Sharp has announced a new Blu Ray player for the North American market.

The AQUOS BD-HP20U is an HDMI 1.3 compliant device, capable of 1080p24 output. In addition to the standard set of Blu Ray player features, the BD-HP20U will also decode Dolby TrueHD. Sharp is touting the unit's Quick Start feature, which allows for users to begin enjoying movie playback in as little as 10 seconds, depending on associated equipment.

The Sharp AQUOS BD-HP20U will be available this month for $549.99.

Pioneer has announced a second generation Blu Ray player for their Elite line of electronics.

In addition to the mandatory Blu Ray specs, the Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD supports decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, including bitstream output for up to 7.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio. It will be an HDMI 1.3 compliant device with support for 1080p24 output.

The BDP-95FD will available this October for $1000.

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.

Sony today announced a new flagship Blu Ray player.

The BDP-S2000ES will offer beefed-up construction designed to make the enclosure more rigid and less susceptible to dust. In addition to a rigid, braced chassis, the BDP-S2000ES will utilize vibration isolating aluminum feet. The standard list of Blu Ray mandatory features are supported, and the unit also has onboard decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. The BDP-S2000ES is the first player from either HD camp to support playback of AVCHD encoded discs. This enables the use of the x.v.Color specification, which allows the display of twice as many colors as was previously possible.

The BDP-S2000ES will be available this fall for a suggested retail of $1300.

Not to be outdone by fellow Korean consumer electronics manufacturer L.G., Samsung today released more details on it's forthcoming Blu Ray/HD DVD combo player.

The highly anticipated BD-UP5000 will feature support for both BD-J and HDi. It will be a HDMI 1.3 compliant player with support for 1080p24, and will have a Silicon Optix Reon HQV chip onboard for upconversion of standard definition DVDs. Audio support will be present for Dolby Digital+, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, but details are fuzzy on whether or not support will be included for lossless DTS-HD Master Audio.

The Samsung BD-UP5000 will be available sometime in the fourth quarter for a suggested retail of $999.