The Annual Home Entertainment Show is a fairly unique phenomenon. This being my first year, I was expecting something more or less akin to your standard tradeshow, in the vein of a CES or a Digital Life, a huge convention floor monopolized by booths and fast-talking vendors vying for a moment of my time.

That the event was being held in the Grand Hyatt, just east of Manhattan's Times Square area, threw me for a bit of a loop. Do they have a convention-sized floor somewhere inside the hotel? In a word: nope. Vendors are given their own rooms, either conference rooms, or standard hotel rooms, within which to show off their wares. You walk down the halls in something akin to a bizarro version of trick-or-treating. With the doors closed, it's a bit like each room is trying to outdo their neighbors with their high-end soundsystems, like a different party going down simultaneously in every room on four hotel floors--instead of the standard musical party fodder, however, one room is playing an HD-DVD version of the Peter Jackson 's King Kong remake, and on the other side of the wall, it'll be Tchaikovsky 's "Swan Lake," turned up loud enough for Beethoven to hear. Oh, and of course enough comfy couches to go around

The soundsystems also become increasingly bizarre, as you ascend hotel floors, as if you were observing the fauna, diving deeper and deeper into the depths of the ocean. Even for the expert audiophile, it becomes difficult to discern the subtle differences between two $20,000 speaker sets, after a couple of hours and a few dozen rooms.

I managed to snap a few pictures at the event. Click here to check out a few highlights.