Home Entertainment 2002—A Global Affair to Remember!

June 18, 2002—For the second year in a row, The Home Entertainment Show, held in New York City May 31–June 2, 2002, has been regarded as a tremendous success by exhibitors, sponsors, and Show attendees from all over the world.

The four-day event, held at the Hilton Hotel & Towers in Manhattan, offered something for everyone. The 14,864 attendees—consumers, 2500 retailers, and close to 500 members of the press—had an opportunity to see, hear, and touch the latest in consumer-electronics technologies, attend a dozen free musical performances, and participate in 13 free educational seminars.

Audio/video and music enthusiasts visited over 250 exhibits in more than 85 demo rooms to experience over $10 million worth of the finest audio, video, and home theater equipment.

Highlights
Showstoppers included Linn Audio’s outstanding display and demo of an Aston Martin Vanquish sports car equipped with 12 speakers and amplifiers!

TV was hot this year—flat-screen, widescreen, rear-projection, plasma, DLP, and LCD models were introduced by Mitsubishi, Philips, Runco, Samsung, Sharp, and Zenith, while home theater projectors from Faroudja, InFocus, Runco, Plus Piano, and SIM2 took center stage—literally.

Super Audio CD players from dCS, Philips, and Sony captured attention, while the news broke that ABKCO’s entire collection of 22 early Rolling Stones albums would soon be released on SACD. The DVD-Audio high-resolution format also had a presence at the Show—Meridian Audio and McIntosh, who showed off a new prototype, were among exhibitors joined by DVD players from Arcam, Denon, Linn, Muse, NAD, Philips, Samsung, Sony, Yamaha, and many others, including a prototype from Sharp of a new universal player.

Audiophiles and home theater connoisseurs had a chance to demo new two-channel audio and home theater components from Denon, Krell, Nagra, PS Audio, TacT, and Yamaha, while vinyl enthusiasts checked out the unique three-point, star-shaped turntable from Maximum Solution.

There were loudspeakers a-plenty, in all shapes and sizes to fit any budget, from Dunlavy, Dynaudio, Gallo, Elulla, mbl, MartinLogan, Meridian, Naim, PSB, Paradigm, Polk, Thiel, Rethm, Wilson Audio, and Wilson Benesch.

eBay, the world’s online marketplace, offered Showgoers a well-attended seminar in which they could learn the ins and outs of buying and selling on ebay.com. eBay University provided specific tips on buying and selling consumer electronics products.

In addition, eBay sponsored a silent charity auction, onsite and online, to benefit the Elf Foundation, which creates rooms of magic—private entertainment theaters for children’s hospitals across the country—to bring to ill children and their families the enchantment of music and films. Together they raised almost $15,000.

Co-sponsored by Stereophile, Stereophile Guide to Home Theater, Home Theater, and Audio Video Interiors magazines, Home Entertainment 2002 was the ultimate showcase for audio and video enthusiasts who came to see and hear the latest in consumer electronics.

Dates and location of The Home Entertainment 2003 Show will be announced at a later date.