a selection of wireless transmitters for iPods and the like. It includes a whopping 40 4cm speakers arrayed within, with a further two 11cm woofers, delivering what Yamaha calls 2.5.1 channel sound -- though it looks as if it can power two additional speakers at the sides if you want something a little closer to 7.1. The YHT-S350 and -S400 are due to hit Japan in time for a Halloween marathon, while the YSP-4100 should release in time for the holiday specials on TV. No prices just yet.

[Via AV Watch]

Read - YHT-S350 and YHT-S400
Read - YSP-4100

We were so intrigued to hear how much bass Atlantic Technology could squeeze from a small speaker with its H-PAS technology that we overlooked the company's passive FS-7.0 soundbar. That's right -- passive -- for the person who needs the compact footprint of a soundbar, but can't let go of the processing, signal switching and performance of a separate AV receiver. Atlantic Technology managed to squeeze enough drivers (and we assume speaker taps) into the 40-inch soundbar to handle all 7 audio channels; which might explain why there was no room left for a built-in amplifier. LCR audio is handled by three 1-inch tweets and a pair of 4x6-inch woofers along the front face, and the surround and rear surround audio is handled by the triple voice coil, 3.25-inch drivers on each side of the cabinet. The company PR assures that this arrangement creates spacious audio, and with all the surround audio coming from the front of the room, we're sure that's true -- but not necessarily good. More channels isn't necessarily better, but anyone with FS-7.0's $800 asking price (and maybe even $300 for the companion SB-800 sub) and an open mind is free to give us their impressions below.

It's been well over two years since high-end audio outfit Bowers & Wilkins introduced the iPod-lovin' Zeppelin, and evidently it's time for a downsizing. Today, the good folks over at B&W slung out the Zeppelin Mini, which promises the same dirigible-inspired sound but in a form factor that fits in a wider assortment of areas. To be honest, this version seems toned down quite a bit on the design side, with the key differentiating features being an updated docking arm and the addition of USB connectivity. Said socket enables direct PC / Mac streaming if your iPod gets lost, and it also enables your 'Pod to sync with your computer whilst playing back tunes. As for specs, you'll find a pair of 3-inch full-range drivers, 36 total watts of power, a 3.5 millimeter auxiliary jack and a bundled remote. It's expected to hit next month for £299 ($495), but you can get acquainted right now by jumping past the break and mashing play.

[Via Macworld]

Back in January, JVC slated its TH-SB100 soundbar + subwoofer + Blu-ray player system as "3.1-channel," which kind of made sense since the soundbar housed LCR drivers. There's been something funny in the punch since then, because the TH-SB100 has morphed into something with 4.1-channel status. It's still a soundbar system, but JVC is using magic called "front surround" to get the outermost drivers to handle the left/right channels and the inside two drivers to handle the center + surround audio. It sounds crazy to us, but we'll try to keep an open mind because otherwise things look pretty good -- 220-Watts total, wireless subwoofer, and Dolby Digital, Pro Logic II and DTS processing in the soundbar. If all you've already got a Blu-ray player, opt for the $400 TH-BA1 (soundbar + sub only), otherwise get onboard with Blu-ray and grab the $700 TH-SB100 (complete with Blu-ray deck).

Sharp mostly re-announced stuff we're already seen at CEDIA today, but it did have a new soundbar for us -- the $349 3.1-channel HT-SB500, which adds a center speaker to the usual stereo setup. Sharp says the bar can use Dolby Virtual Speaker to simulate 5.1 audio from DTS, Dolby Digital, and Pro Logic II sources, which is almost but not quite extremely interesting. There are also two new iPod docks, the $189 DK-AP8P and the $129 DK-AP7P, both of which should do a fine job of providing adequate audio on the go, with batteries that last up to six hours at a clip -- and the cheaper one apparently folds up into itself, so that's very fancy.

P.S.- That's a picture of the older HT-SB300 up there -- the SB500 has a redesigned control panel, but Sharp hasn't released images yet.

The limitations of typical crappy built-in TV speakers just can't be overstated, and with the current "thin is the new black" trend in TVs, things aren't likely to get better. ZVOX has introduced two soundbars and two soundbases to its lineup of all-in-one speaker systems that are pretty much guaranteed to make you wonder why you ever put up with your TV's craptastic sound. The 430 ($450) and 440 ($550) soundbars each come in at only 5-inches deep and 5.5-inches high, but pack a trio of 3.25-inch cones along with a 4-inch woofer for the bass. Flanking the speaker/TV stand Z-Base 550 we liked so much are the slightly smaller, $400 Z-Base 525 and the 35-Hertz-reaching, $800 IncrediBase 575 (pictured). Yes, that kind of money could get you a whole HTIB setup -- along with the wires and boxes that shoppers considering an all-in-one are looking to avoid. Hit the links for details.

Read - ZVOX 430, 440 soundbars [Warning - PDF link]
Read - Z-Base 525 soundbase [Warning - PDF link]
Read - IncrediBase 575 soundbase [Warning - PDF link]