THE Show
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 12:44 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus
The outboarding THE Show, run by the affable Richard Beers, was held for the first time at the Flamingo Hotel on the Strip, two Las Vegas blocks from CES’s “High-Performance” venue, the Venetian. In previous years, THE Show had been held at the St. Tropez Resort, then the Alexis Park, but Richard now has a multi-year contract with the Flamingo. I estimated THE Show had representation from a good 110 manufacturers. One of the big draws was actually outside the Flamingo's back door, where Panasonic was demming HD-3D TV in a huge trailer. It's rumored that some die-hard two-channel audiophiles snuck into the trailer trying to mask the same guilty expressions that they carried to the porno exhibit in the Sands Convention Center.
But I digress. On the music front, it's reliably rumored that THE Show 2011 will herald the return of the Cam Jam from Head-Fi.
Music For Sale
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 12:41 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus
The vendor display at THE Show was up and going strong throughout the four days. Classic Records, who clearly didn't want to attract any attention, joined Acoustic Sounds, Chesky, Elusive Disc, HDtracks.com, M•A Recordings, Music Direct, Reference Recordings, themusic.com, Ultra Systems, Truextent, Quality Rare Records, and Parts Express.
Live vs Recorded with VMPS
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 12:35 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus
After John's short talk at THE Show (see below), the two of us decided to make the rounds together until I had to leave for the airport. But it wasn't that easy to just get up and go.
Have you ever tagged along with a rock star? That's how it felt walking with John, as people came up to John to engage in conversation every 15 or 20 steps. The man has been editing Stereophile for almost 24 years now, and knows just about everyone. And John also likes and values people as much as he likes music. Perhaps he can remain relatively anonymous in the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn, but at CES, there's a "Hi John" at every turn. So as much as John invited me to lead the way, I'd only take about 15 steps before I'd discover him waylaid by someone.
Somehow, after three stops to chat, we managed to get to the VMPS live vs recorded demo. As we entered, soprano Lesley Olsher, wife of erstwhile Stereophile reviewer Dick Olsher, was standing before a microphone array, singing a lovely song in Hebrew. Somehow we managed to listen without disrupting Lesley's singing. My hats off to her for managing to sing a cappella, beautifully, and in tune as a recording of percussion played at a different tempo penetrated the walls.
Brian Cheney of VMPS recorded the demo using a two-channel DSD recorder and tube condenser mics. Then, the recording was played back in both DSD and 24-bit/88.2kHz formats.
It was great to hear the sound of VMPS' new M50 loudspeaker ($12,000/pair), amplified by Atmasphere electronics. The set up was all Audience Conductor e cables and powerChords, and the electronics were powered through an Adept Response aR12-T power conditioner. The speaker, a dual line-source bipole, is 6' tall, weighs 350 lbs., and has built-in digital speaker and room correction plus digital crossovers. It also sounds excellent, faithfully reproducing the timbre of the voice and the instruments that accompanied Lesley on "Summertime" before we arrived.
Most striking was the fact that the recorded playback had far more air and life than the live performance in a very deadened room. John explained that's because we were hearing the acoustic of the same room twice, both at the time of the recording and at the time of playback. No wonder so many recordings sound airier than the real thing.
The comparison of playback formats (DSD and 24/88.2 PCM) only went so far. Different mikes were used for the two different format feeds, and were positioned differently. Hence, a direct comparison between formats was impossible. Nonetheless, recording engineer Atkinson was able to note the different sound quality of the different mikes.
A big thanks to Brian for once again arranging the demo. And equal applause for a fine new addition to the VMPS line.
John Speaks
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 12:31 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus
Stereophile editor John Atkinson served as the opening act for the Grand Giveaway on the final day of THE Show 2010. In his short talk, John reflected on the losses of the past year. He first honored two of his departed mentors, John Crabbe and J. Gordon Holt, both of whom were central to the development of high-end audio. He also honored the memory of Al Stiefel, who co-founded the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest with his wife, Marjorie Baumert.
"Al was an example of the kind of grassroots energy that our industry thrives on," John noted. He recalled that just a year ago, when he and Al had gotten together at THE Show to discuss plans for the coming year's RMAF, Al was filled with enthusiasm and passion.
It was also a bad year of losses in the world of music. Wilma Cozart Fine, producer of the Mercury Living Stereo recordings, died. So did speaker pioneer Jim Thiel, who never let anyone know he was ill with cancer.
"I'd known Jim for 30 years," said John. "He typified the best of our industry, in that he had a vision of what he wanted to do. Jim began with the classic workshop in the garage, and with time and continued improvement of his products, became a major manufacturer."
This led John to the core of his message: the passion and love of music that are the heart of the high-end. "We need the excitement," he said. "Even if it was a bad year, when many manufacturers did little or no business in the first six months, the passion and excitement are still there. They're what I've been feeling all over this show. I think 2010 will be a better year than those that came before."
A Tribute to Jim Thiel
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 12:20 PM ET
By John Atkinson
The first night of CES saw a memorial reception held in honor of loudspeaker designer Jim Thiel, who passed away last September. A succession of high-end audio's greatest offered thoughts and reflections on a talented, well-respected, and universally liked man whom everyone agreed was taken from us too soon. Shown in my photo is erstwhile Stereophile publisher Larry Archibald, whose comments were deeply felt and moving. I paid my own tribute to Jim in my November 2009 "As We See It" essay, which I reprised in my closing day's speech at THE Show, discussed above by Jason Serinus..
Rockport's Alya Speaker
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 12:08 PM ET
By John Atkinson
I have come to expect innovative engineering from Rockport's Andy Payor, and was not disappointed by his new Alya loudspeaker. The two-way Alya costs $29,500/pair and marries Scanspeak's new beryllium-dome tweeter with a custom Audio-Technology woofer with a 6.5" carbon-fiber cone and a 2" voice-coil. The front baffle is aluminum and internal horizontal rods connect it to the rear of the cabinet, holding the HDF enclosure in a rigid grip. A rear port is tuned to a respectable 35Hz.
Despite the acoustically sub-optimal room at the Mirage, the Alya, which was being demmed with the Blue Smoke server, a MSB DAC, and Gryphon power amplifier, sounded very promising.
Baffled
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 12:01 PM ET
By John Atkinson
The Rockport Alya's 1.25"-thick front baffle is cast from aluminum, then machined to accommodate the drive-units. The tweeter's usual front-plate is discarded and replaced by the baffle, which has the necessary opening and locating pins. This gives a very clean acoustic environment for the dome. Andy Payor's hand is shown here locking the tweeter into place with a ring that screws into a thread tapped into the rear of the baffle.
Ensemble Dirondo Player and Drive
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 11:37 AM ET
By Jon Iverson
Ensemble has taken the position that with all the formats flying around, the biggest library of decent-sounding music remains the CD, so they might as well perfect it. Their Dirondo Player and Drive is a straightforward top-loading CD-only machine based on a Philips pro mechanism that allows the user to select the upsampling rate up to 24 bit/192kHz. Price is $12,000 and the Dirondo is available now.
PBN's Sammy Speaker
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 11:30 AM ET
By John Atkinson
San-Diego-based PBN is best-known for its heroically proportioned loudspeakers, but PBN's Peter Noerbaek introduced his new Sammy loudspeaker at THE Show, which, as you can see from the photo, is a little more manageable in size. The 55"-tall Sammy uses premium Scanspeak drive-units in an unusually constructed cabinet (see next photo): a new, long-travel 10” Revelator woofer, a wide-range, 4” Illuminator midrange unit, and the Danish company's new pressure-formed beryllium-dome tweeter. Price will be $29,500/pair.
Inside the PBN Sammy
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 11:27 AM ET
By John Atkinson
PBN's new speakers feature an enclosure formed from CNC-machined MDF layers, with an interior surface intended to minimize standing waves.
Paradigm's Affordable SE Speakers
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 11:03 AM ET
By John Atkinson
Though my photo shows the Canadian company's Director of Marketing Mark Aling with the top-of-the-line Paradigm Reference Signature S8 tower, my interest was piqued by Paradigm's new SE speakers. The Special Edition series combines elements of the more expensive Paradigm models, such as the tweeter from the Monitor series with the mineral-filled polypropylene-cone bass/midrange drivers from the Reference Studio series. The two-way SE1 bookshelf will sell for a very affordable $598/pair and the three-way floorstanding SE3 for $1398/pair.
Paradigm hosted a music recital with Bay Area singer Camaron Ochs Friday night of the Show. The not-unattractive Ms. Ochs has a new CD available, Heartforward.
YG's Carmel Loudspeaker
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 10:17 AM ET
By John Atkinson
Colorado manufacturer YG Acoustics, led by the energetic Yoav Geva, achieved notoriety by proclaiming its Anat Reference II Professional the "Best Loudspeaker on Earth. Period. " Stereophile reviewer Wes Phillips didn't disagree with that characterization, though it is fair to note that at $107,000/pair, the Anat Reference II Professional is also one of the more expensive speakers on Earth. Making its debut at CES, YG's two-way Carmel is relatively more affordable, at $18,000/pair, but shares with its sibling an enclosure constructed from slabs of aluminum CNC-machined in-house.
A ring-radiator tweeter, recessed within a conical waveguide, is combined with a modified 7" woofer from Scanspeak in a sealed cabinet. Driven by a dCS Scarlatti 4-box SACD player and Krell Evolution amplification, the Carmel had problems filling the very large Show room with high-level sound, but at a more reasonable playback volume, excelled at clarity and transparency, with an uncolored midrange and relatively generous lows.
Teresonic Speakers Play Loud
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 9:58 AM ET
By John Atkinson
One of my last stops at THE Show at the Flamingo was the Teresonic room, where Mike Zivkovic demmed his 6'-tall single-driver Ingenium Silver Edition speaker using his own single-ended 2A3 tube amplifier. According to Mike, the amp uses interstage and output transformers from Lundahl and "there is not a capacitor in the circuit."
The Ingenium's cabinet is constructed, Mike says, more like the "body of a musical instrument", which I assume means that it is intentionally live but with the panel resonances spread evenly to minimize coloration. The speaker loads the rear of its Lowther drive-unit with something between a quarter-wave horn and a transmission line to achieve an astonishing specified sensitivity of 100dB and LF extension to 30Hz, –3dB. Once I had gotten used to the rather idiosyncratic treble presentation of the Lowther, the sound of the Ingeniums from LP did have superb dynamics and clarity, with good bass extension.
Epos Aims High With the Encore 50
Posted Thu Jan 14, 2010, 9:44 AM ET
By John Atkinson
Since the ES14 from the mid-1980s, speakers from the English Epos company have been renowned for their midrange magic, not for ultimate dynamics. But Mike Creek, Epos's owner, is aiming for both with the Encore 50, which made its debut at CES. This three-way floorstander, priced at $9995/pair, uses two port-loaded 9" woofers with Kevlar/carbon-fiber/pulp-composite cones, in a large cabinet to achieve a high 90dB sensitivity, while the metal-dome tweeter uses an injected-molded roll surround to give high excursion. The midrange is fed by a tapped autotransformer to allow adjustment to a tight tolerance in production.
The sound of the Encore 50 had a generous sweep to its dynamics, and it played loud without strain. But what is even more intriguing is that as manufactured, it can be both used in conventional tri-wired or tr-amped passive mode or, with the passive crossover bypassed with jumpers accessible at the base, in tri-amped active mode.
For the dem when I was there, Mike was driving the Encore 50s with three Creek amplifiers—two of them the excellent Destiny integrated—and realizing the crossover in the digital domain, using an 8-channel DSP module from Diodes-Zetex.
John Devore and his Orangutans
Posted Wed Jan 13, 2010, 6:06 PM ET
By Larry Greenhill
I was highly impressed with the dynamics, speed, and pace of a new $8000/pair loudspeaker from John DeVore, a speaker maker from my area of the country, Brooklyn, New York. I had first read about John in the New York Times when it featured new and brave entrepreneurs making their way in Brooklyn during the recent recession. I was interested, because of my medical research background, that the very tall Mr. DeVore had been positively influenced in his younger years by an uncle who was a leading primatologist, and had take him to Africa to view various monkeys living in their natural habitat. As a result, John names his loudspeaker lines for various species, including the Gibbon, Silverback, and now Orangutan. This floorstanding, two-way, high-sensitivity ([95]dB/2.83V/m) loudspeaker features a 1" silk-dome tweeter and a reflex-loaded, 10" treated-paper woofer (rear port) in a cabinet with a lace walnut finish. I was struck by the similarity between John's energy and enthusiasm and the dynamics and pace of the music the Orangutan generated driven by the 15Wpc Mag Amp.
The Mag Amp—World’s First Switching Amp
Posted Wed Jan 13, 2010, 6:05 PM ET
By Larry Greenhill
John Devore was using this diminutive integrated amplifier, the German-manufactured Acoustic Plan Mag Amp, to drive his new high-sensitivity loudspeakers. According to Jonathan Halpern, the US importer, the Mag Amp uses a tubed voltage-gain stage and an output stage comprised of two small transformers with dual primaries. He described it as the "world's first switching integrated amplifier, and added that it was designed by Lars Lundahl in the 1960s. The 19 kg stereo chassis offers 15Wpc into 8 ohms and will cost $18,500. It played both a 1980s recording of Ella Fitzgerald and one of Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite with great dynamics, speed, and detail. This is the kind of odd and fascinating gem one can uncover at the end of a day when one is too tired to rush out of an exhibit room, and instead collapses on the couch to listen.
King's Audio Prince II
Posted Wed Jan 13, 2010, 5:42 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus
One of the many delights of CES was running into Neil Sinclair, former owner of Theta Digital, in the hallways of the Venetian. In answer to my question, "What would you recommend I check out?" Neil led me to the King's Audio suite.
At one end of the room stood the Prince IIs ($6000/pair). These are full-range electrostatics that extend from 38Hz up to 26kHz, and are 84dB-sensitive. They're also driven by a 12V, 250 milliamp power supply that won't shock you, your children, or your pets if one of you happens to stumble into them.
The height of the images was wonderful, but what the distributor himself characterized as junky interconnects resulted in a distinct lack of transparency and color. Nonetheless, the timbre of the piano and cello on Schubert's "Arpeggione" Sonata gave indications of being so true that I hope to have another opportunity to audition the Prince II in the future.
Brian Damkroger comments: The King Sound speaker, previously unknown to me, was automatically intriguing simply because it was a floor-standing, full-range electrostatic set to retail at $6000/pair. I don't know about anyone else, but I find it really refreshing to see a $6k speaker that's more than just two or three conventional drivers in a simple ported box enclosure.
READ MORE »
King's Audio King Tower
Posted Wed Jan 13, 2010, 5:41 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus
In the middle of the King's Audio room sat the omni-directional King Tower ($4500/pair). The speaker was created specifically because, according to the distributor, there was no affordable omni on the market. Paired with same substandard cabling as was the King's Audio Prince II electrostat, a $99 Philips CD player, and the mbl Noble series 4004 preamp and 8011 monoblocks, the speakers sounded quite promising. This is a speaker that needs a better source component and better cabling to fully demonstrate what it can do.
Magnepan—Updating a Legend
Posted Wed Jan 13, 2010, 5:24 PM ET
By Brian Damkroger
I finished my first day at THE Show, at the Flamingo hotel. (It's wonderful that CES and THE Show are now within easy walking distance.) Over the years, Magnepan has built some of the best-sounding speakers I've heard, and most often ones that perform at the level of speakers several times their price. The MG 1.6 is one of the High End's true classics and has always been one of its most spectacular bargains. One of Magnepan's demo systems was the brand-new MG 1.7. It's physically identical to the 1.6 but rather than planar-magnetic drivers for the bass and tweeter, the 1.7 use Magnepan's "Quasi-Ribbon." Both planar-magnetic and quasi-ribbon drivers are lightweight diaphragms onto which a conducting element is attached, but in the case of the planar-magnetic, the element is wire. In the quasi-ribbon, it's a very fine ribbon, or foil. The latter is lighter and covers more area, so the performance approaches that of a ribbon, where the conducting elementis the diaphragm. The 1.7s sounded truly spectacular and at just $2000/pair, destined to be another winner for Magnepan.
READ MORE »
Ascendo and Behold
Posted Wed Jan 13, 2010, 5:13 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus
In the Laufer-Teknik room, I had the opportunity to audition the Ascendo C8 loudspeaker ($9800/pair) with stand. This three-way includes a rear-firing ribbon tweeter and upward-firing, internal woofer, and has a specified sensitivity of 88dB
Music was courtesy of the Behold Gentle ($15,000–$30,000, depending upon configuration). Never before shown at CES in final form, this baby is completely configurable according to the customer's needs. The $30,000 package played at THE Show included a small transport, amplification with analogue and digital capabilities, full room correction, a 500GB internal hard drive for computer playback, and 5.1 multi-channel capability. (I may not have that all right, but there was no literature, and time was short). Holding it all together was Transparent cabling.
The sound was very warm and lush, lovely in fact. Bass had its control issues, which was true of many of the small rooms on the 4th floor of the Flamingo Hotel. This is definitely a system to explore.
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