Procella Audio launches the P610-- a full-range 3-way biamplified high-output speaker designed for installation in screening rooms and larger home cinemas.

Using the same 10" woofer as Procella's P10 subwoofer (mounted in its own enclosure), it also has a 6.5" midrange (with 40mm voice coil) and a 1" high-frequency compression driver inside a separate rotatable bracket-mounted cabinet.

The company says the P610 has bass extension to 40Hz, with the power to handle rooms 5-9m in depth with multiple rows and multiple seats per row. It also has THX reference-level playback (105dB continuous) and active biamplification with external power amplifiers.

The system can be built into walls, wall mounted or placed behind acoustically transparent screens, thanks to a shallow depth of 150mm and a sealed-box design.

Go Procella Audio Loudspeakers

Altec Lansing announces the LIVE 5000-- an all-in-one wifi speaker streaming music from either the cloud or personal collections on home networks.

The speaker is a tri-amp system, with two 3" mid-range Kevlar drivers, two neodymium soft-dome tweeters, a long-throw 4" subwoofer and passive radiator. Inputs include aux-in, USB and 3.5mm headphone jack.

Designed for use as either a stand-alone system or in groups of multiple speakers throughout the house, Altec Lansing says it will provide multiple control options. The system is compatible with iDevices, Androids and PCs, with a free LIVE Controller app allowing users to browse local and online media sources.

It also allows use by multiple users, playing different songs to different rooms or the same song to multiple rooms.

Go Altec Lansing LIVE 5000

If you had to lift a boombox over your head (maybe to do like John Cusack in Say Anything), the Sony RDH-GTK33iP speaker dock should be a good-- if heavy-- choice.

The system is around 90cm wide and 30cm tall and carries a 420W amp feeding x2 stereo speakers (with x2 tweeters and 6" woofers), all inside a heavy duty design. Audio comes through 30-pin iPod/iPhone connector and USB, RCA and line-in ports.

To make things even more impressive (or annoying) each of the twin speakers have colour-changing LED lights pulsating to the music-- with colour schemes including "Forest," "Passion," "Rainbow" or just plain "Random."

Sony has no announcements on availability yet, but the speaker dock should hit the market sometime in 2012.

Go Sony

There are big media player docks, and then there are absolutely gigantic docks-- like the Behringer iNuke Boom, an iPod dock so big one can simply lie down on it.

How big are we talking about? How about 2.4m wide, 1.2m tall and weighing nearly 320kg.

As one might expect from such a monster, it also pumps out lots of sound-- up to 10000W , making it the loudest in the world. The sound comes from two 18" subwoofers, two 12" woofers and two high frequency drivers Behringer claims are loud enough to shatter glass.

The giant will cost $30000 and is a slightly gimmicky part of Behringer's recent entry into consumer audio with the Eurosound brand. The company plans to launch 50 new products under 4 lines-- Home, Live, Portable and Creation. In the meantime, we'll be thinking of a feasible way of getting an iNuke Boom unit in our office...

Go Behringer Explodes into CE Market with iNuke Boom

Philips shows off two interesting audio goods at CES 2012-- the CSS5123 Soundbar with Android Streaming and the Sound Hub 360-degree AirPlay audio system.

The soundbar allows the streaming of content on Android devices (and DLNA-enabled devices) via Philips SimplyShare app and built-in wifi functionality. Connecting to TVs via optical audio, coax or HDMI, it also has a USB port to play files on portable HDDs and thum drives.

It has a virtual surround sound system (with a companion wireless subwoofer) with a slim oval design fitting in front of most TVs.

Meanwhile the Sound Hub has an interesting design (with 2 cube speakers stacked on top of each other), an AirPlay receiver and HDMI connection, allowing users to send content from iOS devices to their HDTVs.

Go Philips Audio

Guitar maker Gibson buys further into the pro audio market with the purchase of a large chunk of Onkyo, resulting in a "strategic partnership" with the Onkyo corporation.

The partnership will have Onkyo providing technology resources to the newly-formed Gibson pro audio division, while Onkyo will gain in "marketing resources and expertise." Following Japanese regulatory clearance, the 2 companies will form a Hong Kong-based consumer-grade audio product development joint venture.

Onkyo is not Gibson's first pro audio purchase-- it has already bought KRK, Cerwin-Vega! and Stanton following the Pro Audio Division's creation back in May 2011.

Go Gibson Buys Stake in Onkyo Japan and Majority Interest in Onkyo USA