First and foremost, Happy holidays to all and I wish everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.

I’ve been trying to follow CES 2010 news this year, specifically for any information with respect to Atlantic Technology. I feel that with the relationship between Outlaw and Atlantic that there may be some insight as to what we may see this year in new Outlaw products. The most news worthy of course is the H-PAS technology that Atlantic will be bringing to the market. Here are two links to the only CES 2010 coverage that I could find thus far:

http://blog.hometheatermag.com/ces2010/010910atlantic2/
http://blog.hometheatermag.com/ces2010/010810atlantic/

Even though that I find it interesting and impressive that H-PAS will be able to produce such specs in relatively small enclosures, I wonder if speakers that are capable to reach such lows are even necessary in a home theater environment. The reason that I ask such a question is because of the crossover point that most of us set our equipment at. I am speculating that it is around 80 Hz which is a recommendation from THX and also seems to be a very good range. I don’t think that it would be too desirable to have our front and center channel speakers accepting signals much below 80, unless of course that you are using speakers that go lower. But even if you were:

1. Would it be mere speculation to assume that audio below 80 Hz, especially LFE, would have a much better sound and impact coming from a larger enclosure of a subwoofer?
2. How can a small enclosure with H-PAS technology that hits 40 Hz, pressurize a room like a subwoofer box can?
3. Would we rather crossover at a lower point if we could efficiently?
4. If the answer to #3 is yes, then will future subwoofers get smaller as opposed to larger which appears to be the direction of the industry? (SVS, HSU, ED, etc.)

Obviously these are question that will be answered in due time and I think the coming year will be very interesting indeed.

Personally I like my sub handling the audio below 80; therefore my fronts need to be able to reach down to 70 Hz which is a very easy number to reach in today’s market. I am leaning too believe that H-PAS is targeted to mostly music and two channel set ups.

Finally, I wish Peter T all the best with his new products and I sincerely hope that Atlantic Tech and Outlaw do very well with H-PAS.