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CES / THE Show

Well, I just returned from the CES/THE Show, and for the most part, there really wasn't much in the way of "revolutionary" products, so in general, it was somewhat uninspiring.

On the audio side of things, I decided to take a different tack this year. Last year I visited as many suites as possible, but this year, I focused my efforts on loudspeakers, and based my visits on a single attribute; did the music coming from the room cause me to stop, and see what was making the music?

I heard an interesting comment from a gentleman on one of the shuttles. There was a discussion about recreating the “live event,” something that I must assume is the ultimate priority of audiophiles. He commented that “reproduced music is just that, reproduced music, so I don’t know why we all bother sometimes.” I thought it was an interesting comment, because as we all know, you can get close, but nothing reproduced can duplicate 100% the live event. I guess the objective is to get as close as possible!

Without getting into too many details, there were not a whole lot of rooms that drew me in. I did deliberately go to see a handful of speakers, one of which was the Thiel 3.7. I give Jim Thiel credit; they sounded pretty darned good. I passed right on by a large number of the usual suspects (the typical "top 10" list), as I just wasn’t impressed with the sound I heard. Many folks said the environment was poor, but regardless, some speakers excelled, even in a less than perfect setting. Is your listening environment “perfect?” A pair of PC speakers will outperform a $20K system under the right conditions.

Anyway, here’s a list of the rooms where the sound inspired me to embark on a longer listening session. They are in no particular order, and each of course had strengths and weaknesses. What I can say about all of them, is that to my ears, the trade-off’s were balanced well enough that the overall performance of the system didn’t suffer:

Edgarhorn – When you can hear the air coming through a trumpet, and the string of bass guitar vibrate, all I can say is “WOW”
Audiokinesis – This guy is on to something. Absolutely awesome midrange!
Rethm – Lowther based system that now has a powered sub. Beautifully designed and finished, and the coherency was outstanding!
Usher – If audiophiles can get passed the “made overseas” stigma, these easily perform as well, and in most cases, outperform the typical top 10 list at one-quarter the pricing in some cases.
Escalante Design – Fast and incredibly well balanced. Possibly the best conventional dynamic system I’ve ever heard.

In a nutshell, I’ve come to the realization that to my ears, a well executed horn system (or horn variation) gets as close to the “live event” as you’re going to get. While there are of course trade-off’s, a horn system provides the dynamic swings, transient attack, detail and delivery of instruments (strings, drums, woodwinds, brass) that a conventional, low efficiency, dynamic system simply can’t match. I’ll admit that a horn system might not provide a “silky” midrange presentation that some folks like for vocals, but a horn system is just so expressive that nearly every other design sounds like “Hi-Fi.” For me, horns are as close to the live event as I’m going to get, and I can now see why the value of older horn systems from Altec and JBL have skyrocketed in value. I think folks are on to something.

There really is something magical about the way these systems reproduce music, so needless to say, after 25 years of trying just about every speaker technology available, I'm going back to horns and never looking back.
seadweller
matt_zak
55 posts
 
Did you get the chance to listen to the new Reference 3a Grand Veena's? If so I'm interested in how you thought they stacked up against the others.
stehno
1,453 posts
 
I heard a 'glimpse' of the Reference 3a room (I don't know if the speakers were the Grand Veenas).

We were pressed for a scheduled meeting and from what little I heard (almost standing out in the hallway) they were very impressive and I wanted to return later but never did.
rneclps
18 posts
 
DH Labs/Prima Luna/Njoe Tjoeb room was excellent. Von Schweikert VR5 SE, i was not impress, its unlistenable (it hurts my ears) i think its not properly set up. THE Show on the other hand has only few exhibitors, but i think the best room in THE Show is the Aures/Landes, feels like listening live music.
anthuan
20 posts
 
I spent 2 days at the Venetian searching for speakers: Here are my top 3 selections:

1) MBL show room ( the best I have ever heard, I think the entire system cost about $275000.00)

2) Gershman Acoustics show room: Black Swan

3)Usher show room: The Be-20s were simply awsome. Very big speakers. The entire system was running the Usher electronics that retail for less than $6K. Can't help but wonder what they would sound like with more expensive equipment. I guess I will know soon enough.

I can only dream about the MBL but fortunate enough to buy a pair of Black Swan and Be-20. I can't wait to get them late this week.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
As usual, I seem to be the odd man out. I heard most of the speakers mentioned above and they are not among my top five. My top five are the Magico Version 3s, the YG Kipods, the Lamsche coronas, the LSA Model 10s, and TAD Model 2s. The LSA Model 10s when they played them right at the RMAF were the best of the lot, but seem unlikely to be built given the high price they would have to cost. At the RMAF I heard bass decay that I thought was impossible on speakers. The realism was awesome. At CES they could not achieve this, probably because of the room and the compromised electronics.

The TAD Model 2s after my thinking that the Model 1s were too wooden, were not my first choice on going to the room. In a backroom they had intended to play the Pioneer XEs which were quite the hit at the RMAF. They sound much less wooden and at $9500 are a real value. TAS already has a rave review of the stand version.

Everyone was agog with the Magico big speakers and many missed what was the best sounding speaker in the room, the Version 3s, at $22k estimated. They were quick and transparent. I hate the Micros and cannot understand why they receive such favorable reviews.

The Lamsche coronas at THE Show use a plasma tweeter of the same design as that used by Acapella, but has double the flame size and goes down to 2500 Hz. The speaker was in too small a room but had well integrated sound.
I thought the new Acapella Violins saw a better mating of the plasma and horn speakers than I have ever heard before, but I thought the fuller extension of the Lamsches was clearly superior. Too bad these speakers cost $45k but that is, of course, where the Violins also fall.

Finally, I found the YG speakers despite the awful rooms on the mezzanine of the Venetians to hold great promise. Their many awards from Japan would suggest that these American made but mainly sold in Japan speakers will do well here, despite their $38k price. They share with the LSA Model 10 a very rigid and non-resonant aluminum cabinet and sound much like the Model 10s. No wooden sound here.

I think CES's deliberate move to undercut THE Show worked as there were few at THE Show. I thought the tower rooms at CES were okay and perhaps even better than the Alexis Park rooms. Incidentally, the Alexis Park seemed to be going strong. I had heard that it had been torn down. The mezzanine rooms, while pretty and with open walkways to them were awful. In one listening session, we had to await the noisy demonstration nextdoor to be completed before we could continue. Moving partition walls do not a good listening room make.
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