CES 05


CES comments...
In the Sutherland room were the Avalon Vision at 23K, one of only two pair in the Universe and they sounded superb with the VPI HRX. Alison Krauss sounded nearly as good as she did live last year. I have always liked the Avalon sound...clean, delicate and very open with great dimensional contrasts. Sutherland knows how to do phono right.
Cary Audio:There was magic being made in the Cary room. The piano music being played was full of weight and body and demanded to be listened till the piece was over. I liked this room very well.
Threshold:Good news is that Threshold is making gear again and in the Threshold tradition they made great music. The Threshold S/3700e was listed at 3500.00. The system was used with Cardas Neutral Reference interconnect and Speaker cable.
Sound Lab: The M1 SL speakers with the Parasound JC1's provided a grand liquid sound that was very musical. I spoke with John Curl for some time and I was very impressed with the engineering effort that went into the JC1's.
jallen
I, too, thought the Cary room was quite special (if not in my top 3), with the big 805 amps. The biggest thing I learned at the shows was what the SET sound was. After reading about it for so long, I now understand!
Metralla,

Great review on the digital, and I am glad you like MY player the best. Alex was using Mine as his demo. I happen to agree.

My favorite speaker was the Tonian Labs TL M-1 with PHY
driver and Raven tweeter. It out-performed all others
I heard at any price, including MBL, Acapella, ESP, etc.
Email me if you would like a photo.
Metralla,

Nice review of the best rooms at CES... As always, a very educational and enjoyable time

I would like to add a couple of components which added to the quality of the ESP and BAT rooms you mention. Power devices were provided by the dynamic and non-coloring Running Springs Audio power devices, cabling by provided by Cardas Audio and Cable Tower cable supports completed the accessories list.

I also felt AudioPax room was outstanding as well. What were your thoughts?
Did anyone happen to hear the Tyler Acoustics room??
In particular the Super Towers??