The speakers of CES 2011

Speakers used to be boring black boxes. As CES 2011 shows, that's no longer the case. Here are some of the most unique speaker and home audio designs we saw at the show.

CNET Reviews staff

Jan. 9, 2011 12:25 p.m. PT

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Samsung HT-D7100: Home theater in a cube

Heard of a home theater in a box? The Samsung HT-D7100 takes that notion literally. It's got all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a current Blu-ray home theater system--3D, Netflix, streaming media, built-in speakers--but the modular design allows it to work when combined (in cube mode) or with the speakers separated for better stereo imaging.

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"Play Ball!"

That's not the beginning of baseball season. It's actual the name of Moneual Interactive's unique home theater PC (two spherical speakers flanking a central PC/docking station).

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Dolby: A CES institution

Yes, Dolby technology is already in pretty much every home theater, home audio, and TV you can buy today. But that doesn't stop the company from rolling out new standards (and demoing them to CES attendees, as shown here).

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Kanto's SYD 5 gets stylish

Kanto's iPod boombox, the SYD 5, isn't new, but the funky new paintjobs are.

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The LP van

"The world's smallest portable record player" by Stokyo rides around in a circle on your LP, playing sound through the van's speaker. It's not new (we highlighted it in 2009, and have seen similar models for at least 10 years), but it never fails to bring a smile to people's faces.

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B&W: The Diamond standard

Bowers & Wilkins' 800 series Diamond speakers aren't new, but they're just as lustworthy as when they were first introduced.

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Panasonic's stylish shelf systems

Panasonic is updating its stylish iPod/iPhone speaker systems for 2011. Unlike many competitors, some of these models also offer CD playback--a nice bonus for those of us who haven't ripped everything yet.