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CES - Hits and Off Targets

Posted by Edp (A) on January 14, 2003 at 12:09:00

(Note: read Disclaimer located in previous post titled CES - Introduction/Disclaimer)

Hit - Welborne Labs
Ron's amps and now new battery powered PreAmp are extreme value with a
musical soul. The PreAmp kit (with recharge battery pack) is under $700 and upscale
version is under $1300. Low noise floor, cause the Maya speakers will show it if not.
Very musical room. Little Maya was also at CES, but as I recall not with Ron's
electronics. Little Maya had some advantages over last years implementation of the
Maya, but some changes to Maya over last year (cone/phase) made better better. Worth
your business/money if going low powered tube based amplification.

Off Target - Buggtussel
Nice speaker components (Focal, Eton, Vifa), time tested design (TL alignment),
but left in oven too long. Crispy and crunchy, nice for potato chips, not music though.

Hit - Big Clear Screens
Partner was interested in video side of business, so we hit main hall. Thousands of
large flat clear to "damn!" clear LCD/Plasma screens. A floor you walked on in the
Zenith booth of 12 rows of 8 (40") plasma screens. A floor to ceiling spiral of 10 foot
diameter of 25" LCD screens in the Samsung. Packed floor with almost palatable buzz
over the pending change in the consumer market. Probably akin to when the shift started
between black and white tubes to color tube based market.
Dealers/manufacturers/CFO's must be just drooling.

Off Target - Main Hall
Booth to booth PhoneySmiles. Booth to booth SpiritlessHandshakes Wall to wall
SuitNties. Wall to wall TshirtNfannypaks. Wall to wall taxi cabs. Street to street
traffic. At least one could escape to the mind numbing BOOMdaBOOM of Car
Audio(no thanks!)

Hit - SEAS
Fourth year with lots of new driver models. Rebirth of the paper based CA series.
Launch of the Wood/paper cone series. Excel technology applied to the Aluminum
series. Nice to see vibrant sustained growth.

Off Target - DST (Vifa/Scan Speak)
Stagnate for the third year. Nothing new, closeout of pre-existing models.

Hit - Randy Bankert O.S. Services
Seems to have a knack for digging out gems that are on the cusp of discovery in the
segment of very refined sound at value. Although business events out of his control seem
to force him to search out replacement gems, he should be recognized. Marks he has
been an early adopter before they got increased recognition in all of audio world include
Audion, Jean-MarieReynaud, Zingali, and Edision kits are some examples. He clearly is
interested in tube based amplification of the lower powered variety, speakers that not only
match that but give a relaxed refined presentation. He dug out another line/gem in the
Royal Device to continue that interest. Has even started prototype designs of his own to
be synergistic with the amplification choice of his other lines. Worth keeping his
lineup/gems in mind for those who are of a like preference in audio source/electronics.

Off Target - "TinMen"
Walking up some stairs was a youngish guy, who I didn't know from Adam (never
saw or met before), was crowing about how "hot and cooking" his day was. More
crowing " I've already scored three new lines. I walked in, looked at one set of speakers,
said I'm in!. Guy running the room asks me, Don't you want to listen. I said, they look
like sellers, if you say they are good sounding, that's fine with me. I move units on how
they look man!" Well if things don't work out in this line for him, I fully expect he will be
pushing Aluminum Siding with the same commitment and passion he had in audio.

Hit - Faces
Be it folks at the Bob Crump/John Curl/Asylum gathering (thanks to Bob C
especially), presenters or people you bump into halls(Clayton, Steve Schell, Jeff Day,
etc), the ability to put faces behind monikers and more importantly converse in meatspace
is great.

Off Target - Me Photo or "Watch out who you stand next to Danny!"
Rod was good enough to take some snaps for others to put faces to monikers. After
looking at mine, I think I owe Danny Richie a "sorry about who you hang out with". Just
think, if that's what I look like when the party is just getting started, imagine the mug after
a brace of Black-n-Tans! Boy I need handlers and SpinDoctors!

Hit - Please sit down
Ok, for those who have read some of my stuff over the years, I suggest you sit down.
Avantgarde Trio's/Basshorns sounded more than acceptable, darn nice. Good news,
cause they are just to heavy to lift up and chuck out the window. Uno and Duo
implementations still have that effect on me, so no AG groupie buttons yet. The stacked
Trio (compared to the loop Trio) seemed to reduce (not eliminate) the disjointed location
of sound (bass there, trumpet there no up there, no back down to that dish). Spent nearly
an 45 minutes in the room. The amps from Audiopax seemed better matches than the
others AG used in past like Viva's. The Basshorns. Well so much better than the lumpy
mush boxes they replaced. Time and refinements to come from AG (like all the Uno/Duo
versions/upgrades) will no doubt improve them, but they do have a very fine starting
point. Not certain that they really got the thing down yet as needing 4 units in smallish
room. Edgarhorn Titan is still champ for non-perminate installed horn sub and will always
be an order of magnitude cheaper (possibly two orders if you get 4 or six of the
Basshorns). Still allot of the sales will be looks/press dominate, not personal evaluation
dominate. Like a Luxury SUV. Smelling salts will be mailed upon request for those that
fainted.

Off Target - Lumen White
Three implementations (two solid state, one tube based) with a surprising and most
positive attribute - the sonic fingerprint of the tweeter. It was surprisingly understated.
I've heard 4 or 5 commercial implementations and couple of home constructor versions.
Clearly Lumen White didn't want to over sparkle/over cook the treble. Good choice.
Now only 7 more octaves to work on and things will be good. Don't play a upright bass
scale passage. dub dub Dub DUBBB dub duB DUbb. Cabinet resonance as a technical
attribute is a slippery slope. I also found the midrange just too anemic, too stringent. The
speaker wasn't harsh really, but real odd mixture of mud and squeaky clean. They'll sell a
ton of them.

Off Target - Halcro Wilson Button Down
Big room, multichannel, special recordings/master tapes, mega priced units.
Antiseptic acoustical microscopes. No real trace of technical issues, no real trace of
connecting to the music. The best thing was that the two presenters were just in line with
the presentation of the equipment. Look at the picture of and read the contributions Bob
Crump (rcrump). Now imagine a parallel reverse universe. These guys had the buttons
so tight on their suits, the creases so crisp on their pants and glare on their shoes so bright
as to restrict bloodflow and bowel movements. They were interested in pointing out the
irony that they had now had the ability and presentation to render a live unamplified
performance, but the listening public doesn't search it out/relate to it. They were past
lamenting, they were chastising the public for not having the class to hear the unamplified
music. Hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I politely chastised them that "hell the
venues are more to blame" I've said several times here on the Asylum, all the venues have
and often force the use of mike/playback equipment even at acoustically designed halls.
The public wants it we are told. Even the guy on the street corner trying to get some
coins have a PigNose or such. The demo then proceeded to be introduced with the
"listen to the hall, your more left front center seat than right mid center, with the bathroom
door down the hall and the guy with a sinus condition over in the far left corner" ambiance
recording.

Hit - Lamm Seimens Bionor
The complete opposite of the Halcro/Wilson. Ease, emotive, technically flawed,
audiophile gymnastics deficient, but it played music that had the ability to connect with the
listener instantaneously. Could it do DynoStomp/Organ pipe bass - nope. Could it do
the SACD 30Khz zing - nope. Could it present a realistic sized concert grand piano with
tonal consistency across the entire scale - yep. Could it full output without
compression/clip of a Soprano aria - yep. Could it do a Ellington big band live rendition
of A Train with the full sized presentation imaging, not the scaled down micro sized razor
thin version, - yep. Could it make you forget about stereo and multichannel, ditch it all
and go mono. yep. Great kudos need to go to the Lamm folks for the supporting
electronics and the willingness to share the unusual gem. To me it spoke through the
decades of speaker designers who knew something that has either never been learned or
forgotten by many present speaker builders, myself included.

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