Salk Sound has announced a new, relatively inexpensive floorstanding loudspeaker.

The 2 way SongTower QWT is a design by renowned DIY designer Dennis Murphy. The svelte SongTower measures 44.5x8x11.5, and is a transmission line design. The Hiquphon 3/4" tweeter and pair of 5" Seas bass drivers are aligned in an MTM configuration with a frequency response of 42-20k Hz. Sensitivity is rated at a tube-friendly 88 dB, but AV receiver users be advised that the SongTower is rated at 4 ohms impedance. The $1495/pair SongTower is available in walnut, cherry, maple, black satin, and for a limited time, honey locust.

As with all Salk Sound speakers, they will accomodate your request for just about any exotic wood veneer if you don't mind paying a little more. A $1395 version of the SongTower using a Vifa tweeter is also being offered.

KEF has updated their XQ and Reference loudspeaker lines.

The revised XQ now uses titanium alloy variant of KEF's point source UniQ driver. The new driver features an elliptical aluminum dome tweeter which is capable of flatly reproducing the frequency range up to past 20k Hz, eliminating the need for a separate high frequency driver. The XQ line will be available in furniture grade birdseye maple, khaya mahogany and piano black. The revamped flagship Reference line now features user customization via two position low and four position high frequency controls. The Reference line also sports low distortion bass drivers, which are decoupled from the enclosures. Available in cherry, satin sycamore, American walnut and piano black.

No prices for the two lines have been announced at this time.

Marantz has two updates to it's line of AV receivers on the way for winter.

Both units will offer a sleek front panel with the majority of controls hidden behind a faceplate door beneath the display. Both the Marantz SR7002 and SR8002 will sport four HDMI 1.3 compliant inputs. Onboard decoding of Dolby Digital+, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD is provided. Both models will upconvert video from component and s-video sources for HDMI output. The amplifier section in both will supply 125 watts over seven channels. Loudspeaker three way switching will allow for biamping the front left and right speakers in 5.1 mode. Audyssey EQ room tuning functionality is included, and an add-on unit will be available for decoding compressed music formats such as mp3, aac and wav.

The Marantz SR8002 has a suggested retail of $2450, and the SR7002 will sell for $1900.

Klipsch has announced a new, upscale line of flagship loudspeakers.

The Palladium line of speakers will begin shipping this fall. The top of the line P-39F tower will have three nine inch aluminum woofers, mated to horn midrange and tweeters. Enclosures are veneer clad mdf with tapered, curved side panels. Suggested price for the 3 1/2 way P-39F will be $15000/pair.

Six additional loudspeakers in the Palladium series will be shown at CES 2008 at Las Vegas.