January 19, 2012 by Michael

CES 2012 – Chord, Peak Consult, Van Den Hul, Jadis

We were very interested in this room because of the $110K Peak consult ‘Kepheus’ speakers.

The first time I was here they were playing something unfamiliar and I spent most of my time talking with Jay Rein, the distributor, about the state of the industry. Jay thinks that the traditional tried-and-proven approach the best dealers have used for decades will have their day once again and that dealers will once again thrive [I hope I am paraphrasing correctly, Jay]. My counter position was that there should be some way [but how? that is what I want to talk about!] for the best dealers to keep their ethics and yet at the same time they should be able to leverage the internet their benefit: specifically leverage people’s growing comfort with socializing, reading about things they want to buy, and then buying things on the internet [i.e. join the party, instead of fearing it as somehow inherently corrupting].

The second time I came here, I came with Neli and our Radiohead test CD.

Our conclusion was that this system did not show the Peak Consult at their best. With this level of speaker, one looks for the system to sound extraordinary in some way, and hopefully in many ways. But in terms of detail, dynamics, harmonics, linearity, etc. this was not the case. We’ve heard most of these components sound good in other systems – so not going to pick on anything in particular here – just will try and be patient until the next show :-).

The Peak Consult ‘Kepheus’ speaker

The Peak Consult ‘Kepheus’ loudspeaker

The Peak Consult ‘Kepheus’ speaker drivers up close

The Peak Consult ‘Kepheus’ speaker drivers up close and personal

The rear of the Peak Consult ‘Kepheus’ speaker. Looks to be double ported. That is Neli smiling at the front of the loudspeaker, the guy staffing the room, and my very old pair of hiking shoes. 🙂 These speakers are shorter than I had expected and quite deep.

The Peak Consult ‘Princess V’ speakers. We’ve heard these a lot at previous shows.

The equipment rack for this system.

The Jadis Orphee 1 CD player

Jadis’s Orphee 1 CD player

The Chord CPA-5000 Reference Preamplifier

There were two of the Chord SPM-1400b amplifiers on this rack, presumably one per channel

The Van Den Hul selection of cables

This small system was in the upper landing area of the room.

The Jadis JPL preamplifier

The Jadis DA7 power amplifier

Spender A5 loudspeakers

The Chordette devices are quite small. When we came back the second time, Neli put some business cards next to the devices to show just how petite they are.