Two new audio products compete for center stage in the audio equipment bragging-rights category. One is the ultimate digital stream renderer, the other packages a visual experience and hard candy look with diffuse music channels and touch performance. For the flashy party player with wandering ears or serious tech turntable king, these are the legitimate options for multimedia streaming home audio.

Meridian Sooloos

Meridian Sooloos has some new device called a Music Server which can have many different rooms playing different playlists and each person in the house downloading their own channel of music. The Meridian audio device with the Sooloos Control 10 system makes a 17 inch touchscreen the music portal of dreams come true. The 2.1 server is 1280 by 1024 pixels.

The Meridian-audio device users and network operators can sample what’s playing on other channels.  Lossless compression is no longer a fleeing illusion. Wi-fi friendly, this tech candy makes any room look good. But its serious production possibilities make it the most borrowed piece of equipment your A-list friends will beg for.

Visually the device looks like  a sleek small LCD TV with an audio setting menu online, with attendant logos. But the back end of the device has multiple jacks for serious audio support for TV watching gaming and audio enjoyment. No simple CD audio transport, the Meridian with control 10 works wonders on even legacy media to produce killer pet sounds.

The touchscreen and interface are user friendly an PC and Mac compatible. The visual component includes a screen with visual images and graphics associated with the artists and playlist channels. If you are looking for the investment to spring ever aspect of your audio career and home listening enjoyment to the fore, this is it.

The physical device has color-coded jack arrays on the port panel, a welcoming way to speed up jack-in confusion. This is the perfect gift for a music student learning classical techniques and composition with 2010 era computer media audio technology.

$3,000 to $5500

Linn

Linn Products manufactures a Digital Stream music server that looks so low-profile you might mistake it for a preamplifier. The Majik DSI music server is the opposite of the family-ready Meridian Sooloos  amp-in-a-TV setup Lin favors the Ethernet over a Wi-Fi configuration. Lin specifically avoids computer lag issues by eradicating a USB jack outlet, enforcing higher connectivity standards for signal quality.

Linn  suggests using the home AC wiring in a system called Home-Plug. The faster signal really gets boosted this way, so Linn users can enjoy old-school DJ turntable mixing with online integrated digital streams. The variety of devices that the Linn DSI can play makes it a serious use piece of audio equipment for living room or garage soundstage. Writing audio signal to media at 85 mpbs can save time when jobs are queued and the night is long.

Want people to come to your party? Let them know one of these is in the house. The Linn Majik DSI works from any digital or analog signal coming from a music Mp3 file, tape recorder, audio tuner, ROM disc, flash drive, Itunes music library file, CD Player, turntable (phonostage), and thumb drive. There ain’t nothing this ***** can’t play.

$4200

Got some gift snobs under the tree this season? There are some really cool advanced technology gifts in the stores this Christmas, strategically priced and ready for your elves to enjoy. Some favor high tech or are accessories to high definition HDTV or big screen LCD television enjoyment.

Playing long distance Santa? Little speakers the size of credit cards , earbuds that never die, or luxurious Ipod docks are light and can be shipped quickly. But one thing is for sure, these gadgets are stocking stuffer sure things.

1. Nikon Coolpix s1100pj

The Nikon Coolpix s1100pj model can project the images it captures. Like the old game of make finger motions against silhouetted light to make wall animals. Comes in 4 colors, piano black on black, wax lamp 1960’s ochre green, royal blue/purple (violet) and silver gray. The Nikon s1100pj has in-camera picture editing. This camera makes a slide show with music and has 17 scene modes. And you can record HD movies in 720p.

The 3 color clear touch display makes working the device easy. With a couple snaps of the camera you just became the most fun person in the party, room, office, hotel elevator, bar or plane. Pull this camera out no matter where you are at the holiday office party, charity fundraiser, church league picnic and tailgate party , and the fun just got going. This should be the media presentation pocket device to end all gadgets.

2. Toshiba 32CV100U 32-Inch 720p

The holidays will be more visually festive with a new Toshiba 32 Inch TV with DVD Player inside, USB, and a port for connecting up the hard drive. For a big set of Farmville (or Cityville or World of Warcraft). The family TV can be the family gaming console again without splitting the budget between devices. The black gloss finish really sells those who want a touch of tech in the family room and hate the silver finish modules.

Why look at the “tube” when you can enjoy your DVD movies with one device in 720p? Slot loading DVD plays recordable DVD format and CD discs as well.  This currently ships 2 days from Amazon. The matching TV mount is here. The USB jack means this Toshiba plays Mp3 tunes and black controls give gaming and action movies the kicker.

3. M-Audio Fast Track Pro

What’s is it? It looks like a set of binoculars some left in the dryer. But this $160 device plays up the playlist and makes it studio ready. Works with Pro Tools SE, an industry standard professional recording software capable of launching your shower warbling to a FaceBook ready hit. One quarter inch headphone output make any audio buds the right ones to hear playback while monitoring, reviewing the audio interface and mobile podcast recording.

Got a fledgeling singer, musician, mixmaster or pop vocalist in the family? This M-audio gadgetis the hit gift of all time. They call this a mobile audio device, and everybody in the room will want to work it. But computer operators can work the Live Lite software and resample, mix and overplay to their heart’s content. Present your significant other with their favorite song remixed with your voice with effects. Create the ultimate kind of greeting in new voicemail answering messages, a chorus of your own voices.

Mac and PC compatible, so glass booths with keyboards no longer shut out the closet mixmaster in us all. the A/B source switch allows mobile DJ capacity with music recording in one. This device is a Youtube waiting to happen. Just ride the open road with your musical composition and plug in every guitar you meet for a recording compilation.

M-audio has been a name in portable audio for some time, and really makes the grade with an old-school 8-track stack look with 4 X 4 media playability and studio quality recording and mixing  results. The dual microphone and instrument  in-jacks and preamp and mixing settings mimic a better studio than the recipient has probably ever been in. From M-audio.com.

4. Shure SE315 headphones

The icky feeling of discovering your best pair of headphones just died may never happen again. Another name in desktop era mixmaster play, Shure makes the super headphones have a $200 price but can be repaired, unlike the 500 pairs you’ve run through since the Walkman was invented.

The noise canceling e portable audio from Shure is about the best in the industry. What’s the gimmick? The earbuds screw out of the wire connectors. So replace your wires, not the headphones and audio quality experience that mean so much. The best part about the price? These can be the late-night movie or gaming headphones for whoever in the house needs to slash and burn when the rest of the family is in bed.

5. IDEA Mp3 portable speaker

These are so James Bond. Buy them early, they go for $75 but the only ones I could find were on Ebay for twice that amount. The credit card Ipod size Mp3 sound speaker has a small footprint and a big sound, letting you bounce all weekend or from work to gym without sacrificing pet sounds, opera hall echoes or garage band effects.

Your LCD Color TV in HD with 1080i interlaced capability could save you or your company $10,000 or more. Telepresence is the hot business model and if you are looking at a series of LCD TV units with more than home entertainment on your mind, you’re on the right track. Investing in video telephony for the home could have huge benefits and allow more commuting days form work just as a start.

The right video conferencing package complete with enabled LCD TV can save any businessperson or entrepreneur thousands of dollars a quarter, perhaps more. And it is more than likely that access to your decision makers will be more convenient than ever. Look for large LCD flat panels for wall mounting or desktop use. Cisco and Panasonic are making telepresence kits ranging from $600 to $30,000.

How can an LCD TV with voice and telephony save you? The average entrepreneur spends hundreds of hours a year in airports, standing in line, sitting and waiting for flights, and eating poor food for the chance to make their case in front of the client. But by the time they’ve landed, depressurized, and spent a small fortune on cabs, hotels, dining and entertainment, business can be the farthest thing from their mind. And the fatigue from travel can wear people down and degrade quality of life.

Just recovery from business travel is exhausting. But with a qualified home LCD TV device telepresence can make you available anywhere you need to be without even one taxi ride to the boarding area. A 50-inch LCD for home office desktop or home entertainment room wall mounting can be the right theater for your business drivers. And mobile apps aren’t far behind. Think of picture in picture three way voice conferencing with video to save two parties the travel.

Imagine if you could save your health and cut your company’s bottom line in the travel budget by half or more. You might be the boss’s new best friend at work come budgeting time. And home businesses can save a fortune by investing in key technology that replaces one-shot business travel. Telepresence always is free and available via Skype and other programs. And the meeting can be rescheduled, interrupted and restarted, or completed with a follow up without endless travel arrangements to complicate the relationships. The flexibility of time management missing in one destination business travel just got transformed with telepresence (video conferencing).

Imagine getting an hour more sleep on those days when you need to be fresh and client ready. With a video conferencing setup at home, telepresence is an everyday convenience that afford global meeting privileges at the touch of a button. Instead of meeting face to face with top clients one a year, make it once a week. Suddenly you are the most accessible turnkey facilitator in your business network.

If you previously made one first class trip each quarter, roundtrip it might have cost at least $2,500. That’s an annual savings of at least $10,000, and more if you are the one who regularly can tap into the client’s office or outside key personnel for brainstorming. Being able to write off a home entertainment TV purchase for benefit of the work group as a business meeting can work if the client wants to get in one the game.

Paying for more kbps per month in your cable plan is a must. Video conferencing allows you to take a break and prepare your materials and begin another presentation when you are ready. A fixed good web camera, a codec box, and a web cam for the documents or subject material make up the requirements.

Check through those end of year LCD TV deals again. Look for high quality TV performance and best LCD TV acoustics review scores. A stationary camera allows freedom of movement and range of motion that smaller webcams don’t do justice to. The expression on your face and body language are visible to your audience. And an LCD TV just became a timesaver, family communication tool, and living room magic carpet in one.