I just came up with a new way to test a speaker's cabinet construction. I call it the "knuckle rap test." And the highest mark you can get is "bruised knuckles." If you hear anyone else using this test, know they stole it from me.

This is a round-about way of saying the new $13,500 Rockport Mira speakers are NFL linebackers. But that's Rockport's thing, as seen in their famous earthquake-proof Sirius turntable. At the show, retailer Ultimate Audio Video showed the Rockports with the Gryphon Mikado CD player and Diablo integrated for a Darth Vader-worthy setup.

Interestingly, there were two identical rooms with this system. The only difference was one room was treated by Rives acoustic design and the other was, how shall we say, attractive. The idea was you'd go from the untreated room into the treated one and "wow" at the difference. There was a difference, of course, but I couldn't help thinking how I would rather spend my time listening to killer equipment than acoustic panels.