Pursuing the Ultimate Music Experiences

Stein Music had their Harmonizers assisting the system in this room, a set of 6, I think, black boxes with little blue lights in them that affected the sound in the room.

After a demonstration with the Harmonizers on, then off, then on again, I felt that they made the system less ‘open sounding’ and adding a little dampening down to the dynamics. This is a similar effect to many power conditioners out there and many people seem to like this considering the overwhelming success of these kinds of devices. It makes the music more accessible, easier for the brain to parse, to grok, I sometimes think, perhaps because it is delivered in a more familiar package.

The speaker with a Blue Magic Diamond tweak on top

The speaker with a Blue Magic Diamond tweak on top, close-up

Stein Music tweaks on the ceiling

The Stein Music H2 Harmonizer system

The Stein Music H2 Harmonizer system

Smart Audio component of some sort [there is nothing at smartaudio.net]

Smart Audio component of some sort

The hallways are near empty – it is essentially 6:30pm. I will do one more room on the 4th floor and call it a day.

This poster lists all of the exhibitors at THE Show this year

Various forms of entertainment are available in the evenings.

We did not partake of the entertainment provided by THE Show this year.

This room sounded very Enjoyable. Big and open, sufficient harmonics and separation – although the dynamics was somewhat ‘evened out’ so perhaps it would never stray out of Enjoyability to be Real or Impressive. There was a certain even-handedness across the midrange – which I personally think is essential is one is going to call something ‘high-end’ audio – unlike many other systems, it didn’t just collapse into a mush at some freq., it didn’t get a lot more harmonics/resolution/dynamics that what it was supposed to have at some frequencies and a lot less at others, etc. etc.

Not saying it was great – but I wouldn’t have minded just collapsing into a chair and joining the other people here.

Kings Audio loudspeakers and Jadis amplifier and AMR CD player

Kings Audio’s King III speaker

Kings Audio’s King III speaker rear

Kings Audio’s Queen III speaker and Prince III speaker

Kings Audio’s Queen III speaker and Prince III speaker rears

Kings Audio’s Queen III speaker rear

Kings Audio’s Hummingbird II super tweeter

AMR CD-777 CD player

Jadis JPL preamplifier

Consonance preamp

Consonance USB DAC

Jadis amplifier

The Peak Consult ‘Zoltan’ loudspeakers on a Vitus amplifier

The Peak Consult ‘Zoltan’ loudspeakers on a Vitus amplifier

The Peak Consult ‘Zoltan’ loudspeakers

The Peak Consult ‘Zoltan’ loudspeakers

The Stahl-Tek ‘Opus’ CD transport

The Stahl-Tek ‘Opus’ DAC on a Symposium Isis rack

On static display, the Stahl-Tek ‘Opus’ DAC

On static display, the Stahl-Tek ‘Opus’ CD Transport

This room featured some unknown to me loudspeakers

Loudspeaker front

Loudspeaker rear

Weiss DAC 202

Laptop used in this room

This room featured the Bladelius ‘Embla’ Media Player on Gradient speakers

The Bladelius ‘Embla’ Media Player

The Bladelius ‘Embla’ Media Player

Aura Audio D1K amplifier

The Gradient loudspeaker

The Gradient loudspeaker

The Gradient loudspeaker setup and specifications

Brodmann Acoustics makes pianos and loudspeakers.

Broadmann Acoustics speakers

Broadmann Acoustics speaker

Broadmann Acoustics speaker

Broadmann Acoustics JB-155 speaker

Weiss DAC 202 and Onkyo iPod dock

Wells Audio ‘Innamorata’ amplifier

Selection of Brodmann Acoustics speakers

Brodmann Acoustics VC-7 loudspeaker

Brodmann Acoustics monitor loudspeaker

Brodmann Acoustics VC-1 loudspeaker

Brodmann Acoustics VC-1 loudspeaker

This room featured Estelon XA Diamond speakers driven by Concert Fidelity electronics.

Neli and I both stopped here, each at different times, and as chance would have it, each time the record that was playing ended shortly thereafter. Should have asked to hear something else – but so tired…

A closer view of the Estelon XA Diamond speakers and Concert Fidelity gear

The Estelon XA Diamond loudspeaker

The Estelon XA Diamond loudspeakers from the rear [kind of]

The Estelon XA Diamond loudspeaker from the rear

The Estelon XA Diamond loudspeaker from the rear – binding posts and stuffed port

Denon turntable

Denon turntable

Denon turntable’s tonearm

The Concert Fidelity ZL-120V2SE amplifier

The Concert Fidelity SPA-4C phono stage

The Concert Fidelity CF-080LSX2 linestage preamplifeir

The Concert Fidelity DAC-040

Fono Acustica Power cords and Power distributor

Fono Acustica interconnects

Fono Acustica ‘Sinfo’ power distributor

This room featured Classic Audio T 1.4 Reference loudspeakers with Atma-Sphere M-60 amplifiers and MP-1 preamp.

Classic Audio T 1.4 Reference loudspeaker

Classic Audio T 1.4 Reference loudspeaker tweeter

Classic Audio T 1.4 Reference loudspeaker

Classic Audio Speaker driver

Classic Audio Loudspeaker field coil driver

Atma-Sphere’s M-60 amplifier

Atma-Sphere’s M-60 amplifier

Amazon turntable

A ZYX ‘Omega-X’ phono cartridge

The Atma-Sphere MP-1 preamplifier

The Atma-Sphere MP-1 power supply

MSB’s Platinum Data CD IV and Solitaire DAC IV

The McIntosh P486A power controller

Looks like a new Atma-Sphere amplifier

A couple of Tri-Planar tonearms

The smaller Classic Audio room had T-7,. T-5 and T-3 speakers on Allnic integrated, and a Kuzma turntable with a Tri-planar tonearm.

Not going to speak on the overall quality of the sound here, or in many of these rooms – they are going for specific flavors of Enjoyable and it is up to each individual to listen to them and see if it is for them.

But I can speak to the music they played here.

It Rocked.

They were situated across the hall a little ways from our room where we were staying. For a while each evening they would turn up the volume and play music with their door open. It was all I had to listen to while I offloaded photos from my camera and burned DVDs and waited for Neli to arrive back from wherever she had gotten herself to.

Lots of innovative music, a little techno, a little this and that. It was great. The music at CES was extremely bland. Blander than usual. Patricia Barber would have sounded way too avantgarde at this show.

So I really, really appreciated being able to hear at least SOME real music each day. Thanks guys!

Classic Audio ‘T-7 Project’ speaker

Classic Audio ‘T-7 Project’ speaker

Classic Audio ‘T-5’ loudspeaker

Classic Audio ‘T-3’ loudspeaker

Kuzma Reference turntable

Kuzma Reference turntable with Tri-Planar tonearm

Allnic’s T-1500 300B integrated amplifier

Allnic’s T-1500 300B integrated amplifier

Allnic’s T-1500 300B integrated amplifier

The Esoteric DV-50s DVD / CD / SACD player

Allnic H-1200 phono stage and Alesis Masterlink ML-9600 disk recorder

McIntosh P486A power controller