Pursuing the Ultimate Music Experiences

This is the resolution audio room this year. Usually the Resolution Audio room does well at showing off the quite high price/performance of their gear but this year, not so much. Perhaps the Epos speakers, as much as I think they work so well in the Music Hall and Creek rooms, were not up to the task of showing off the somewhat higher fidelity Resolution Audio gear.

The components used in this room this year.

The Cantata Music Center CD player

The Resolution Audio Cantata C50 amplifier

Apple’s Airport Extreme

EPOS spealers

EPOS loudspeaker

On static display, a Resolution Audio open chassis

On static display, another Resolution Audio component with the top off

The Arcam rcube. Probably the biggest seller here at the high-end audio part of the show.

More shots of the black Arcam rcube

More shots of the black Arcam rcube

The white Arcam rcube

There was a token system here. It was pretty well ignored while I was here, treated as background music to all the impromptu meetings.

Arcam has a lot of little modern devices / toys with cool-sounding names. Looks like these guys are paying attention to demographics and buying habits and trends.

They really aren’t like the rest of us, are they? 😉

This room was locked, either because they weren’t able to make it to CES or because the door was accidentally closed all the way by a previous visitor to the room, automatically locking itself, don’t know.

The Music Hall, Epos, Creek room was busy. Didn’t get photos of the actual system here – and in fact it was not playing music either [too bad. Usually quite Enjoyable].

OK. Pink socks? Love it. Next best thing to bare feet 🙂 [bare feet – in your own room – is really relaxing… unless you are at the old San Tropea or Alexis Park – Eeewww!!!… some of those carpets are really disgustingly dirty].

Anyway, took some photos of the static gear on display…

The Music Hall MMF 11 turntable

A Music Hall turntable

The Music Hall MMF 7.1 turntable

The Music Hall MMF 5.1 SE turntable

The Music Hall MMF 5.1 turntable

The Music Hall MMF 2.2 LE turntable

EPOS Elan 15 speakers

Music Hall DAC25.3 DAC and PH 25.2 headphone amplifier

This is the display of the Gutwire cables [there is a system there, playing, but… some of the components are still shrink-wrapped in plastic [not a bad idea…. from an exhibitors standpoint, as long as the plastic doesn’t melt :-)]

A Roksan turntable

May Audio Marketing was selling yummy CDs…

Wish I would have paid more attention to the sound in this room. In fact, I am not at all sure they were playing music in this room while I was there.

Anyway, would have been interesting.

The MBL 101 MKII loudspeaker

The MBL 101 MKII loudspeaker

The MBL 101 MKII loudspeaker

The MBL 101 MKII loudspeaker

The CAT JL3 Statement amplifier

The Convergent Audio Technology (CAT) JL3 ‘The Statement’ amplifier

The Convergent Audio Technology (CAT) JL3 ‘The Statement’ amplifier

The Convergent Audio Technology (CAT) JL3 ‘The Statement’ amplifier

The Convergent Audio Technology (CAT) JL3 ‘The Statement’ amplifier

The Brinkmann ‘Bardo’ turntable

The Brinkmann ‘Bardo’ turntable

The Convergent Audio Technology (CAT) SL1 Legend preamp

The shot of the Esoteric CD player in this room was too fuzzy to be much fun to look at…

Electrocompaniet made a comeback a few years ago – and they have certainly fleshed out their product line.

To my ears their house sound is harmonically rich with good separation, which makes them, for me, quite listenable and often Enjoyable [but beyond typical Enjoyable because they have more separation – the ability to not mush notes together when the music does not call for it than typical Enjoyable systems].

That said they are terribly non-linear and uneven when I hear them at shows, like this one this year – whether do to setup or do to compromises that must be made with a more or less reasonably priced line like this, don’t know.

The Electrocompaniet Nordic Tone speaker

The Electrocompaniet Nordic Tone speaker

The Electrocompaniet Nordic Tone speaker

The Electrocompaniet AW600 amplifier

I thought this dark shot of the equipment rack was cool. YMMV 🙂

Electrocompaniet EMC1 CD player

Electrocompaniet EC 4.8 preamp

Over on the side of the room… Electrocompaniet EMP-2 Blu-ray player [is this the only high-end audio Blu-ray player? Who am I forgetting?] and ECI6 integrated amp [not sure what the NET setting is/should do].

This was the smaller system, up on the landing.

A couple of photos of the Mastersound Compact 845 amplifier

The Mastersound Compact 845 amplifier

A smaller floor-standing Audes loudspeaker

This was the larger system, down in the main part of the room.

The larger Audes loudspeaker

The larger Audes loudspeaker

This system used the Mastersound 300B amps

A photo of the other Mastersound 300B monoblock amplifier

Good to see North Star Design again – this is there Model 192 Transport

The North Star Design USB DAC32

The Mastersound preamplifier

And over on static display as you enter the room: The Mastersound Piccolo

The Mastersound 300B PSE

And finally the Mastersound Dueventi SE preamp

Amphion makes relatively modest home audio loudspeakers. Here is a selection of their speakers on static display.

This was the active system in the main area of the room.

The Amphion loudspeaker

The Amphion loudspeaker

The Amphion loudspeaker

The Nuforce USB DAC

Nuforce P-20 preamplifier

Nuforce Ref 20 amplifier

This room featured the Neat ‘Ultimatum XL10’ speakers on Conrad-Johnson amps. I have a good deal of respect for Neat loudspeakers, having heard them setup by Jay Rein, the previous distributor. This system did not show off the speakers to best effect, in my opinion, and is not worth commenting on because the sound was such that little about the speakers.would be revealed by describing it.

The Neat ‘Ultimatum XL10’ speakers

Neat’s Ultimatum XL10 loudspeaker

Neat’s Ultimatum XL10 loudspeaker

Conrad-Johnson ET2505 amp

Conrad-Johnson LP125M amplifier

Conrad-Johnson ‘Classic Sixty’ amp

Spooky unknown Conrad-Johnson amplifier

The equipment rack in this room

Rega CD player on TV table

Rega CD player

Conrad-Johnson ET5 preamplifier

Conrad-Johnson HD3

Conrad-Johnson ART amplifier

Conrad-Johnson GAT preamplifier

Running Springs Audio power conditioner front view

Running Springs Audio power conditioner rear view

Running Springs Audio power conditioner inside view