CES 2018

England-based Ruark has a complete line of powered small to medium size all-in-one music boxes as well as powered desktop speakers. But what caught my eye was the console-size R7 which managing director Alan O'Rourke called a "Radiogram." For US citizens, a radiogram is a piece of furniture from the UK that historically combined a radio and record player. In this case though, that would be a CD player and radio.

Discerning college dorm rooms and recording studios rejoice! JBL's famed L100 speaker from the seventies has been rebooted as the L100 Classic (left, in the photo above), which, despite the familiar look, Harman's Todd Eichenbaum says is new from the ground up.

dCS, D'Agostino, Wilson, Transparent, and HRS—how often have we found products from these companies making a synergistic and most musical match? As you'll learn from Jana Dagdagan's video once it's posted, Jana, John Atkinson, and I visited the spacious suite in the Mirage Hotel in which these companies paired a dCS limited edition Vivaldi 1 ($80,000 or, in the striking bright nickel finish seen in this room, $92,000) and Rossini clock ($7999); an HRS VXR rack; D'Agostino Master Systems Progression preamplifier ($22,000) and Progression stereo amplifier ($22,000); Wilson Audio Sasha 2 speaker, with Transparent Generation 5 XL cabling (approx. $50,000 total); and Transparent Reference Power Isolator ($5995).