"You know," Alon Wolf told us. A lot of what you liked about the sound of my music server was the Pacific Microsonics Model Two DAC I was using. But that's no longer manufactured, this is even better and only $5000."

He pointed at Berkeley Audio Design Associates' Alpha DAC. It did seem pretty fly; 32–192kHz sampling rates, 24-bit word lengths, HDCD decoding, advanced input signal jitter rejection, and specs that were just stunningly low.

We're betting it's a DAC to watch, listen to—you know what we mean.

We were listening to Magico's fabulous V3s ($25,000/pair), which John Atkinson will be reviewing in the May issue, when we noticed a large music server. "What's that?"

"It's just a music server I built to play hi-rez files," Alon Wolf said.

"You built it? What does it cost?"

"It's not for sale. You can't write about it. I just did it because nothing available did what I wanted."

Please let us write about it. Please. Please.

"Okay, but you have to say it's not for sale. Now, would you like to hear some 24-bit/88.2kHz recordings JA made?"

He cued Cantus' recording of Lauridsen's Lux Aurumque and we were bathed in the warm acoustic and manly voices.

"Now check out Reference Recording's 24-bit/176.4kHz download of Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances. It's good, but the big jump is from 16-bit to 24-bit."

That Alon Wolf, he's a really smart guy. We just hope he wises up and brings that thing to market.

Several rooms this year are sporting 1/4" reel to reel decks as source components. The Tape Project has caught on with exhibitors in the Venetian including Pioneer/TAD & Magico. Representatives from TTP were often spotted hauling reel to reel tapes, along with the machines that play them (such as this modified Technics 1600) up and down the halls.

There's just something positively elegant about watching the reels slowly turn as incredible sound rolls out.

We glanced into Oracle's room to see what was new. We'd seen the Delphi, we'd seen the CD 1500 and CD 2500 before. "Nothing new?" we asked.

Actually, yes: the Thalia moving coil cartridge ($1500). It was voiced to be used in a Delphi Mk V turntable, fitted with an Oracle/SME 345 tonearm feeding an Oracle Temple phono section.

The Thalia's body is ebony, the cantilever is boron, and the output 2.5mV. "We voiced it to be warm and have lots of body without sacrificing Oracle's traditional speed and detail," said Rusty Taub.

Based on what we heard coming out of the Usher B-10s, they succeeded.

Audio Space's DAC-1 US ($3000) is a hybrid tube/Mosfet DAC with a difference.It has two pairs of RCA analog outputs: One deriving its signal from the tube DAC; the other taking its signal from the discrete Mosfet DAC.

The tube section employs two 6922s.

Both are 24-bit and upsample to 192kHz.

We were impressed by the warm, alive sound in Audio Space's room. The Audio Space Reference 2 preamplifier ($9500 with MM/MC phonos section) and Reference 3 50W monoblock amplifiers ($7800/pair) were driving Von Schweikert VR-5 Anniversary loudspeakers.

Nils Lofgren's "Keith Don't Go" was impressively dynamic and alive. These guys are on to something good!

The Lyngdorf Server 1 is a music and video server had us drooling. Lyngdorf, of course, loves to keep signals digital until the last millimeter, building DACs into their active DSP-driven loudspeakers. The Server 1 sounded great—there was just one problem: It isn't available. Yet.

"We have the software written and the GUI is done, but we're working on lowering the jitter in HDMI and USB—which is not an inconsiderable task," a Lyngdorf rep explained. "We think we can do even better, so we won't bring the server to market until it outperforms everything else we've seen."

And the price?

"We don't know, but less than the Kaleidescape, that's for sure."

The PS Audio Memory Link ($1695) is a CD/DVD/RAM drive. It's a mechanical player (ie, it still spins the discs), but it has an unusually large cache. Conventional players have caches of around 8–16MB, the Memory Link has a 64MB cache. Why is this better?

Paul McGowan says the larger cache—about three minutes worth of music—allows the processor to handle larger "packets" of information, which in itself reduces the amount of timing jitter. The data is put through a digital lens with output jitter measured as low as 0.5ps.

The Memory Link runs Linux and, McGowan says, will be able to harvest metadata and album art off the Internet, as well as rip CDs to a music server. There's a small display on its front panel which can display art or text.

We asked which music service PS was using for metadata and album art. McGowan told us PS would write its own software to do that, which strikes us as a fairly ambitious for what is essentially an engineering company.

The Memory link gas a full complement of outputs, HDMI (for I²S). Ethernet, USB, TOSlink, AES/EBU, and S/PDIF RCA.

A similarly priced DAC is in the works, McGowan said.

It will ship by summer, McGowan said.

The digital outputs include HDMI for audio only output.

Wes Phillips, Stephen Mejias, and Kal Rubinson join San Antonio, Texas retailer Galen Carol on the way to the Venetian. As Galen explained to us, high end retailing is a bit of a challenge, but still viable to dealers that take care of their customers and offer old fashioned service.

I was excited to see Cambridge Audio's TT50 turntable. On display with their small, S30 loudspeakers ($259/pair), the TT50 was looking pretty darn sexy in its high-gloss jet-black finish. If it reminds you of Pro-Ject's popular Debut III, that's probably because the TT50 was developed in partnership with that Austrian firm. It uses a proprietary tonearm, an Audio Technica AT95E moving magnet cartridge, and its elastomer-coated acrylic platter is said to "control resonance and provide matched acoustic impedance to the vinyl record for maximum detail retrieval."

The TT50 is available now for $500.

His name is Adam Shaw-Cotterill. He works for Audio Partnership, parent company of Mordaunt-Short. He's got some long, fancy title, but his job is to take care of his customers. Don't let his doey eyes fool you. He's not so innocent, not so safe. In fact, he's an absolute firecracker, burning and burning and ready to explode. He wants to tell you about a loudspeaker. He wants to tell you about the all-new Mordaunt-Short Mezzo 1. And he'll waste no time about it. Words rush from his mouth like bells and whistles from the Las Vegas Hilton Casino. It's almost too fast to keep up. But you will keep up because he'll make you want to keep up. You'll get excited with him and for him, realizing that he loves this loudspeaker, that he loves what this loudspeaker does and what it means.

What it does is utilize much of the technology of Mordaunt-Short's flagship Performance Series speakers, but at a much more affordable price point. And what that means is that Mordaunt-Short can become more attractive to more people, bring more music to more people.

"We're absolutely fanatical about getting costs as low as possible for our customers, without sacrificing performance."

The attractive Mezzo 1 costs an attractive $500/pair. It was designed with two purposes in mind: To act as a satellite in a home theater system or—as I would use it—as a stereo bookshelf speaker for a smaller listening room. At its heart is Mordaunt-Short's new Aspirated Tweeter Technology, trickled down from the company's Performance Series. The ATT tweeter employs "scrupulously designed structural moldings with strategically positioned vents which help turn rear radiation into diffuse field energy."

I don't know. It kinda looks like a wacky hash pipe to me.

And here is Adam Shaw-Cotterill licking the Mezzo 1's Aspirated Tweeter. I'm not sure why he's licking it. He must really love it.

Apparently, you can also smoke Mordaunt-Short's Aspirated Tweeter. It is said to produce glorious highs.

Back home, at the end of a long day, John Atkinson will often come into my office and wish me a good evening. It's very sweet.

"Well, Stephen," he says, "we've reached the end of another perfect day."

"Yes," I say.

"And do you know what time it is?"

"What time is it?"

"It's beer o'clock," he says, slowly and with a smile. "Beer o'clock."

But here, in Vegas, things are just a little bit different. John and I spent much of the first morning handing out the awards for our Products of the Year. It was a real pleasure. Apparently, when we were all done, it was Mr. Misty Pink Fizzy o'clock.

Hey,what happens in Vegas...

The Jadis magic is hard to explain. But once you hear it, you can recognize it again and again. It has to do with the beauty of the midrange, the accuracy of timbres, and an inherent musicality that is less about detail than essence.

Not that the PA-88S 60Wpc, remote-control, class-A integrated amplifier with KT-88 tubes ($13,500) and JD-3 Evo CD player ($8000) being demmed at THE Show were without detail. On the contrary, they had just begun to open up after breaking in for less than 24 hours. They were already sounding clear, warm, and revealing. Paired with Pierre Gabriel's Presence II speakers (91dB into 4 ohms), PGI MLI interconnect ($1500) and PGS MLI speaker cables ($3500), this system was doing wonders with cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and pianist Alexandre Tharaud's gorgeous recording of Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata (Harmonia Mundi). I was especially impressed with the harmonic decay of the piano, the overtones on the cello, the clarity of articulation, and the transparency.

North American Jadis distributor Pierre Gabriel reports that Jadis is using different KT-88s than before—Tungsols from Russia that are hand-selected and matched by Jadis—resulting in a more liquid sound than ever before. I can't wait to hear these tubes in my Jadis DA-7 Luxe. Even without Pierres upgraded internal wire, which is said to improve detail and transparency, the sound was reference quality. Once Pierre's power conditioner arrives, and he’s able to chuck the stock power cable and use his own, I expect the sound will be even better. Anyone reading this who is at the show would be wise to wait until Wednesday, when everything is far more settled in, to check out this system.

One of the highlights of RMAF 2007 was encountering Lou Hinkley's Daedalus Audio Ulysses loudspeakers ($8800/pair) in the ART Audio room. Here, paired with Gill Audio Designs Alana preamp ($5000) and Elise DAC ($6000), an Ensemble transport, Clayton M-200 power amps ($9500/pair), and relatively inexpensive Empirical Design cabling, the system was arresting in its transparency and three-dimensionality.

Equal credit, I feel, should go to Ben Piazza's amazing Shakti Hallographic Soundfield Optimizers and Shakti Stones, which respectively tamed the room and conquered EMI. (John Atkinson may be skeptical, but I use the Hallographs at home, and they work wonders, especially how they help clarify the midrange in very large, minimally treated listening area). On the first track of Marta Gomez's superbly recorded Chesky CD, Entre Cada Palabra, the clarity of percussion and woodwinds, and the soft beauty of the singing, were exemplary.

As I was leaving Jack Bybee had brought in a pair of his latest Quantum Noise Purifiers, which further highlighted detail and did wonders on the highs—Ben Piazza (left) Lou Hinkley of Daedalus (right), and Jack Bybee feel their products work extremely well together!

It's hardly the same as clicking your heels three times and finding yourself back in Kansas, but Stereophile's metaphoric Good Witch of the High End, John Atkinson, has granted me my big wish for CES. Instead of finding myself wandering around and around in circles, following my ears, I’ve been assigned specific turf: T.H.E. Show. And since T.H.E. Show’s two venues, the St. Tropez and adjacent Alexis Park, are literally across the street from our bloggers' home for four nights, the newly and quite tastefully refurbished, remarkably low-key Hyatt Place Las Vegas (formerly the AmeriSuites), yours truly could not be happier. The Sands/Venetian may have more–well-known, higher-profile players, and is certainly attracting more visitors, but I've entered a number of wonderful-sounding rooms on my first day at the St. Tropez to make me quite happy to be here.

You know you're going to have a good time when the first people you encounter, other than the fabulous Marjorie Baumert and Al Stiefel of Rocky Mountain Audio Fest fame, are the warm, blessedly open folks from Edge Electronics. It's even better when their room delivers the near impossible: great sound on the first morning of T.H.E. Show.

So what's so great about Edge? Paired with the same Avalon Eidelon diamond-tweeter-equipped speakers ($34,500/pair) that sounded so great in the VTL room at CES 2007, the Edge G CD Player ($6038), Signature 1.l preamp ($14,788), Ref 20M power conditioner ($3578), and NL 12.1 SE amplifier ($30,464)—please don't ask me to explain the pricing—all connected by Cardas Golden Reference cables, were throwing a wonderfully deep, enveloping soundstage that made me want to sit and listen, and then listen some more.

Thanks to great electronics (and the none-too-shabby speaker design), the Avalons absolutely disappeared, leaving only music in their place. That may not sound like much. But in a show context, to find oneself drawn in by music rather than a collection of sometimes intriguing, sometimes puzzling sounds is far too rare an occurrence. The strains of the final minute of Mozart's Mass in C Minor were beautiful. On the first track of Bobo Stenson, Anders Jormin, and Paul Motian's Goodbye (ECM), the piano actually sounded like a piano, which is quite an accomplishment. The bass sounded absolutely solid, with not a trace of booming or bottoming out. And timbres were pretty darn true.

The man next to me commented to Edge’s Steven Norber (pictured) that he always comes to the Edge room at shows, because it's one of the few places where he can be assured good sound. That was certainly the case here. I returned at the end of the day to get another taste. Bravo.

We'd been told to check out Boulder's new music server, but that's not exactly what the $24,000 1021 Disc Player is. It's a CD player (with a few other formats "to be announced") that uses a computer disc drive to feed a one-minute buffer to "preserve the integrity of the audio signal delivered from the drive. "Also," confided Steve Rockwell, "the clock is about this far [pinches fingers together], so jitter is phenomenally low."

Raw data is dumped from the buffer to a Boulder-designed Eigen-value DSP oversampling filter—which itself, has a data buffer to eliminate timing glitches.

The independent, precise-interval master clock is said to "reduce jitter and low-frequency modulation noise to "immeasurable levels." The clock signal is also fed "upstream" to control the DSP.

There's also Boulder's selectable digital volume control, which can be programmed for 1dB steps or turned off.

The 1021's analog section is pretty slick too, incorporating Boulder's six-pole Bessel filter and the output stage of Boulder's 983, which is "robust enough to drive long cables."

Did we mention the large display panel? It can display data from the 1021's internal processor or pull it off the Internet.

We tried lifting the 1021 and per pound, it just might be a bargain.

We're stunned at how few exhibitors spend money for the larger rooms on the 35^th floor of the Venetian, since they are so sonically impressive. Sumiko's room with the $28,000 SME 2012, $6000 Audio Research PH7, $10,000 Audio Research Reference 3, Audio Research Reference 210 monoblock amplifiers ($9000/each), and brand-spanking new $25,000/pair Vienna Acoustic Die Musik loudspeakers had us glued to the sweet spot.

There's just something about a big, open room—and when a system has a price tag the size of that in Sumiko's room, why would you compromise the sound by jamming it in a shoebox?

Well played, Sumiko.

Sumiko had a new Pro-Ject turntable on display, the "approximately $2000" Perspex, which sports the new 9CC Evolution tonearm.

The table has a mag-lev suspension and tunable sub-platter assembly and plinth.

The tonearm is called "9CC" because it's a 9" model using continuous carbon fiber. The bearing assembly seems monstrously overbuilt. "That gives it remarkable rigidity," said Norbert Schmidt.