Paul McGowan's $2500 PS Audio Power Plant Premier is radically different from his earlier power regenerating products. "For one thing, it's 85% efficient, which means it runs cooler and uses less energy," McGowan explained. "It has 10 Power Port receptacles with Nano Crystalline filters. It's even remote controlled."

Remote controlled?

"Yes, you can choose CleanWave or MultiWave operation and control the display."

Franc Kuzma showed us his $900 VynVac record cleaner. "It's compact and, when it's not in use, it doesn't take up much space," he told us.

The Gear Shop's Scot Markwell chimed in, "What can we say? It sucks—and that's the bottom line."

Is there any record collector who hasn't wished for a device that would flatten warped records without damaging them? It's the classic "why doesn't somebody invent that?" product.

Furutech is the "somebody" who did. The $1360 DFV-1 Disc Flattener is a one-step, no hassle solution to those pesky disc warps. Just mount the disc on the spindle, close the clamshell case, and latch it shut. Then press a button and your hard work is done. Gentle heat is added to the case's pressure—the complete cycle takes about two hours, including cool down.

Listen to another record or drink an adult beverage. When the process is complete, the DFV-1 will sound a chime to alert you.

Pathos Acoustics has one of the uniquest design esthetics in audio. Paolo Anriolo and Giaani Borinato beamed with delight as Jon Iverson and I oohed and ahhed over the $8000 Endorphin CD player and $1950 InControl preamplifier.

And yes, we know there's no such word as "uniquest," but Pathos really does take unique past its normal limits.

Pathos products don't resemble anything else in the audio world, but the $35,000/pair 150W Adrenaline Class-A monoblock is stunning even in a room packed with other Pathos gear. It's a zero feedback design and it sounded even more stunning than it looked.

Penaudio's Sami Pentillä brought an entirely new line of loudspeakers to CES: the Ambient series.

"Aren't you concerned that people will think Ambient speakers will fade into the background?"

"That's exactly what we want them to do—cosmetically! We thought our Charisma and Chara were striking, but many consumers don't want to look at their loudspeakers, they want them to blend in with their decor. The Ambient speakers don't really shout 'Look at me.'"

The floorstanding Ambient Chronos ($7000/pair) looked pretty striking to us, but we were there for the sound. The Chronos didn't disappoint. Its side-firing 8.5" aluminum woofer got the down low surprisingly, um, low—while the front-mounted .75" fabric tweeter and 4.75" midrange driver were harmoniously detailed.

Fade into the background? Not hardly.

In the Music Hall suites, everything shouts: "NEW!" Except for the scotch, of course, which is hidden beneath tables and aged for many years.

This is the new flea-powered (3Wpc) Shanling MC-30 music center ($995). In one chassis, it combines a CD player, tuner, iPod input, and tube amplification. I especially like the concealed input selector and volume controls (mounted atop those front cylindrical supports).

At the GamuT house, the first beauty that caught my eye was their new Phi3 loudspeaker dressed in drop-dead gorgeous zebra wood. "In Europe," said designer Lars Goller, "anything striped is really hot right now."

"That must include shirts," responded Jon Iverson, noting that every GamuT representative was sporting stripes of some sort.

Besides great looks, the Phi3 also features a tweeter design that Lars Goller has been developing for over a decade. His passion for music and wonder of technology are undisputable. "If it doesn't sound like music," he said, "there is no point. Designing a loudspeaker is an incredible challenge, but it's very interesting." He paused. "And it's a good hobby," he smiled.

The lovely Phi3 costs $2500 and will be available by the end of February.

All GamuT speakers sport a ring-radiator tweeter. The pointy thing in the middle is a metal waveguide—the perfect defense against little children poking in the tweeter dome.

GamuT doesn't rent a display room at one of the hotels, instead they figure the best way to show off home loudspeakers is in a home. So they rent a palatial pad in the Las Vegas suburbs, invite us over for dinner (they fly in a Danish cook and assistant) and then we retire to the living room to check out the speakers and electronics.

In a perfect world, CES's high end audio sector would take over a small neighborhood every year, and we'd just caravan from house to house.

VAS Audio's Sze Leung is the most consistently up audiophile we know—he's always raving about his latest listening session or discovery. "This one's incredible," he exclaimed, pointing to the 80Wpc Cayin H-80A Class-A tube hybrid integrated amplifier (approximately $4000)."

What makes it special?

"I'm a tube guy, but I like power too. The H-80A has 12AX7 input tubes feeding a MOSFET output stage. It sounds sweet, but it'll drive just about any load. It's rated from 10Hz–40kHz."

"Try to pick it up!" Leung reached into a drawer and pulled out a weight-lifting belt. "It weighs 77 lbs.!"

We declined.

Zanden's Kazutoshi Yamada builds amplifiers like Medieval villages built cathedrals: To glorify the quintessence. Jon Iverson and I were lured into his room because his Model 9600s were so . . . shiny (hey, we're guys, we're not complicated). Then we heard 'em driving the Ascendo System Z-F3 loudspeakers. Wowsers.

The 60W monoblocks (approximately $45,000/pair) are built around the KR 845 tube. "It's an extraordinary tube," said Yamada. "It's so good, I simply had to design a new amplifier to take advantage of it."

Bel Canto's John Stronczer made a bold decision to demonstrate exclusively with a music server streaming Music Giants. He ran the output from his laptop to the $2495 e.One DAC3 digital-to-analog processor and then directly to a pair of e.One REF1000 1000W monoblocks ($1995 each).

No preamp?

"This is how I listen at home most of the time," Stronczer said. "Actually, our newest product was designed to solve a problem I've been running into—the e.One DAC3 sounds so good, I've almost stopped listening to LPs, so I had to design the PHONO3 analog-to-digital phono section to give my albums the same resolution my CDs have."

Audiophile heresy! But he was getting beautiful sound.

We walked in to the room and spotted a pair of floorstanding speakers. Stevie Ray Vaughan filled the room, so we assumed the floorstanders were channelling him. "Oh no, you're listening to those."

Those? They were tiny.The $3950/pair Trenner & Friedl ART Ivory minimonitors have Corian baffles and Zebrawood-veneered enclosures. The enclosure is vented and the speakers are rated from 48Hz–40kHz.

We listened to more SRV. Yup, those little guys flat-out rocked!

"Basically, we're just having too much fun," Conrad-Johnson's Lew Johnson told me. "We're introducing three new state-of-the-art products. Well, the ART Series 3 is more new and improved.

"As you know, we introduced the ART preamp in a limited edition of 250. When we upgraded it to the Art Series 2, we stayed within that number. We recently discovered we still had the metal work for the last 30 unfulfilled ARTs. Not only that, but Bill Conrad and I had I had a few ideas about improving it. As it turned out, we replaced almost everything except the metal work, which makes it a lot more expensive than the original ART at $25,000."

So there's no possibility for upgrading the older ARTs?

"We can do it—and we will do it for our customers, but it's not an inexpensive upgrade since it is so extensive."

Is it worth it?

Lew just grinned widely and nodded his head.

Lew Johnson pointed at the LP275M ($12,500). "This is something CJ hasn't done in a while: a high output tube monoblock. We use four pairs of 6550s to obtain 275W with our proprietary translinear transformers. We can configure it for 2, 4, 8, or 16 Ohm loads (standard is 4 Ohm). Like our most recent designs, we're using metal foil resistors and Teflon CJD capacitors. We'll be shipping them by February."

"Here's something a little different for us," CJ's Lew Johnson continued his tour. "The $10,000 TEA1 triode equalization amplifier embodies our current understanding of the state-of-the-art in phono stage design. It's a zero loop feedback design with two tube gain stages and a passive equalization network. We put a high-current buffer stage isolates the unit from cable and other loading elements."

Anything else?

"Well, yes. It has two inputs—high gain and low gain with adjustable resistive and capacitive loading."

"I'm not done," Lew Johnson said. "I showed you our high-aspiration products, now here's one more from the heart: the ET250S is a more realistically priced product at $7500 for 250Wpc. At the heart of the amp is a single-ended triode amplifier that supplies the voltage gain. A high-current buffer stage couples that to the speaker load. That architecture gives you tube grace and finesse, but deliver all the brute force you need for any loudspeaker. We'll ship them in February."

The ever-gracious Rosemarie Torcivia running the Primedia room at the Venetian.

When I reviewed KEF's top-line Reference 207 loudspeaker in February 2004, it featured a supertweeter perched atop the module housing the coaxial Uni-Q tweeter/midrange driver to achieve true ultrasonic performance. A redesign of the Uni-Q driver, the tweeter in particular, has meant that the supertweeter could be dispensed with for the Mk.2 version, launched at the 2007 CES.

The 2007/2 was on static display, but I very much enjoyed the sound of my new Cantus CD played on a pair of the smaller Reference 205/2 speakers, driven by an Esoteric SACD player and Audio Research amplification. But I also appreciated the picture of KEF founder, the late Raymond Cooke, at the back of the system. He is resting on the original R105, the launch of which in 1977 was a highlight of my first year as an audio journalist.