Rappin' Up in a Down Year Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 3:26 PM ET
By Wes Phillips

At the end of every CES, we struggle to find the underlying themes that bind the show to the industry and the world at large. The overwhelming theme this year was the economy. Attendance was down—the official estimate was 10% off of last year's, but everyone I spoke with snorted in derision at that figure.

How down was it? Halls were navigable, even on Saturday, the busiest day. Taxis queues were less than 10 minutes, down from up to an hour last year. And, while restaurants were crowded, I saw one manufacturer book at table for six at the wildly popular Bouchon for Saturday night on Friday night. No, it wasn't a "normal" year.

So who didn't come to CES this year? Many dealers, especially dealers who weren't shopping for anchor lines. Buying one to show and one to go is an expensive proposition and any dealer who felt comfortable with his product mix either stayed home or flew in for one day. The attendance at the LVCC was down too—the collapse of the big box A/V retail chains meant that most of that sector wasn't so much looking for more stuff but rather for ways to offload the inventory on hand.

Even the big Japanese A/V companies were low-key this year. Kalman Rubinson, who attended the Wednesday press conferences, said that each presentation basically consisted of "Here's a TV, here's another TV, here’s another….

There was very little "affordable" high-end gear this year. There will always be some, of course, but the ratio of bang-for-the-buck products to ultra-high-end gear was skewed this year. The reason? Ordinary people aren't buying audio because they are concerned about other things right now—how much less the value of their house is than their mortgage, their existing credit card debt, or even if they are going to have a house to keep all their stuff in.

This is not a trend that began in September 2008, it has been going for at least two years and the manufacturers are hewing to a tried and true principle: If they ain't buying it, don't make it.

I spoke to one manufacturer who specializes exclusively in gear under $2k and he said he had no Christmas bump this year—that not only were his YTD sales down 30% in 2008, but the buying season resembled mid-summer, a traditional slow sales period.

On the other hand, I spoke to a loudspeaker manufacturer who was marveling that sales of his $80,000/pair flagships went up by 40% in the months since September. Asked why he thought that was, he reflected for a minute and said, "The people who can afford $100,000 for a pair of loudspeakers aren't effected by the economy the way you and I are—they have money enough to be comfortable. But all of the things they traditionally acquire are money-losing propositions right now. Buy property and you'll take a loss. Buy stocks, ditto. Invest in the market and you'll probably eventually make money, but it's a nerve-wracking proposition. So the answer is to buy stuff that makes you happy."

He reflected a minute and added, "Heck, in this market, if you hang onto the cash, you lose money."

I spoke to several DC economists (one at the World Bank, one retired) about that reasoning and one responded, "Given the interest rates on Treasuries, there is really no opportunity cost for cash-rich rich-folks to buy luxury consumer goods."

You can't blame manufacturers for focusing on where the sales are. Keeping their employees working is good for all of us.

That doesn't mean we're happy about the status quo, but railing against it is futile. We just report on what we see—and we hope to see a resurgence of affordable high-end soon.

On a happier note, this was the year that the high-end really embraced the computer as a source. Ayre, Music Hall, Chord, Esoteric, Wadia, and High Resolution Technologies. Bel Canto offered a USB to 24/96 D to D link, while Weiss went its own way with a FireWire DAC. Peachtree Audio offered a DAC input on it Nova integrated amplifier, as did Simaudio (as an optional module) on its Moon i3.3.

High-end music servers are a growing category. Sooloos's merger with Meridian has already borne fruit and Qsonix and Soneteer continue to refine this category. Blue Smoke brought us the Black Box, an all out attack on the computer's weaknesses as an audio source.

If that's not what the High End is all about, I don't know what is. Jon Iverson likes to say that the mass market creates the demand and then the High End perfects the paradigm. That's precisely what these companies are doing—and it shows that there's health in high-fidelity despite all odds.

And that's why I am smiling in the photo (right), with Home Theater editor Shane Buettner (left) and Jon Iverson (center), webmaster for Stereophile, Home Theater, and UltimateAV.com.

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Boulder 1021 Disc Player Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 3:01 PM ET
By Jon Iverson

I'm still amazed at the sheer number of new high-end CD players announced at this show. Either someone didn't get the memo about the disc format's impending demise, or else we've entered that phase, as with turntables, that playback advances will continue to win new customers with big collections.

Boulder's new $24,000 1021 is a case in point. An on-board computer buffers the data coming off the transport and manipulates everything in software. The large and easy-to-read front panel display has a small gray bar at the bottom to indicate how much data is ahead in the buffer ahead as the music is playing.

The 1021 uses an interesting approach to get the track names to pop up on the display: inside the box is data for 250,000 "popular" discs. If you load in a disc that is not in the on-board database, it searches the internet for the info which it then keeps on hand for the next time you insert that disc.

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Vivid Vivids Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 1:53 PM ET
By John Atkinson

Although it was shown in protype form at the 2008 CES, the Giya from South African manufacturer Vivid ($58,000/pair) is now in production and was being demmed in US distributor On A Higher Note's penthouse suite at the Mirage hotel with Luxman amplification, Nordost Odin cabling, Quantum power conditioning, and open-reel tapes from The Tape Project's second batch of releases played back on a Tim de Paravicini-modified Technics deck.

The Giya's composite enclosure may look strange but it is a strict case of form following function: the twin side-firing woofers are each loaded by a long tapered transmission line that is curled over to reduce the speaker's height. Designer Laurence "Dick" Dickie used transmission-line loading for all four drivers in his B&W Nautilus but in the Giya modifies it by adding a port just behnd the driver. (He has applied for a patent on this topology.) Like the original Nautilus, the Giya's drive-units all use metal diaphragms, the goal being to achieve perfect pistonic behavior in each of their passbands.

The room at the Mirage, with one wall glass, which reduced LF extension by an octave, but the sound was otherwise everything I expected from an audition I had had of the Giyas playing the hi-rez masters of my own recordings in the importer's home just before Christmas: silky, smooth, extened highs, uncolored, delicate-sounding mids, astonishingly tight, deep, powerful lows, and soundstaging that was accurate, tightly defined, yet expansive.

"Oh Momma!" as we say in my home country.

The Giyas really do need a bigger room than mine to work their best, so I will not be reviewing them for Stereophile. But one lucky member of my team will be doing so!

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Ongaku Means Ecstasy Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 1:47 PM ET
By Wes Phillips

JA caught up with me at the Blue Light Audio room and suggested we saunter down to hear the 25Wpc Audio Note Ongaku integrated amplifier ($95,000) featured in his photograph above. Yes that's a jaw-dropping price, even after four days of CES. The Ongaku has five line level inputs. It employs two NOS VT4-C (211) tubes, an original NOS Telefunken 6463, and two NOS 5R4WGB rectifiers. Audio Note builds it own silver-wired driver transformer on a double AN-Perma nickel C-core. AN tantalum resistors, Black Gate electrolytics, and another silver wired transformer (output this time) complete the innards.

The system's source was the Audio Note CDT-Three transport ($9550) and DAC 4.1x Balanced DAC ($15,500). The speakers were Audio Note's AN-E SEC loudspeakers ($51,000/pair), which have a claimed sensitivity of 95dB. Cables were Audio Note Pallas digital cable ($4275), Sooto interconnect ($7050/m), and SogoN96 speaker cables ($9635). The power cable was the only non-Audio Note product: a Nordost Odin power cable.

I have to confess the system's price tag worried me—those are numbers that make even a high-end reviewer's head spin. And no, I didn't automatically assume I would like it because it was expensive. Those prices are scary. Here's the thnig, though: They system didn't sound expensive, it sounded right. No single element predominated, unless you count the complete sense of ease and the fabulous dynamic range.

I listened to one of Todd Garfinkle's M•A recordings, Sheila Jordon and Harve Swartz's "You Don't Know What Love Is." Wow. It was just an exceptional singer and an acoustic bassist in a reverberant hall, but the AN system gave me all of that—the room, the bass, and the woman, most of all the woman. Even at her current age, Jordan is a powerful singer and she almost pegged Todd's mikes on this one. My intellect tells me that there's no way a 25Wpc amplifier can control that, even on 95dB speakers, but the Audio Notes handled those passages better than any other system I'd heard at CES.

Next came Nina Simone's "Little Girl Blue" and I was practically in tears. Everything just sounded so right. I had goosebumps—and despite all evidence to the contrary, I'd have sworn my hair was standing on end,

Forget best sound of show, for sheer emotional delivery, timbral clarity, dynamic agility, and, yes, the highest fidelity, the Audio Note system may have been the best hi-fi I have ever heard. It was one of those magical moments that we audiophiles put up with all of the hassles for.

After the Audio Note demo. the rest was noise, so I quit on a winner. Not many people who come to Vegas can say that.

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The Vandersteen Seven Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 1:29 PM ET
By John Atkinson

A new speaker from Vandersteen Audio doesn't happen very often—Richard Vandersteen introduced his Model 2 in 1977 and the 2009 CES witnessed the debut of the Model 7, which, at $45,000/pair is the most expensive speaker ever from the frugal Mr. V.

But for that price, you get a feast of loudspeaker technology: As well as the new midrange unit described in my other Vandersteen blog entry, the new speaker offers active, equalized woofers using the same carbon-fiber/balsa-cone material, a fully balanced crossover, and an enclosure based on an carbon-fiber shell, finished in high-gloss automotive lacquer.

Richard was demming the Model Sevens with the cost-no-object Clearaudio Statement turntable and, as Wes Phillips reports below, Jim White's Atlas amplification, which can also be seen in Jon Iverson's photo. I asked to hear, as I had in many other rooms, Steve Ray Vaughan's "Tin Pan Alley" from his Couldn't Stand the Weather LP. Aah...expensive the Model Seven may be by the standards of the Vandersteen heritage, but not when compared with speakers that offer sound as refined, as dynamic, and as uncolored as the Sevens did at CES.

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Magic in the Midrange Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 1:25 PM ET
By John Atkinson

Richard Vandersteen showed me the new midrange unit he designed for the Vandersteen 7. The cone is a sandwich of balsa wood between two carbon-fiber skins, the voice-coil is titanium, and most notably, there is almost nothing in the skeletal chassis that would obstruct the cone's rear-wave.

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Good Vibes Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 1:05 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus

Frank Cheng's Acoustic System International now produces LiveLine cabling. Combining acoustic resonator technology with super thin, solid-core wire, the cabling is composed of different segments that contain wires made from different metals that are ultimately soldered together at 850 degrees. The RCA interconnect costs $995 (length not stipulated in the press materials), XLR interconnect $1450, 1.8m power cable $995, and 2.4m speaker cable $1750. One online publication gave each of these cables a product of the year award.

These cables were displayed in the Avatar Acoustics room, the final room I visited at CES, save for a listen to a post-show, heavenly cello treat on the wonderful VTL S-400/Avalon Indra system. They helped make lovely music in a system that also included Acoustic System International's Tango Platinum loudspeakers ($27,000/pr), 4-shelf equipment rack ($5500), Top Line feet ($750), and a host of acoustic resonators placed all over the room ($250 to $2800). The sound was the best I've heard from the ASI speakers, which have impressed me as too bright on other occasions. Why the system was pulling way to the right no one was able to ascertain—a cable connection issue, perhaps, or something amiss in the electronics from Abbingdon Music Research or Karan Acoustics?—but the beauty of female voices came through loud and clear.

For readers unfamiliar with the Acoustic System International Resonators, they are little four-pronged bowls tuned with silver, gold, platinum, and other metals. Strategically positioned around the listening room on little wooden holders, with the choice of resonator metals dependent upon the desired effect, they can literally fine-tune the sound of both room and components. Darren Censulo, who distributes these babies through Avatar Acoustics of Fayetteville, GA, once convinced a host of Bay Area Audiophile Society skeptics when he performed a demo in my room.

The acoustic resonators share some principles with Ted Denney's Synergistic Acoustics ART tuning system, with which I began my contributions to this blog four days ago. Though I didn't intentionally plan to begin and end my blogging with mentions of resonator technology, that seems to be what's happening.

After five nights of partial sleep, four days of intense listening and writing, and reading some lovely and much appreciated notes of thanks interspersed with more misinformed critical comments than I care to countenance, I think it best to offer a visual that's positive and uplifting. I can think of nothing better than a treasured photo of the lovely Bonnie Censulo. For some (myself included), Bonnie is a perpetually delightful presence. Thanks to her lovely resonance, she has proven an indispensable part of any show that features Avatar Acoustics. I cannot imagine a show without her.

Hats off to you, Bonnie, Darren, Frank, and Ted. Three cheers to every person involved in the high-end industry who is willing to step out on a limb and display products that are decidedly outside the box. The world is certainly a better and more colorful place thanks to you. May the diversity that makes life in the high-end so juicy thrive and prosper.

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Blue Light Special Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 1:02 PM ET
By Wes Phillips

I never fail to check out Jonathan Tinn's Blue Light Audio systems. He's a past master of system set-up, so his rooms always sound special. This year's was no exception.

In the middle of the room was the definitely non-UL-approved test-bench prototype of darTZeel's soon-to-come 1000W NHB-458 monoblock amps (price tbd) that have so alarmed some readers. The actual working components centered around DarTZeel's new 350Wpc CTH-8550 integrated amplifier ($20,300)—but you also get an MC phono stage for that price.

The source was Playback Designs' MPS-5 Reference SACD/CD player ($15,000), which has 24-bit/192kHz input, and MPD-5 Reference DAC ($11,000), ditto. The speakers were Evolution Acoustics MMMini Two ($40,000/pair), a modular design that mates a two-way head to an integrated subwoofer. Evolution also supplied DRSC speaker cables ($5000/pair)and PC2One power conditioning power cords ($2000). darTZeel supplied the interconnects, the cutely named darT to Zeel 50 ohm impedance-matched BNC interconnects (price tbd).

In other words, it was a carefully thought-out system and I have no way of knowing what made it sound so good—everyting about it, probably—but it really did sound special. There was sufficient bass, but not so much that I thought great bass, it was simply there when it was called for. The soundstage was far wider than I would have thought a small room could have supported and everything sounded completely fleshed out and three-dimensional. It was jaw-droppingly real.

Of course, some of that could have been because Tinn was playing high-rez music files from The Mastering Labs, Mo-Fi, Reference Recordings, and The Super Audio Center. If there's one trend that really comes of age in 2009, it's ready access to greater-than-Red Book digital, That stuff is tasty!

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Moscode Knows What You Want Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 12:51 PM ET
By Wes Phillips

George Kaye had his 120Wpc Moscode 402Au Stereo power amplifier ($6495) on display. Like the 401HR before it, the 402AU accepts a variety of tubes in its front end. The 402 adds low negative feedback, optically coupled floating bias circuit, and dual mono power supplies.

Add to that a whole bevy of high-end components, such as Edison Price binding posts (soldered directly to the output module), Cardas input connectors and internal wiring), and six output devices per channel—the better to run low impedance speakers, Kaye said.

Sonically, it's far smoother and detailer than the 401HR, which I know because I still listen to one. Good job, Mr. Kaye.

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A Question of Balance Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 12:41 PM ET
By Wes Phillips

I walked into Balanced Audio Technology's room and almost couldn't leave. Geoff Poor was driving a pair of WATT/Puppy 8s wth an all BAT system consisting of a VK-D5SE/Superpack CD player ($9500), VK-32SE preamplifier ($8000), and the new 55Wpc VK-55SE amplifier ($5995).

The VK-55SE employs BAT's SuperTube gain block, essentially a 6H30 "supertube" gain stage.All of the VK-55s resistive current sources have been replaced by vacuum tube based current sources and the power supply's storage has been increased five-fold. Higher quality polypropylene capacitors.

The VK-55SE can be ordered as a stereo amp or a 100W monoblock—which, as Poor pointed out, makes for a "sensible upgrade path."

"I know the WP8s pretty well and I have never heard them sound this good," I said to Poore.

"You know, that's pretty much what David Wilson told me yesterday. He came back twice more to listen to them."

Poor says that the SuperTube gain stage and the tube current sources are what give the VK-55Se so much "soul." I can't attribute it solely to the 55SE, since I only heard the system, but soul the system had in spades. The music breathed, it soared, it roared (when appropriate), and it flat out rocked.

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Sheer See-Through Transparency Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 12:24 PM ET
By John Atkinson

"Now that can't work," I thought, as I went into the Crystal Cable room and saw the Dutch company's new Arabesque loudspeaker (45,000 Euros/pair, equivalent to around $60,000). A glass enclosure? But as I listened to a variety of recordings that I thought would expose cabinet problems, such as female vocals and solo cello, I didn't hear any flaws that I could lay at the feet of the enclosure.

Panels of ¾" glass are glued together to form an enclosure that from above looks like a truncated spiral and sits on a heavy aluminum base that carries the crossover components. A RAAL ribbon tweeter crosses over to three Scan Speak Illuminator woofers, and the internal wiring is, of course, Crystal's own Dreamline cable.

A highlight of CES for me was listening on the Arabesques to Gabriella Hofer's performance of the famous Chopin Berceuse (Op.57), from a sampler CD Crystal's Gabi van der Kley had released for the Show. (I believe Ms. Hofer was Mrs. van der Kley in a former life.) This had been recorded in the Buda-Pest concert hall pictured on the drape suspended behind the speakers: 5 minutes of welcome contemplative calm amidst an ocean of Show hubbub. The tubed Nagra VPA amps didn't hurt, of course!

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Aerial Antics Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 12:03 PM ET
By John Atkinson

One of the most impressive speakers I have auditioned in the past few years was the three-way Aerial 20T, which was reviewed by Michael Fremer in April 2004. I spoke to Aerial's Michael Kelly a while back about getting a pair for a Follow-Up review, but he declined, saying that he was working on an improved version.

That version, the 20Tv2 ($32,000/pair) made its debut at the 2009 CES. It retains the earlier version's ribbon tweeter and midrange unit, but features two new 7" woofers, these using a cone constructed from layers of carbon-fiber, Rohacell, and glass-fiber, and said to offer a huge linear excursion. The crossover had to be redesigned around the new woofers, of course. The new speaker sounded pretty damn good at CES, driven by Boulder amplification and the impressive new Boulder 1021 CD player, and, as Wes Phillips reported earlier in this report, it also worked surprisingly well with the inexpensive Peachtree Nova amplifier.

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Magic From Magico Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 11:48 AM ET
By John Atkinson

Magico had two rooms at the Venetian, the first of which featured the Californian company's new 4-way M5 ($89.000/pair). Weighing in at 360 lbs, the M5 features a ring-radiator tweeter built into the baffle, two 6" Nano-Tec-coned midrange units, and two 9" Nano-Tec woofers, these featuring 5" voice-coils. The sealed enclosure—no ports in Alon Wolf's designs—is constructed, like other Magico speakers, from multiple layers of Baltic Birch plywood. The convex front baffle is machined from a 200lb slab of aircraft-grade aluminum.

Alon Wolf was demonstrating the M5 with hi-rez files played on a proprietary server/DAC system, with MIT cables and amplification from Swiss company Soulution. I auditioned both a 24-bit track from the Reference Recordings Crown Imperial album at 176.4kHz and Boz Scaggs singing "My Funny Valentine" at 88.2kHz. Awesome. Simply effortlessly awesome.

Wes Phillips is arranging to review the M5 for Stereophile. I am looking forward to auditioning them in his room. I am not looking forward to transporting them to my place for measurement. (Oh, my aching back!)

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Magico's V2 Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 11:42 AM ET
By John Atkinson

Featured in Magico's second room in the Venetian was the new V2 ($18,000/pair), a smaller sibling to the V3 that I reviewed last May. It combines the same ring-radiator tweeter as the V3 with two 7" Nano-Tec drivers, the latter arranged so that the lower woofer rolls off at a lower frequency than the upper one to give much of the sonic benefits of a two-way design.

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Unicorn Chaser Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 9:50 AM ET
By WesPhillips

Over at the Boing Boing blog, it is customary to run a "unicorn chaser," an overly cute picture of a unicorn after posting a post that makes you go "eeeew." German Physiks Unicorn mk II ($21,500/pair) were sort of like that, only for show sound. Ahh, that's better.

Actually, there are different models of the Unicorn, one with a titanium DDD driver; the pair I heard had the Carbon DDD driver.

The heart of any German Physiks loudspeaker is its 360° DDD driver. In the Unicorn, that's the only driver (other models employ a second driver; the unicorn employs a tuned horn and a bass trap, combined with a smidge of EQ to smooth out the bass).

What-evs, it works.

I initially listened to the Unicorns waaay over against the wall, but I still got a coherent, solid soundstage. When I sat in the sweet spot, I essentially heard what I'd heard over to the side—only a tad more of it.

The more I learn about hi-fi, the more I find I need to unlearn. I always thought I didn't like 360° speaker designs, but it was specific designs I didn't care for. The Unicorns were fast, focused, and convincing.

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Navison Knock Out Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 9:18 AM ET
By WesPhillips

Rives Audio's Richard Bird introduced me to Navison, a brand I was aware of but not familiar with. Navison products are aesthetic knock outs—gorgeous wood (or black lacquer), etched gold faceplates (or chrome), and deep black transformer pots. They are audio confections.

Founded by Ben Nguen in 1996, Navison are made in San Jose. Rives demoed the 150W NVS-150 OTL output transformeless monoblock amplifiers ($30,000/pair). The two-chassis design employs a ton of 633C tubes to get all of that juice, but man oh man, did it deliver the goods.

The front end was a Navison Reference-228 ($9500) going into a Navison Special Edition Mark II ($6500). The speakers were Talon ThunderHawks ($25,000/pair).

Suave, sauve, sauve—with a healthy dose of drama thrown in. We listened to some creamy Dvorak and some heavy-breathing Mahler and I was transfixed. Immense soundstage, dramatic depth, and a sense of connection to the music that bordered on the profound. Navison is ravishing—check its wares out when you get the chance. You'll thank me for the experience, even if your accountant won't.

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This Atlas Didn't Shrug Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 8:52 AM ET
By Wes Phillips

While I was basking in the sound of Richard Vandersteen's stunning new Model 7s ($45,000/pair), I asked about the tube amps he was using. "Those are Jim White's Atlases—and I think they're damn good." Richard never minces words, so a "damn good" from him is almost as high praise as a "doesn't suck too bad" from JA.

Ji, White gave me the skinny of his 200Wpc Atlas stereo amplifier ($800o). It can also be configured as a 300W monoblock ($13,000/pair). A hybrid design, it uses one 6SM7 voltage gain tube per channel with bipolar driver and output stages. There's zero global feedback. Two transformers and three chokes handle the power. And here's something completely different, the Atlas has a built-in high pass crossover: 6dB per octave, with 16 settings between 40Hz and 200Hz in 10Hz increments.

As to the sound, Richard Vandersteen had it exactly right. The world lost a pretty good hi-fi reviewer when that guy decided to make an honest living instead.

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On Stage Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 8:37 AM ET
By Wes Phillips

Scaena is a modular speaker design that combines multiple small midrange drivers, each mounted in a pod affixed to a rigid stand, with subwoofers placed elsewhere.The speakers come with digital crossover and high-current amplification for the subs. The speakers come as 24, 30, or 36 pod units and you can add as many subs as you require.

The individual driver enclosures are created from a quartz/stone/glass/elastomer hybrid material used together by a computer-controlled laser. Scaena says this greatly reduces cabinet resonances The towers have a sensitivity of 91dB. Price is variable, based upon configuration, but starts at $50,000/pair.

The flexibility of placement definitely worked to the Scaena's favor at the Venetian Towers' split level rooms. Scaena set up the towers in the near field and located the subs at the rear of the lower level—by playing with subwoofer phase, they achieved a very well-integrated sound. I'd have to listen to the Scaenas longer and in a familiar room to properly sort out everything I heard at CES, but the speakers did several things about as well as any I have heard. First and foremost was the sense of immediacy that live music has. It's a startling quality in reproduced music and the Scaenas were startling.

also, as I said earlier, by being able to move the LF speakers, the Scaenas overcame a difficult acoustic situation in a way conventional speakers could not—an important consideration for those of us with problem rooms.

Scaena—pleased to meetcha. Let's hang out sometime soon.

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Shiny Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 8:14 AM ET
By Wes Phillips

I was not previously aware of Vexo, a Milan-based manufacturer of tube amps, but I was very impressed by the 15Wpc VXSE-KT88/C ($3900). I asked Koetsu USA's Hiram Toro if that price meant the amps were designed in Milan but built in Asia. "Oh no," he said. "Vexo is designed and built in Italy and it is stuffed with European components.

Fit'n'finish were superb—and it was so pretty you just wanted to reach out and touch it. Judging by the smudges on the faceplate, a lot of people did.

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Timelord Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009, 8:07 AM ET
By Wes Phillips

Sutherland also had a nifty little record weight/strobe timer, the $900 Timeline. Yikes!

It's an awfully clever little dingus. The body is made of machined Delrin and machined aluminum. Set into the aluminum part is a laser pointer programmed to blink exactly 33.3 times per minute. Slip it onto your spindle, wait for the table to get up to speed and then you play "find the dot." The laser will project onto a surrounding wall and you simply observe whether it hits the same spot every time (spot on) or if it wanders.

Sutherland calls it the "last word in precision," since the laser's accuracy is 2ppm.

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