It looks like the guys over at Engadget.com are way closer to the CES 2008 hottest news than I am; from them I've learned about the newest pieces of audio tech showcased at the fair, including the latest news from the LG camp, related to surround sound systems.

The new gear is the result of a fruitful collaboration between the Korean giant and one of the big names with an extremely heavy resonance in the high-end/audiophile industry, Mark Levinson. Still there is no official story about how did Mark Levinson get involved in this project, but the results look quite alluring, if not even amazing.

The LHT888 is the only home theater with pictures taken so far and it looks like LG have made a neat turn towards decor-interested customers: the floorstanders of this particular model look like champagne glasses, with a smooth and sleek, most fluid shape that will integrate exceptionally in the most selective and luxurious interiors.

This system runs on a 5.1-channel architecture and the primary specs claim 700W of power coming from an amplifier integrated in a DVD player with "near 1080p upscaling" capabilities (weird). The LHT888 also comes with a built-in wireless kit, but nobody seems to have a proper idea on what it does exactly. As far as pictures show, all satellite and center channel speakers run on the same driver complement based on a classic d'Appolito array and this means a very high acoustic coherency.

The second surround sound system, the AP133 (no pictures yet), is supposedly built around a Super Blu dual-format player and as far as rumors say, it is HD-ready, but has no support for the latest audio codecs. Until further notice (pricing, full specs and decent pics), it's quite a nice thing that a very exclusive brand like Mark Levinson has accepted to work with a strictly consumer-oriented company like LG.

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