Ultra Systems' Robert Stein cornered me—in the nicest way possible—at the Stereophile/Home Theater party Wednesday night, telling me that he had a great new acoustical damping product that I should check out in his booth. I was going to give this one a pass until he mentioned that it's small, easy-to-install, and inexpensive.

I have high regard for Robert's ability to select products that make for a positive difference in a sound system, so I went the next day to the Ultra Systems booth to have a look. Made by Nucore Technologies, these acoustical damping panels are a mere 11" x 16" x 2" and are designed to hang on the wall near the ceiling in the corners. I expressed doubts about the effectiveness of something so small, but Robert showed me a before/after comparison measurement—I have to admit that the "after" measurement showed quite a marked reduction of low-frequency reverberation.

This man is electric. More than electric, this man is electricity. The strongest, purest current snaps through him and charges the entire room. We crowd around, unable to fully maintain his flow, but also unable to withdraw. John Atkinson and I settle in closest, occupying the front row. JA follows securely along, constant flickers of acknowledgement and wonder emerge, illuminated moments of understanding and interest. At the same time, however, running in the opposite direction, I feel almost as though I'm being rude — too deeply occupied at scribbling these notes, my pen powered by his words and ideas, moving faster across the page than I want it to go, I can't even look up to meet his eyes. And his eyes, these ice blue darts, they're the blue of a glowing front panel. The man is plugged in.

He's as intense as some of the most beautiful music we've heard at the show, sharing his ideas with a conviction appropriate for song, and punctuating his lyrics with a clap of the hands and a fist into palm: "When that power comes through," he says, "BAM!"

"Can I stop you for just a second, Garth?" JA holds up a hand, a gentle interruption. "I'd like to take your photograph. You've got the passion."

"Sure, John, sure," he kindly acquiesces.

We're in the Furman Sound suite at the Residence Inn, a short walk away from the madness of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and Furman's senior product engineer, Garth Powell, is discussing the company's newest lines of power conditioners.

Powell has been connected to the high-end since he was sixteen, working at a hi-fi shop. He has an idea of what the hi-fi enthusiast wants. "At Furman, we've never been the slickest marketers, but that's not our priority. We want to make sure the technology is really there, not just for protection, but for purity, as well. We're targetting 'mission-critical' customers, those who will not excuse failure."

He explains that Furman provides "non-sacrificial" surge protection. Their "Extreme Voltage Shutdown" technology, coupled with their metal oxide varistor, ensures that there will be no components damaged at the hands of an unexpected surge. "There will be no down-time," Powell says, "No service calls. This is absolutely critical. The last thing a user should worry about is power."

Besides his background in hi-fi, Powell is also a professional jazz musician with a deep respect for the music and a desire to reach the greatest possible performance. "I have absolutely no time for an audio system that's not performing to its fullest capacity."

On display were Furman's Elite series and their new Reference series "i". Prices for the Elite series range from $379 for their Elite 15 to the $1099 Elite 20 PF, and $899 for the Reference IT-7 to the $3500 IT-20. All of Furman's products are said to provide surge protection, while lowering noise, to offer increased low-level detail.

"When you listen to an amp," Powell continues, "you're listening to its power supply — I guarantee you — and, by extension, you're listening to the power coming from your wall. Power is atrocious no matter where you live. I don't care if you're in a gated community or a ghetto, we're all equal in terms of the power we're receiving in our homes. Despite all the progress we've made over the years in every area of technology, we haven't done a damn thing for our AC infrastructure. This may be fine for your toaster, but it's not fine for your high-end audio equipment."

Despite the week of long walks along show floors, from exhibit to exhibit, John and I leave the Furman suite feeling energized. One can't help but catch a bit of a shock when confronted with the kind of passion Garth Powell emits for music and performance.

"Recent advances in solid-state output devices and other components have opened up design possibilities never previously available," Audio Research's Terry Dorn explained. "And that led to our developing the Hybrid Drive HD220 stereo power amplifier ($8995)."

A JFET input feeds a 6922 dual-triode gain stage, which, in turn, feeds a 6H30 dual-triode cathode follower. That signal goes through ARC's proprietary coupling caps to the amplifier's 24 Thermal Trak bipolar output devices (12 per channel), achieving 220Wpc. Thermal Trak output devices automatically adjust their internal bias in response to their operating temperature, which, Dorn assured us, delivers "extremely consistent" performance no matter how hard you push the amp.

A short demo suggested that the HD220 might be a monster—especially in the bottom end.

This was our first chance to hear the $8995 Audio Research Reference CD7 CD player. We were impressed!

No, that's not another Vandersteen sock—it's the carbon fiber plinth of the Vandersteen 5As in Audio Research's room. "Richard [Vandersteen] isn't really offering the 5s in carbon fiber," Audio Research's Terry Dorn told us. "He just wanted to explore the material, so he did these."

So how do they sound?

Dorn cued a disc and simply smiled.

We listened and we smiled too.

(Note: this image is a close up of the carbon pattern to show the texture - the speaker looks a bit darker under normal light and more refined looking than how it appears here—a gorgeous speaker.)

At CES 2006, Jon Iverson and I were impressed by Studio Electric's $8500 Type One modules, even though the mating $3500 XLR woofer modules weren't operating. This year Studio Electric was showing off a pair of the $15,500/pair Type Two towers, which were pure art deco chromed metal work.

Yes, but what Studio Electric was playing when we walked in was a different model employing the same drivers as the Type Two, but in a simpler enclosure—most noticeably incorporating a wood woofer enclosure;

The new model comes in at $6500. "The metalwork was what kills you in pricing," David MacPherson said. This configuration doesn't sacrifice performance to obtain value."

Apparently not. We were just as impressed this year—no, make that more impressed. The additional bass was a treat.

What's the new speaker called? Good question. We were so impressed, we forgot to ask.

We were once again impressed by how un-hi-fi the sound in the deHavilland room was, this time in conjunction with a pair of Tannoy Prestiges. The $10,000/pair 50W deHavilland GM-70 single-ended triode is pure class-A, with zero negative feedback. The GM-70's directly-heated triode vacuum tube is said to be the largest output triode available today. We found the sound sweet, but surprisingly detailed and dynamic. Fit'n'finish were superb.

Behold bills itself as "true digital audio" since it maintains audio as a digital signal up to the amplifier stage. The 600Wpc BPA768 (US price TBD) incorporates 768kHz/24-bit signal processing, a switch-mode power supply, an analog output stage, and an integrated power conditioner.

The Behold APU768 audio processing unit (US price TBD) and CD-Player (US price TBD) utilize a Bluetooth Pocket PC as a remote control, which is a clever idea.

TBI's Jan Plummer is so proud and punched up about his $400/pair Majestic Diamond 1 single driver loudspeakers that he seems to shimmer—as if he's transporting between this plane of existence and another one.

The Majestic Diamonds employ TBI's patent-pending Embedded Transmission Line technology (ETL), which Plummer didn't exactly explain to us. He did demo the Majestic Diamonds for us and they sounded a lot better than any compact, one-driver speaker had any right to—so we expect that whatever other dimension Plummer is jaunting to has different laws of physics.

What was really impressive was Plummer's second demo, which hid two Majestic Diamonds behind a flat-screen TV, facing out to the sides of the room. The sound was direct and focused precisely on the screen itself. ETL may prove most useful in applications where unobtrusive high-quality sound is required.

All I can say for sure is that in terms of energy production, Hoover Dam had serious competition in Jan Plummer. I wouldn't bet against him—or TBI.

After admiring the Redpoint Model A's blueness, we turned our beady gaze to ModWright's blue $3995 LS-36.5 line stage preamplifier. It employs 6H30 tubes, with a 5AR4 tube rectifier. "We've added a phase inversion switch and balanced inputs and outputs," distributor Frank L. Kraus said.

Redpoint's Peter Clark cued up Eden Atwood's bossa nova album Waves and the show's hustle and flow simply disappeared. Ahhhh—is that a Joe Harley production? Of course it is.

ModWright and Redpoint made great music together.

Redpoint's Peter Clark says, "Your heart doesn't beat in ones and zeroes—it's analog." That's why he builds turntables, 'tables machined from solid billets of aircraft aluminum and configures the platter, motor, and tonearm platforms on separate support pods on a common platform.

The $15,000 Model A's platter is topped off with Teflon and is damped with lead shot and oil.

"Why is a turntable called Redpoint blue?"

"I did that for our distributor Frank L. Kraus, who also distributes ModWright and already had a blue ModWright LS36.5. Since Redpoint turntables are handmade, I can can 'customize' every one to suit the customer."

Many of the best-sounding rooms at the show employed Ayre's $16,500/pair 300W MX-R monoblock amplifiers. Yes, they look small enough to be class-D amplifiers, but they're pure analog. How'd they do it? The entire enclosure is the heatsink and Ayre's Charlie Hansen designed a special low-rise transformer, used in pairs, to keep the chassis so compact.

Ayre's Jeff Deese had get down real low to pose with the MX-Rs.

Anthony Gallo has long had a reputation for wresting top dollar performance from small packages, but we've always wondered if he secretly hankered to go big. Anthony Gallo Acoustics' $15,000/pair Reference 5LS certainly answered that question.

The 5LS is 78" tall, but only 7" wide (and 10" deep). The "LS" in the 5LS's model designation stands for "line source," and the forward-facing array consists of seven of Gallo's CDT tweeter and eight 4" carbon-fiber midrange drivers. Gallo claims that alternating the two drivers eliminates the phase and dispersion problems encountered by other line source designs.

Twelve rear-firing 4" subwoofer drivers move as much air as a 15" driver, Gallo claims, but "with speed and transparency that no larger driver can equal."

The 5LS has no crossover other than a first-order low-pass filter and can be bi- or tri-amped, although "any capably designed amplifier can drive them."

Gallo played Rutter's audiophile evergreen Requiem Mass and it was as impressive a performance as I've heard under show conditions. The image height and depth were impeccable and, yes, those 4" woofers do move an impressive amount of air. This is a speaker I could spend time with.

The 150Wpc Boulder 865 integrated amplifier (approximately $10,000) is only four days old, so we tiptoed into the room in order not to wake it up. Richard Maez (seen here at the back of the photo) was elated that the 865 had actually made it to the show, but he was even happier to run down the details.

"It's all analog, operating in class-AB, with balanced inputs. It's essentially our 810 preamplifier and 860 power amp in a single box. The 810 premiered our optically activated stepped volume control, which eliminates the distortion and noise of mechanically sliding wipers—and sounds clearer than resistor ladders.

"Oh yes—did I mention that it has HT pass-through, a 12V trigger, and IR remote inputs."

The new addition to the Boulder family baby weighs 45 lbs.

"Check this out!" Boulder's Richard Maez palmed the remote that accompanies Boulder's 865 integrated amp and 810 preamplifier. "It really fits in your hand—and unlike most remotes, it fits whether you're using your right or your left hand."

One of my favorite records—which I selected as a Record To Die For a few years ago—is Sure Thing, songs by Jerome Kern sung by Sylvia McNair, accompanied by Andre Previn on the piano, with David Finck on string bass. When I walked into the Siltech room, they were playing another recording by Sylvia McNair, with accompaniment by Previn and Finck, this one songs by Harold Arlen, a recording that I have somehow missed getting. The recording sounded quite lovely through Siltech's new speakers (still in prototype form), and I commented on it to the gentleman doing the demo. "I engineered that recording," he said. It turns out that John Newton (left), president of Siltech America, engineered not only Sylvia McNair's Harold Arlen's CD but also her Jerome Kern album. We chatted about the recordings, not the technical but the musical aspects, which served as a most welcome reminder of the interest in music that at a fundamental level forms the basis of this hobby. On the right of picture is yours truly (not Sylvia).

As Wes Phillips reported a day or so ago, The folks at PS Audio have been extremely busy of late. There have all new designs for power-line conditioners, some of them descendants of the highly-successful Power Plant active devices, others passive filter designs. An impressive couple of demonstrations by Paul McGowan showed how a competing power-line conditioner was unable to cope with a power surge that was handled with aplomb by the PS Audio product, and, similarly, a competitor’s product (with the name taped over to protect the innocent) did almost nothing to power line noise that was effectively filtered by the PS Audio product. The loving couple in the picture are PS's Terri and Paul McGowan.

Press conferences can sometimes be tedious affairs, with the presenter going on-and-on about his company's past accomplishments, and how even greater things are coming in the future. But this description did not apply to the press conference for Usher Audio Technology at this year’s CES. This was more like an informal party for friends than the prototypical press conference. People stood around and chatted for a while, and then Atul Kanagat of MusikMatters, Usher’s North American distributor, talked briefly about how Usher’s line of high-value/high-performance loudspeakers is intended to bring more music lovers into the hobby. We then listened to some music through some very-nice-sounding Usher speakers. Pictured are PR consultant Jonathan Scull (whose name should be familiar to Stereophile readers, Usher chief engineer Joe D’Appolito (whose name should be familiar to students of speaker design), Tsai Lien-Shui (President of Usher), and Atul Kanagat.

I’m not fond of using earplugs, so I haven’t really investigated listening to music with in-the-ear-canal type earphones. However, I've read reports from the likes of Wes Phillips and John Atkinson, extolling the virtues of these type of earphones, so when I saw the sign at the Shure booth that they had some new models in this series, I thought I'd give them a listen. The ones I tried were the top-of-the-line SE530 ($449.99), which are described as "triple TruAcoustic microspeakers," with a separate tweeter and two woofers. I listened to "Nessun Dorma" sung by Pavarotti—the source was an iPod—and was quite blown away with the effortless ease and natural quality of the sound. Maybe there is something to earphone listening after all...