Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young reveals his long-awaited take on audiophile-grade audio with PonoMusic, an online high-resolution music store paired with the PonoPlayer portable music player.

"It's about the music, real music," Young says. "We want to move digital music into the 21st century and PonoMusic does that."

The system promises "the finest quality, highest-resolution digital music," with a desktop app allowing customers to download, manage and sync music with PonoPlayer devices and other high-resolution music players.

Meanwhile the player is a supposedly "no-compromise" number. The Toblerone bar-shaped casing and features control via LCD touchscreen, 128GB of storage (holds 100-500 high-resolution files according to Pono), Ayre Acoustics digital-to-analog conversion technology and "perfectly flat" frequency response from nearly any headphones.

Onkyo teams up with processor solutions developer Imagination Technologies to create what is described as "the next generation of wireless audio music streaming systems and the global expansion of High Quality Audio."

No details of the results of said team up are available as yet, but one can assume a wireless speaker system is on the works at Onkyo. After all, part of the agreement involves Onkyo licensing a pair of relevant Imagination technologies-- Caskeid and FlowCloud.

Caskeid is an audiophile-grade wireless multiroom streaming technology. It is based on Bluetooth and wifi, and promises "a true "wifi hifi" experience that is good enough to replace wires."

Meanwhile FlowCloud technology connects devices to the internet for easy product registration, updates and access to partner-enabled services.

Minimalist speaker designs cannot get more, well, minimalist than the Clear View Clio-- a wireless speaker consisting of a 1mm thin sheet of clear automotive-grade acrylic on top of a compact base.

The base houses a pair of actuators effectively turning the acrylic sheet into a dipole transducer to produce mid and high notes. Sound is produced from both sides of the speaker, creating a stereo effect.

A 2-inch woofer inside the base pushes bass notes.

The NuVo multiroom audio range expands at ISE 2014 with the Player Portfolio-- an IP-based system allowing the integration of wired audio distribution in the company's wireless multiroom audio range.

Designed for the custom install market, the Player Portfolio consists of interchangeable wireless (802.11n) and wired (ethernet) players. It is ideal for large whole home applications, with up to 16 separate zones or individual rooms.

The system handles a variety of streamed or networked sources, with Apple or Android devices acting as controller. It is also compatible with a wide range of 3rd party home control and automation systems, with drivers available for Vantage, AMX, BitWise, Control4, Crestron and RTI products.

German audiophile-grade speaker maker Avantgarde Acoustic takes on iDevice audio with the Zero 1, a (relatively) compact horn loudspeaker set with an iPhone-inspired design.

Standing at 1.5m tall with "polyurethane-based sandwich-structured integral rigid foam" construction, the Zero 1 drops the more traditional horn loudspeaker look in favour of a minimalist cuboid with large conical indentations. Inside are "ground-breaking" 66-bit FPGA processing (reportedly " redefines digital quality through a series of filtering features") and a "recessed spherical wave horn" apparently able to replicate sound produced by a 1m-long traditional horn.

In fact, according to the company the Zero 1 is nothing less than a "fully integrated system" complete with digital processors, analogue-to-digital convertors, power amplifiers and loudspeakers.

Yamaha upgrades the YAS-101 soundbar with the addition of Bluetooth support and mobile device app control and presents the YAS-103, a one-body system featuring dual built-in subwoofers.

Bluetooth connectivity allows audio streaming from any enabled device, while app control (via free Home Theatre Control) allows the adjustment of settings such as inputs and surround modes from iOS and Android devices.