February 7, 2012 by Michael

CES 2012 – Audio Power Labs

This room featured the new Audio Power Labs 50TNT 50 watt amp on the Von Schweikert VR-5 Anniversary speakers.

Hedging their bets? They had 3 separate digital sources [musical fidelity, EERAtentation, and Aurender] and two preamps [Audio Research and Fostex attenuator]. It is my guess that they appear to be using the Aurender running into the Musical Fidelity running as a DAC into the Audio Research pre.

I liked the sound here. It was dynamic up and down the frequency spectrum, the speakers were well-controlled [not exceptionally so, but at a show where almost no speakers are well-controlled, this was one of the best]. The harmonics were rich but not excessively so. Not a ton of micro-dynamics but, seriously, the one thing the Von Schweirkert speakers do well when they are on their game is that big, open, dynamic, exciting sound, and in relatively small and inexpensive speakers – specifically the better versions of their VR-4 and VR-5 speakers].

How did the sound compare to similar systems powered by the Audio Space et. al. amps? Kind of the crux of the question here, and it is hard to remember… so this is just somewhat wild hand waving… but although I liked the those systems too, as I heard them in at shows gone by, I think this system had more harmonic color and harmonic resolution – especially given that the sources they used here this year are somewhat bereft of same.

Added a few photos of the 833 TNT amp on static display below. My apologies to those who have seen those amps in other rooms at this show – the static display provided a unique vantage point for the camera – and this will be the last we see of these amps in this report. Promise.

The system as seen from the couch: The Audio Power Labs 50 TNT amplifier driving Von Schweikert VR-5 Anniversary loudspeakers on a solidsteel equipment rack