Any member feedback from C.E.S. 2006?

I thought the sound, as usual, was best at THE Show. I heard four speakers that impressed me. First the Zen Acoustics little guys with the Red Dragon switching amp. Second the Tonian $1500 speakers which have to be the best buy for the money. Third were the Ars Aures big speakers. With low phase distortion, they gave an excellent sound stage and realism. I could listen all day with the Art Audio 845 amps. Fourth and best, were the Cerious Technologies satellite speakers with powered subwoofers. They were no doubt helped by the H-Cat, but their sound stage realism was dumbfounding. I have never heard such accurate bass. They are also incredibly priced at $7800.

The Acapella Violon Mk IIIs were also excellent, but their price is offputting. The little one, also pricy, were also excellent.

APL had a complete system. The sound and the price was outstanding. It is very difficult to consider a $20k mod of the Esoteric player which removes everything except the transport and chassis. It would be worth very little used.

I heard the Australian, megabuck turntable. It was very good, and I would be very interested were it to cost $7500 total.

The big MacIntosh 110 drivers speakers were awful. I would take them if they paid me enough.

I heard the DartZeel preamp and amps but could not really get a feel for the sound given that the speakers were overloading the room. The sound was much better at the RMAF. I would love to have them in my home to find out what the fuss is about and whether I agree.

Much to my disappointment, the Consonance 211 amps were not at the show.

Finally, I thought the Soaring Audio system with their Falcon media center hard drive running their amp sounded quite good. Overall, there were many hard drive digital systems there and all sounded good. There was no comparison with better players, such as the Reimyo or Exemplar, however.

THE Show needs to make an agreement with Hooters who now owns the San Remo hotel. That would be a hoot.

Overall I thought it was a good show. A few high level observations;

1. The music being played this year was not as good as last year. I walked away with only 3 new (to me) artists.

2. There were more good sounding rooms this year than last.

3. My most repeated comment was "Sure it sounds pretty good, but how much did you say that costs!?"

A few specific impressions

Nordost power cables, swapping a stock power cord to a Vishnu on a plasma display made the images simply come alive. Color, texture, motion capture and blacks all improved. This really makes me wonder what they could do for audio.

Continuum / Peak Consult room had really good sound, one of the better rooms at THE Show and CES. An assessment of value varies, but it should have sounded that good for what the system cost. Continuum table, Boulder phono stage, WAVAC mono block amps, WAVAC pre-amp (I think), Empress speakers (Peak Consults $25 or $30k offering) not sure what cartridge or cables. I went in this room with high expectations and was not dissappointed.

Danish (Swiss?) Statement room: For $500k this system should have rocked...and it did. Best I've ever heard a four tower speaker system integrate.

Von Schweikert V9SE / Dartzeel / EMM Labs: Awesome sound that got better on day 2 of the show (smoother mids and highs w/less bass overload). The new pre-amp is a stunning piece of gear and in my experience you'll not find better guys in the biz than the Dartzeel guys. New Grand Prix 'table seemed to be promising and I'm sure it was helped by the Dartzeel pre-amps built in phono stage. One of the best rooms at the show.

MBL room: Two years in a row now these guys cranked the volume up to 21 and its only enough for me to say...yup, awesome bass...yup they play loud...yup, big soundstage...next.

Usher room: Awesome sound and my pick for biggest surprise and one of the best sounds at the show. The big $16k Dancers and their little $7k brother are simply a stunning speaker. The (full!) line of Usher electronics also seemed to exhibit great promise. Finally a room with killer sound that is relatively affordable and simply spanked a lot of the big buck rooms.

Nuforce room: Again using Usher Dancers (the $7k ones)...ahh...now I get what everyone is raving about. This room simply rocked. One of my favorites and...GASP...its affordable!

Accappela / Chapter audio: Great sound but forget the models displayed.

Prima Luna / Upscale Audio room: If I ever were to buy a speaker based on looks it would be the Sonus Faber Amati Anniversarios (sp?) in this room. Oh and the sound was not bad either! The Prima Luna pre-amp and mono-blocks(!) sounded good. Source was the Ah! CD player.

Vandy Quattros / ARC: Good sound, can't go wrong with that combo but $3k for the wood finish! We'll see how that goes with the consumers.

BAT room: Good sound, Wilson Max 2s were a little slow and thick in the bass. Maybe a room problem?

Audio Note Japan room: Awesome sound, but I would have expected that from a $160k pair of mono blocks driven by a $85k pre-amp and a $25k (47 labs Pi tracer) CD player. The value(!?) in this room was the speakers...Art Audio (I think) 2 ways for $30k.

JAS Audio: Totally new to me company with full line of electronics and good sounding speakers using all ceramic drivers.

Boulder actually had an active display with their new (affordable) electronics and B&W 802Ds and sounded good.

Apogee's were reincarnated and being displayed in some room with good sound

Dissappointments:
Did I miss the Walker 'table anywhere!?
Never did get into the Magico room

Ok, I'm done playing reviewer for now. There was much more of course, but its escaping me at the moment Perhaps more later.

I was wondering if anyone heard the Merlins?Thanks,Bob

1. RCM "Bonasus" 2 channel push-pull tube integrated was very good at $6000 price point, 16watt/channel 8 ohm, www.rcmaudio.pl
2. Nuforce stuff was suprisingly good.
3. AudioNote best-in-show??, even sounded good with Finish heavy-metal band, demoed' to show it can do anything.
4.Power surge at THE Show wiped-out some equiptment, recorded as high as 200 volts for awhile, The Audion guys had to run HomeDepot power cord from other room to replace blown power conditioner.
5. New Yamaha "speaker", about 4 ft. wide, 5"high, 4" deep. Fits under video screen, has 42? small speakers, amps, processors that "beam" sound to 5 locations, very very convincing 5.1 effect, esp.good for apartments, good WAF.
6. BlueCircle Amp sounded very good with small speaker.
7. Cary room sounded good.
8. Herron room sounded good.
9. More later as I check out some of my limited notes.
.....Mike

I also liked the Ginko Audio Tubulous speakers with the Modwright preamp, and Modwright modified Denon 3910. CDs sounded great that the speakers seemed like a great value for $2500.

Right near that room was a Boulder amp driving a new $40K+ speaker from RBH Sound with what was it, 6 beryllium midrange drivers and three metal woofers. I’m generally not a fan of metal drivers but that room had detail and dynamics, bottom end, imaging, and was definitely one of the best sounding rooms.

I sat through the a Nordost cable presentation, and came away again impressed with the Valhalla, and actually surprised that I could hear differences in their various cables. The speakers there were Eden I think, with a ribbon tweeter, and sounded good in that room and two others I heard them in.

There were some electrostatic speakers from Hong Kong by KingSound. $6K a pair for panels larger than Maggie 3.6s, with base that seemed as low as SoundLabs, but more beamy. Pretty impressive for the price.

Probably the biggest surprise was the ASR Emitter amplifier. In going from room to room at the Show I just happened into it. The speakers there at the time was a smaller pair with cone drivers retailing for about $10K I think. The CD player was the BlueNote Stibbert that I’d heard in several other rooms so it wasn’t making the difference in the sound. But the detail on cymbals, and woodwinds and strings seemed extremely lifelike and dynamic to me. I’m not a fan of Harry Pearson, but maybe I’ll have to reconsider my position about that because that room definitely produced sound that’s stuck in my head. It sounded so alive.

Another big surprise was in the media sales area at the Alexis Park there was the Stibbert CD player (again, it seemed to be in many locations) driving a $1K AKG 1000 headphones and also the $3K+(?) Stax headphones with the tube stage. There was no contest: the AKG were superior in sound, and far superior in comfort. They just rest about your ears and the panels hang down not touching ears at all. They definitely don’t block out any sound, but they sure sounded good top to bottom, and did I mention dynamic? A pleasant surprise for sure.

I listened for a while in the VMPS room to their patented or patent pending wave guide. It certainly seemed to produce a really wide sound stage that was a benefit to ribbons. I wasn’t impressed with the tube amps driving them. They seemed slow. The Ampzilla solid states amps have been in the VMPS room in the last several years, and my memory is that they were much faster and better, and provided a better showing for that VMPS speakers. So maybe the amps are to blame for my feeling under whelmed with the room.

The MBL and Merlin rooms always have great sound. I could easily live in either room, even though the sound in each is always very different.

Other disappointments were the Bosendorferner speakers. They looked beautiful, but didn’t disappear at all. Some serious further development seems needed there. The Von Schweikert room also seemed to be producing dull and sluggish sound. Maybe it was just me.

Saw and heard the new $90K turntable that graced Stereophile’s cover. It was at both the Show and the Alexis Park. It looks so funny with its big tone. Reminds me of old record player tone arms from cheapo box with lid record players from 40 years ago. But it sounded fine. Nothing earth shattering though, except to my wallet.

Those are the highs and lows for me. Definitely a good show. The Platters Drifters and Coasters performance at the Sahara was enjoyable, even if it was a little loud. Maybe that was because I was slightly left of center and nearly on axis to one of the reinforcement speakers. There’s nothing like live music. Except maybe those annoying ASR Emitters . . . and there’s no dealer in my area to hear them again.