What’s New

By Jim Garrett
Senior Director, Product Strategy and Planning
HARMAN Luxury Audio

CEDIA Expo – the largest residential tech and custom integration trade show in the Americas – returned to the Colorado Convention Center in Denver holding court from September 6-9. If you were in attendance, I’m sure you noticed that traffic seemed higher on the show floor this year versus last. While we don’t have final numbers as of the time of this writing, I am told that attendance was indeed up over last year. The energy felt good and our prime location on the show floor helped us garner a significant amount of attention from showgoers.

We used the show to introduce several new products including the impressive Revel PerformaBe Architectural Series, two JBL distributed audio power amps, and the latest member of the JBL Classic Series: the L42ms. Response was very positive to all of these, and our L42ms even snagged an Editor’s Pick award from Sound & Vision magazine. Customers told us how excited they were to see the products from Revel, and that the JBL distributed audio power amps were a problem solver and a great tool to have in their kit.

Another product new to the North American market is the JBL Studio 6 range of loudspeakers. A selection of these were showcased in a 3.1-channel demo system at the front of our booth powered by the ARCAM AVR5 immersive surround receiver. The Studio 6 models feature a compression driver mated to an HDI horn for powerful dynamics and nuanced details from your music and movies. (Don’t forget the matching Studio 6 in-wall loudspeakers that can be used in a mix-and-match system.) I heard consistent enthusiasm about the value these models bring to the table and on the appearance of the dark wood finish offered on the Studio 6 range.

If you have been to our booth in the past, you know our JBL Synthesis demos are a “can’t miss” stop on the show floor. Our 9.4.6-channel system demo had an hour-long wait from the time the show opened on Thursday until it closed on Saturday afternoon, with the last demo wrapping up as the show floor lights turned off. The smaller 7.4.4-channel “living room” system quickly impressed attendees with its performance and “real world” price tag.

Traffic remained high in our booth throughout the show as dealers and integrators met with our team and learned about the broad portfolio of solutions available from our industry-leading brands. If you were unable to join us in Denver, please reach out to your Luxury Audio sales representative to get the latest information on everything we presented at CEDIA Expo 2023.