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It's just after 10pm, here in Las Vegas. The moon is an eyelash.

You know that stuff I said about how pointless the pre-show press conferences are? Well, not always—not, for example, when Jim Thiel has been busy. At last year's CES, Thiel practically levitated when he began describing the challenges of re-designing his CS3.6 floorstander, which has been in production since 1992. He described what he'd keep in the CS3.7 (first-order crossover; three-way design; short-coil/long gap motor design; coincident tweeter and midrange, time coherence;and aluminum diaphragms) and then he began waxing rhapsodic about how completely open that left his imagination.

"Its first audible resonance is effectively above 20kHz&mdash;that's above the operating range of some <I>tweeters</I>."

If one component is omnipresent this year, it's the iPod. You may find this hard to believe, but there are actually companies making iPod accessories these days&mdash;actually, it's hard to find companies that aren't.

Others, not so much.

To be honest, I didn't give it much of a chance. I mean, especially after Jim <a href="http://www.thielaudio.com/">Thiel</a>'s captivating presentation on the new CS3.7, the Philips press conference seemed like so much noise and swirling lights and fake boobs.

Call me biased. I really don't care, and, anyway:<br>