I remember trying to get my wife to agree to let me put 5.1 surround sound in our living room when we bought our first house. She was of the opinion that two small speaker wires running along the bottom of the wall would be the first thing other women would see when they walked in the house. I was of the opinion that she was crazy, but as is the way of women, she won out — for a while.

Thankfully, guys can preempt the old “wires are ugly” argument when they tell the wife or significant other that they want a surround sound system in the living room thanks to JBL. The new JBL WEM-1 Wireless Expansion module will turn wired loudspeakers into wireless units. The JBL system uses a receiver and amplifier unit with 50W of power.

JBL has rolled out some new speakers it says are uniquely shaped to provide multiple installation options depending upon your space. They are called the Control Now speakers and they are priced at around $250 each ($280 for an outdoor version).

The JBL Control Now speakers sport a curved, quarter-round shape to let them be corner mounted, placed on a shelf or hung in a variety of places by themselves or joined to create half-round, three-quarter-round, or round configurations.

JBL is out today with news that it is now shipping its line of ES Series loudspeakers. Multiple units are being made available with prices ranging between around $330 and $1,200 per pair.

The JBL ES Series loudspeakers include a wall-mount/bookshelf monitor (ES10); two bookshelf loudspeakers (ES20, ES30); two floorstanding speakers (ES80, ES90); a center channel speaker (ES25C); and two subwoofers (ES150P and ES250P). The company said all offer new styling with tapered enclosures and a front baffle that curves into the top surface.

I bring you more CES 2008 goodness. The On Time 200ID lets you wake up to your iPod, iPhone, radio, or a simple buzzer. If you want to connect other devices, it also has a 1/8th-inch line input. The one-piece speaker has a backlit LCD as well as touch-sensitive controls, and a backup battery to preserve your settings if power is interrupted.

The On Time 400IHD is pretty similar, but adds dual alarms and an HD Radio receiver for picking up HD stations. It also supports iTunes tagging; just press a button when you hear something you like, and when you sync your iPod in iTunes, it will let you find and buy it quickly.