Monday, January 8 - Part 1

Up-and-comer Crystal Cable showed some new products, including a set of custom noise-canceling earphones (no price yet)...

...and the six-outlet Power Strip (around $1500). The latter uses Crystal Cable's "high-tech silver-gold metallurgy." The Power Strip looks unlike anything we’ve ever seen. It’s quite cool -- in a decidedly Crystal Cable sort of way. [www.crystalcable.com]

Danish firm Vitus Audio rounded out its electronics line with the SCD-010 CD player ($12,000). You can now have an entire Vitus system -- minus speakers but including cables. The build quality of everything we saw was top-shelf. [www.vitusaudio.com]

Soon to be available from Zanden Audio is a single-box CD player that will sell for "around $20,000." [www.zandenaudio.com]

Also available soon from Zanden is the Model 9600 mono amp (price not yet set), which uses the KR845 output tube, shown here through the amp's front-panel window. [www.zandenaudio.com]