Famed Italian tyre maker Pirelli is the next company to offer a licensed audio product-- the Pirelli P Zero Sound is a Bluetooth speaker modeled after the P Zero, a tyre used in the wind tunnel testing of F1 cars.

Made by fellow Italian and audio specialist iXoost (pronounced like "exhaust"), the P Zero Sound features a 6.5-inch aluminium rim framing a 25mm inch silk tweeter and 10cm mid/bass driver, and powering it is a 100W amplifier and digital signal processor. Wireless connectivity comes through Bluetooth 4.0 with AptX.

Klipsch announces a two discrete installation subwoofer solutions for home audio system design-- the Professional Series PRO-1200W in-wall subwoofer and the PRO-800SW in-ceiling bandpass subwoofer.

The PRO-1200SW is a 12-inch in-wall subwoofer aimed at new construction in standard 16-inch OC bays. It features a long-throw Cerametallic woofer with reverse rolled surround providing dynamic, balanced and low frequencies in a behind-the-drywall design keeping it hidden from view. It joins the existing PRO-1000SW (10-inch woofer) in-wall subwoofer in the series.

DTS announces more Play-Fi-enabled products are compatible with the Alexa smart assistant, including speakers from Aerix, Klipsch, McIntosh, Onkyo, Pioneer, Phoros and Soundcast.

More products, namely "select" soundbars and AVRs, will also get the upgrade throughout the year.

Alexa compatibility allows customers to control Play-Fi products from another room using their voice and an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show or other Alexa-enabled device. Voice controls include playback of a song in a specific room or group of linked rooms, as well as volume, track skipping, mute, pause, and stop. One simply needs to link an Amazon account to a compatible Play-Fi product, and Alexa automatically learns the speaker name.

Parasound launches a flagship stereo power amplifier-- the Halo JC5, designed by respected audio expert John Curl and promising to boil down "the essence of the two top-of-the-line Halo JC1 monoblock power amps into a single chassis."

The design features a high power and ultra-high bias Class A/B topography able to deliver 400W per channel. High bias A/AB provides 12W per channel pure class A power and class AB to the 400W per channel 8 ohms rating. It delivers 600W per channel into 4 ohms, and can be bridged to mono for 1200W into 8 ohms. The output stage features 24 beta-matched, 15 ampere, 60MHz bipolar transistors to deliver peak current of 90 amperes. Meanwhile the power supply employs a 1.7kVA shielded toroid power transformer with a H18 grade steel core. It has independent secondary windings for the dual-mono power supply.