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CES Musings

Posted by Jeff Day (R) on January 12, 2002 at 16:49:20

This was my first CES and I had a ball! I thought I would share some of my experiences with you all, and for those of you that didn’t have a chance to be there I hope I can give you a sense of what it was like. The CES High End Audio show was located at the Alexis Park Resort & Spa in Las Vegas. There was one main building where registration, the Bar & Grill, and Thiel Audio was located, and the rest of the show was spread out between fifteen different buildings connected by a walkway and series of swimming pools. The weather was great, and my northern-climes adjusted body actually overheated walking around outside with a long sleeve shirt on—being inside with all those glowing tubes and Class A amps was like being in a sauna. Whew! A tee shirt, shorts and tennis shoes would have been a better choice for show attire. Off-site and a cab ride away, T.H.E Expo (The Home Entertainment Expo) was also occurring at the same time as CES at the Tuscany Hotel & Casino, but most of the action was at the Alexis Park.

Most exhibitors had the challenge of setting up a system in an average-sized hotel room and trying to get it to sound good. The bigger the system, the more difficult it is to get good sound in a little room. Generally, I think, the best sounding systems were on the smaller side because that is what works best in the smaller rooms at the show. One of the things I was struck by was how little relation there is to cost and sound quality. The best sounding gear was definitely NOT the most expensive. There were quite a number of highly touted and extremely expensive loudspeakers (and other gear) that sounded dreadful, and lots of lower priced gear that could run circles around it sonically and musically … but again, it can be hard to get systems dialed into strange rooms in a short amount of time, so maybe that was what was happening. It also seems like a lot of the gear being shown was dramatically overpriced for what you get, relying on cosmetics and impressive casing build quality rather than sound quality or musicality to sell products. If you could divide the price by a factor of two to four, then things would start to be more realistic. I am only going to talk about the gear that sounded good to me, so if I don’t mention it, that means I didn’t get a chance to listen to it or it sounded lousy (or I forgot). The good news is that there is a lot of really great gear to be had at reasonable prices. I also want to tell you about some gear that is presently unknown in the USA that is the best sound I heard at the show, and their top loudspeakers are only $3600 a pair … more about that in a minute.

Hovland’s preamps seem to be all the rage, justifiably, and they were present in quite a lot of good sounding rooms. If you haven’t seen the Hovland pre up close you ought to check it out, it is stunning. It has big beautiful knobs, great case-work, and a cool blue back-lighting that make it a real looker—it wouldn’t be out of place on display at the Guggenheim! The sound quality matched the looks and the price was reasonable. The Hovland room matched the pre with a pair of their Sapphire amps running as monos driving Audio Physic speakers. The sound was really nice, the price fair, and I could see myself owning a system like that and never looking back.

One of my favorite rooms of the show was the Galante Audio room at the Tuscany. Their new, as yet unnamed full-range loudspeakers sounded outstanding: musical and natural with a good sense of pace and rhythm. They were constructed beautifully with a projected cost of $4-5K. There were $90K speakers down the hall that didn’t sound half as good. If you are an SET fan on a budget you would be hard pressed to do better than these. I want a pair …

Another good sounding room (several rooms, actually, at both the Alexis Park and Tuscany) was Vaic. I particularly liked their 300B integrated ($3500) matched with some small bookshelf Vaic speakers. The pairing had a musical and engaging sound that was more to the musical than hi-fi side of life, and seemed like a good value. Vaic looks poised to make major inroads into the North American market with a broad line of attractive, good sounding, and fairly priced gear.

The Rethm loudspeakers use a Lowther driver and sounded really great at the Tuscany. They sounded so great in fact that my good friend Santos tried to buy them on the spot. Sorry, they said, the show pair weren’t for sale. Bummer. Price: $9800. This actually worked to Santos benefit, however, because later we discovered the best sound at the show, and it cost only $3600 for those speakers.

Reference 3A was also getting really good sound at the show. The De Capo model is one of the few speakers I would pay good money for other than the Duos I already own, the Tannoy Churchill’s, and the Galante No-name. The De Capo ($2500) matched with a little ASL tube integrated amp ($995) and an SACD player rivals any of the big boys in sound quality. Amazing.

The Inner Ear Report room had the big Tannoy Churchill’s hooked up to 30 watt Tenor Audio OTL monoblocks drive directly by a digital source. I think it sounded pretty good, but it was hard to tell as the ye ol’ editor spent most of his time shouting in my ear from an inch away. The big Tannoy’s are a sight to behold: as big as refrigerators they are, but so beautifully finished and majestic looking I was transfixed. Some day …

If I were looking for a new preamp there’s only three I would consider: the new Joule-Electra 150 with the Russian super tubes, the Hovland, and the Emotive Audio. They all play music uncommonly well, are attractive, and fairly priced. I ran into the ever-charismatic and enthusiastic Vu (Déjà vu Audio) in the Emotive Audio room. Vu knows good sound and he too was quite taken with the combo of Emotive Audio pre & power and SAP loudspeakers from Italy. Believe me; if you buy these speakers no one is going to think you’re a sap, because they sound great. The Sira pre is a literal work of art: it is available with an optional top plate that is sent to an artist who does engraving into its surface (think Escher), and then the top plate is sent off to be plated before being installed into the chassis. No two are alike. Stunning. It is art and sounds great too. Drool. I think everyone should have at least three-preamps … I want one of each.

The Carfrae/Lowther loudspeakers combined with Wavelength Audio Cardinal X-1 amplification and Sine preamp would have scored my ‘best sound of the show’ designation had it not been for a couple of relative unknown brands from Finland and Germany that I heard at the end of the show … more about those in a minute. The Carfrae speakers sounded really great, but seemed overpriced for what you get. Then again, they blew away easily many more expensive loudspeakers that looked like a million bucks.

The Kondo room was one of my favorites too. Kondo was showing his new 300B push-pull integrated. Warm, natural, and musical was how I would describe the all Kondo system.

Most fun: the room that was the most fun to visit was an easy one, Bob Crump’s. These guys are more fun than a barrel full of monkeys. During the time I was there a certain well-known music reviewer played dueling disks with Bob. He lost. One after another a new disc was inserted with an “I can top that!” as music blared out into the room. Bob also gets the ‘best after hours party’ award. These guys know how to have fun, not to mention make really good gear.

Best sounding prototype: the Spectron room had a partially completed class D digital integrated amp playing that blew my socks off. The front end was a cheapo Marantz CD player, and the speakers were some old Dunlavy’s sitting up on cinder blocks. Warm, musical, and natural in ways that I never expected to hear from solid-state and digital. I kid you not, this integrated sounds incredibly good. If the final product sounds anything like the prototype it will be a giant killer. Price: $2495.

Most bizarre prototype: what would you think if I said that Cary Audio is coming out with a monoblock amplifier that uses the front half of the Cary 805 (6SN7 and a 300B) to drive a 1000 watt transistor output? Well, they are not. But Conrad-Johnson is. That’s right, Lew Johnson showed me the prototype amp that is intended to partner with the ART preamp: 6SN7 input, 300B driver, and a 1000-watt transistor output stage. Truly weird, but I’ll bet it sounds really good.

Best music: Myra Taylor and Jimmie Lee Robinson in the Bar & Grill. Chad Kassem sponsored Myra & Jimmie’s trips to CES to play for the show goers in the Bar & Grill restaurant in the main complex. If you haven’t had a chance to hear these artists on Chad’s record label you owe it to yourself to buy a couple of discs. They were amazing. Chad’s got a real good eye for talent besides being a terrific human being.

The people: the most fun of the show was meeting the people. The audio community is a small one and there are some really terrific people in the biz. Jim Smith (Avantgarde USA), Gordon Rankin (Wavelength), Stephen Cremer (Nirvana), Chad Kassem (Acoustic Sounds), Jeff Rowland (Jeff Rowland) and Bob Crump (TG Audio) are some of the finest folks you are ever likely to meet and I enjoyed immensely an opportunity to stop by and chat with them. I was hoping for a chance to say “Hi!” to Jud Barber (Joule Electra) but he was out and about when I stopped by his room. It was a real hoot to meet fellow loonies Rod M., Oakroot, and Stephaen at the show and compare notes. These guys are serious fun!

Time to wrap it up. Ok, I saved the best for last. My good friend Santos and I were in the Bar & Grill listening to Jimmie Lee sing the blues, and we were chatting with a couple of cool Fins (Anssi and uh… Peter … sorry, lost your business card) who were showing gear unknown in the USA. When they found out we hadn’t stopped by their room during the day they insisted we go back to the room and take a listen, and believe me, it was worth it. The Finnish Amphion loudspeakers are just amazing. Santos and I sat transfixed for hours as we listened to disc and vinyl through the German Brinkman electronics and the Finnish Amphion loudspeakers. We were so impressed we dragged Stephaen and Rod M out of Crump’s after-hours party to give them a listen. I hope these guys find a good distributor; these loudspeakers have to be the buy of the century at $3600. The ones we listened to were small 3-way floor-standers that extend to a reported 28 hertz. Now get this, there was no room treatment in this room at all. If these guys could get this kind of state-of-art sound under show conditions with no room treatment, think what you could do at home with some tweaking. These guys had a rough CES: the maid destroyed a smaller set of loudspeakers and an integrated amplifier in an accident (by the way, Anssi said the $1500 bookshelf size speaker were his favorite—if they sound half as good as the ones we heard they must be something—darn that maid, I sure would have like to hear that setup), their personal luggage got lost by the airlines, but their spirits were undaunted and they had a good time. The Amphion room was easily the best sound at the show. Finns rule!

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