It was just a short time ago that I was talking about Pioneer's decision to halt plasma manufacturing. This past week they showed their wares at the trendy (I’m told) Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City.

While one might expect some reduction in their products after such a huge announcement, they went the other way. They actually seem to be expanding their lines across the board with several new displays, Blu-ray players, and receivers.

Setting the bar high.

B&W is entering the soundbar arena. And, in typical B&W fashion, they’re doing so with real panache. The new Panorama melds high performance with high style.

More iPod love

Designed to go with their 10 Best winning 170iTransport, the 121 and 151 are designed to work with the 170i to create a full system (sans speakers of course).

All the info after the jump.

Mountain High (End)

The Hi-Fi world headed to Denver last weekend for the annual Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.

This year, there were over 150 rooms of high-end audio at the Denver Marriott Tech Center. Check out all the cool stuff after the jump.

Our 10 Best Design Award winners

The year's best designs, from electronics to furniture. 

Time to ditch all your gear... again.

Just when you got a handle on HDMI 1.3, here comes 1.4. While this is sure to elicit a groan from many, 1.4 has a host of new features that are actually very, very cool.

Starting with the ability to send Internet data over HDMI.

I'll let the gravity of that sink in while you click...

New Focus

Making its debut this past weekend at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest is Dynaudio’s Focus 360.

The 360 features two newly developed 8-inch die-cast frame woofers incorporating 3-inch voice coils crafted out of lightweight aluminum and housing a center magnet system.

Adding to the Focus 360’s smooth performance is the Esotar soft-dome tweeter, which boasts a frequency response of 31 hertz to 25 kilohertz. But that's not all.

Audioengine describes their product in one sentence perfectly: "Transfer music wirelessly from any audio device or computer to your Audioengine powered speakers, surround receiver, or powered subwoofer."

It's crazy simple, plug one gum sized device into the source, be it iPod, computer, CD player, or what have you, and the other one into a power socket, and a receiver or powered speakers. Presto, you have a wireless connection and uncompressed (or no additionally compression anyway) audio up to 100 feet away.