Gadget wishlist

Today I went to the What Hi-Fi?/Best of Stuff show in Hammersmith (I was one of the few women, it seemed, who didn't attend with their partner or dress in nothing but thin strips of strategically-placed cloth) and came away with a new gadget wishlist. None of what I loved is the best in its category (far from it), but each was the best that I want right now:

Cyrus CD8 CD player: a remarkably smooth, full-bodied sound from such a little, brushed silver box.

Elonex Extentia PC: Pentium 4, 3 GHz, XP Media Center, 512 Mb memory, 200 Gb hard drive, 17" widescreen, 5.1 surround sound, TV tuner, FM radio, DVD-rewriter. And no tower - it's all in the monitor.

Archos Gmini 400 audio and video player: 20 Gb, plays MP3s and WMAs, full-colour screen that also displays photos and plays video files, brushed silver metal casing; surprisingly thin and light (unlike the new Creative PVP).

JVC InteriArt LCD TV: 32" widescreen, 170 degree viewing angle, PAL progressive. I still prefer CRT TVs because, to my eye at least, the screens have the best clarity. Despite believing LCD technology to be better than plasma technology - in the sub-32" category at least - the picture detail on most LCDs are still a little too fuzzy around the edges for my liking. Not this baby though. Pin-sharp viewing at any angle and not too big for the living room.

But my favourite of the entire day was the Sony NW-HD1 audio player: 30 hour battery life, 20 Gb, smaller and thinner than an iPod (which I alone seem to think looks tacky and plastic - ducks for cover), brushed metal case and that lovely Walkman logo. However, at present the Sony HD1 stubbornly only plays ATRAC files (it converts MP3s). I refuse to convert my entire MP3 collection to Sony proprietary format, so I'm holding out for the next generation Sony HD Walkmans (coming out in a few months), which promise to play MP3s without forcing a conversion to ATRAC. There's also a Sony Vaio audio and video player with full-colour screen, but I found the touchpad intuitive to the point of irritation. (Incidentally, the new teeny-tiny Zen Micro is a thing of beauty, comes in 10 colours from silver to lime, and is a dream to handle, but only comes with 5 Gb capacity.)

Christmas is coming. Hint, hint, hurrah!

Related links:
+ Gizmodo. Gadgets weblog.
+ Player. MP3 players blog. Superb.
+ DAP Review. Digital audio player news, reviews and forums. Indispensible.