Admittedly this list would be a lot longer and more fun to write if a device didn’t have to make a sound, produce a picture or do both to feature on it. This is whathifi.com, after all. CES remains as odd as it’s ever been, with this year’s wackiest reveals including a clip-on furry monster robot thing, a spoon that makes meals taste saltier, and an iPad that bricks when you die. But the quirkiness can, thankfully, only go so far in the AV and audio world.
Still, three companies in it certainly managed to raise eyebrows this week…
Displace TV’s wirelessness and suction-cup wall-mount
I first came across Displace’s futuristic TV concept a couple of CES shows ago when it showcased "the world's first truly wireless TV," which is powered with rechargeable batteries, exclusively controlled via touch, hand gestures and voice assistants, and can be stuck to a wall simply through its proprietary, suction-cup-like ‘active-loop vacuum technology’. The panel – or panels, you can put several together to make up a 110-inch viewing area – wirelessly connects to a base unit that does require power from an electrical outlet. And of course, AI agents are on the menu, baked into the TV’s operating system to do much more than you would ever probably require of it.
Making headlines again at CES, this time as more of a fully realised product it would seem, the Displace TV looks finally ready to be stuck to walls in actual homes. In America, anyway. ‘March 2025’ is the shipping date according to Displace’s website.
If you thought all that convenience and innovation would cost a body part, you would be right. The 27-inch (!) stand-featuring (no wall-mounting) Basic model costs $1499 if bought during the CES period, or $2499 thereafter, while the 55-inch model is $2499 now or $3499 later. Similarly, the wall-mountable Pro model with an integrated speaker system is $2999 or $3999 at 27 inches, and $4999 or $5999 at 55 inches.
The TV seems to be the picture of convenience (albeit not for your wallet) and certainly lives up to the company’s name, though while it does sport an OLED panel (of some sort), I can’t exactly see it appealing to a home cinema enthusiast!
The AirStudio One – not just a microphone
If there’s one thing CES isn’t short of, it’s content creators – and many of them attending the show this week would no doubt have been intrigued by startup Hisong's latest innovation, spotted by Engadget and winner of a 2025 CES Innovation Award.
What looks like simply a microphone is actually a portable studio recording in your hand – a 4-in-1 device that comprises a wireless condenser microphone, a pair of earbuds (hidden inside), a mixer and an audio interface (built-in processor and companion app) in one neat little tool. The idea is that a podcast, a vocal track or a voice-over for a video etc could be easily created – from recording to mixing – on the go.
It’s retro-styled too, making it a cool creator companion (at least until the retro fad ends).
Audfly’s private soundstage, just for you
OK, so I have another product that’s a little leftfield of What Hi-Fi?’s usual product focus here – a PC, specifically the Lenovo ThinkCentre M90a Pro Gen 6. But what’s interesting is the audio technology it features.
Audfly's Focus Sound Technology essentially controls the direction and angle of audio output to create a private soundstage that others in the room cannot hear (or hear less). I’ve seen similar sound-directional tech being used to create highly localised bubbles of audio before in a few home speakers, and I have to say the idea that certain home or on-the-go entertainment devices such as iPads could be less noisy without requiring headphones does appeal.
With the promise of private sound in an open area, you can see why it makes sense in a computer (especially a work computer) application. Audfly does say, however, that this marks “the first step in the expansion of Audfly's Focus Sound Technology into a wider range of product formats”. Indeed it has already teamed up with Tencent Games to include the technology in a new 3D (somehow) handheld gaming console too.
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