CES 2012 show report

January 26, 2012 by Michael

CES 2012 – Constellation Audio

Constellation Audio electronics driving Tidal’s Contriva speakers.

It took a little while for me to realize here that these were Tidal speakers and not Venture speakers. This allowed for an interesting mental exercise where the sound I heard was being compared in my head to the typical sound of systems with Venture speakers [e.g. laid back, etc. But see review of room with new statement Venture speakers – it appears that they may be moving Venture to a more [midi-]dynamic sound].

I thought these had much more color, more separation, more dynamics than the typical Venture sound, And when I learned they were Tidal speakers, not Venture speakers, I *still* thought they had more of this than the previous Tidal speaker-fronted systems I have heard, as well [I’ve only head about 5 to 7, I think, so still learning about these speakers].

These were one of the few rooms at the show that had any kind of musical engagement for me [along with Verity / Lamm, Kondo / Kondo, Franco Serblin/ Air Tight, Von Schweikert / Audio Power Labs, and… ]. I am in a rush always at these shows, and sometimes my attention is completed dominated by conversation, but it is not like I was in any less rush in these rooms either [except the Franco Serblin ‘Accordo’ speaker-fronted system], not that I did not enjoy several other rooms [Magico/ Luixman, Venture / Venture, and…].

Come to think of it, I’ve enjoyed several of Constellation Audio’s rooms in the past as well. Not enough to rave about them yet – but then again, raving is not really my overriding personal characteristic [if you knew me better, trust me, you would agree 🙂 makes me wonder if I would really fit in as a member of the press after all… ;-)]

Constellation amplifier and Tidal loudspeakers