Report

 

Venetian:   2 A B    29 A1 A2 B1 B2 B3 C1 C2 C3   30 A1 A2 B1 B2 B3 C1 C2 C3   34  35  

  Alexis Park   St. Tropez A B C

 

 

Venetian Floor 29
(Wing A Part 2)

CES 2008
T.H.E. Show
Las Vegas

January 2008

* Denotes a product carried by Audio Federation
 

Copyright © Audio Federation, Inc.. All rights reserved.
All pictures in this report are freely copyable and distributable
if attribution is given but may not be included in multi-room show reports without written permission.

 

 

 

 

Previously, on the gloriously interminable Audio Federation CES 2008 Show Report, it is late afternoon Tuesday and we had just finished the half of the Wing A of floor 29. Now we proceed to go the rest of the way down the hallway, towards the elevator.

 

 
These show reports seem to get chattier after the first several dozen rooms have been reported on.

I am not sure why. Either it is that the pain of the show is becoming a distant memory while the fun of the show is still with me [the minds natural defense mechanism at work], or because at the beginning I am so worried about never getting to the end of the report - and never ever getting done with the thing, I just don't know.

 

 

 

 

STYLE
Impressive Sweet   Enjoyable Emotional Sophisticated   Natural Workhorse Real/Truth  Magical/Spiritual
SOUND
This system sound appeared to meet the goals of this style of system.
 
My impression was that this was a well-balanced system at its price point. The amps controlled the speakers well enough that the system could rock out, and the electronics were tuneful enough to be enjoyable at lesser volumes. It was so nice to find a system that I liked - though systems around the smaller VR speakers are often one of the more enjoyable systems at shows.
 
    
 

Audio Space integrated amplifier.
               
Another Audio Space integrated amplifier. I can't tell from the photos if they were bi-amping or just using this one amp.
APL-modded VRDS CD player.

 

 

 

STYLE


Not Sure

 

SOUND


Not Sure

 

 
I had a hard time getting these speakers to look decent in the photos - so we are including most of them here in the report. Funny, because Morel otehrwise has some of the most photogenic speakers in the business [see the last photo for this room and you will probably agree].
 
 

               
 
 
 
Krell SACD Mk III player
 

See, I told you it was photogenic. These guys show a ton of stuff at CEDIA.

 

 

 

 

STYLE


Not Sure

 

SOUND


Not Sure

 

 
Coincident's claim to fame was the making of reasonably priced, reasonable efficient speakers. Now they are making amps, too.
 
The Audio Aero* Prestige CD/SACD player.
 

A Coincident amp.
               
 
 
    
And, finally Coincident loudspeakers.

 

 

 

 

STYLE


Not Sure

 

SOUND


Not Sure

 

 
Manley rooms always have ulterior messages. I have a hard time figuring out exactly what these messages are - but I think that's just me. Here, all I can think is that the replacing of the stars of the stars and stripes with a tube symbol means that we should cerate a 52nd state - called 'Tube' - and people there pay taxes on solid-state gear and get tax breaks for owning tube gear. Or not.

As far as sound, I've never been able to tell what the Manley sound was trying to do. Perhaps it is just going for Workhorse - which means it just gets the job done without being too offensive. At that it mostly succeeds, though perhaps a little too laid back for my taste [and we like the soundstage behind the speakers about 75% of the time].

 
Joseph Audio speakers and Manley electronics.
 

    

 
 
The little Joseph Audio canister there actually goes round and round. Eye-catching, and not all that annoying, surprisingly. There are so few animated things at a high-end audio show - it is kind of a relief to get a reminder that reality is just an animated logo away.
 
OK, another message is being sent, I can almost figure it out... shhhh!... almost have it..... Oh! The message is: Audio can be fun! Easy to forget that, sometimes.
 

 

               
 
Manley has their own EL34 tubes manufactured? There logo is on this one, anyway. Maybe they just stick it on before including it in with their amps when they ship them out.
 
Oh, I know. A way to keep your hat [sorry, CAP. I don't do sports. That's Neli. She likes some of them organized things where lots of millionaires run around on a field]. It is a way to keep your cap warm between games AND its an amplifier too. No? We do know that lots of amps do do double duty as cat warmers.

 

 

 

 

STYLE


Not Sure

 

SOUND


Not Sure

 

 
Audes speakers and Mastersound integrated and McCormack CD player. There are a lot of Mastersound electronics at this end of the hall - and it sounds pretty good, though this particular system was not one I rememeber.
 
 

               

 

 

 

 

STYLE


Not Sure

 

SOUND


Not Sure

 

 
Spender speakers, Cyrus electronics.
 
    
Nice looking setup, kind of reminds me of Naim and Linn, and a little of Chord.
 

 

 

 

 

STYLE
Impressive Sweet   Enjoyable Emotional Sophisticated   Natural Workhorse Real/Truth  Magical/Spiritual
SOUND
This system sound appeared to meet the goals of this style of system.
 
Another little system I liked. I think I have liked nine out of the last ten show systems that had the EPOS speakers and Creek electronics and Music Hall turntable [which was not playing this year when I was in the room].
 
This is kind of a nice place to have a high-end audio show. You got da views. You got the nice draperies and furniture. A high-end locale for a high-end system. Not that we are leaving the Alexis Park or anything. But it nice over here. I wonder how all these people can afford it / justify the expense? Oops, getting side-tracked here. Wouldn't they rather buy about $20K of gear for their showroom and/or lots and lots of music?
 

            

               
 
Loom carefully - that turntable is not playing anything. Which means that the CD player was sounding pretty musical - which is impressive. I mean sweet. Or is that Enjoyable? Enjoyable.
 
 

 

               
 
 
 
 
 
 

               
 

 

 

 

 

STYLE


Not Sure

 

SOUND


Not Sure

 

 
I know what you are thinking. But it works! I mean, the mid to upper midrange was really well done. There was a little integration anomalies with the bass - but at the right price point, these would be interesting. Now, every time I hazard a guess at what a speaker should sell for, I get into trouble [I know, its not as if I appear to care about getting into trouble - but I do try to stick to describing sound, and stay away from setting pricing policy for manufacturers (first thing I'd do? Cut every price in half. Oh. Wait. The U.S. govt just did that, at least for people outside the U.S. buying U.S. equipment. But I'm INSIDE the U.S.! Hello! Somebody up there in D.C. got it completely backwards! Doh!)].
 
As you can tell from the photos, these are short speakers. And they look different. But you do get used to them.
 

The Mastersound equipment was sounding good in this room.
               
 
Reimyo transport.
 
Reimyo DAC
 

 

The glow of the tubes. Everything in Las Vegas has to glow. Its the law.
 
 
 
 
 

Well, as you saw, there was a lot of Mastersound gear on static display. Static display means it is not connected to a system. But some of it may be turned on anyway. Not something WE would do - but we are more timid than the average bear when it comes to our equipment. Perhaps this comes from working so many decades with logical instead of physical circuits. If you short out a logical circuit, you just delete the trace and route a new one. FedEx does not earn a dime.

The point being that in the real world there is no 'undo'. No 'do-overs'.

 

 

 

 

STYLE


Not Sure

 

SOUND


Not Sure

 

 
Interesting 'skirts' on those LSA speaker stands. Seems like a good idea, sonically, but perhaps I'll take mine without any logo. I can see other people having ones with the Playboy logo, their favorite band, "Turn it up", etc.
 
 

eXemplar Audio CD player
               
eXemplar Audio something else.
 
 
 

 

 
               
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

STYLE


Not Sure

 

SOUND


Not Sure

 

 
May Audio had quite a number of rooms here this year. I seem to remember that they used to just sell CDs and LPs. They seem to have branched out. Most of these brands do not seem familiar, to me, except Mastersound - which their Finish dealer [Hi Tapsa!] seemed to like a lot.
 
 

           

               
 
 
Every time I see candies I think of Neli. She loves candies and luckily I don't [though this year not too many rooms have candy] or I would be gaining a few pounds walking around the show instead of losing them.

 

 

 

 

STYLE


Not Sure

 

SOUND


Not Sure

 

 
A room featuring Gutwire cables and Roksan electronics.
 
 

               
 
 
I presume this is some kind of GutWire power distributor box.
 
 

 

 

 

 

STYLE


Not Sure

 

SOUND


Not Sure

 

 
This room features the Harmonix equipment rack, but also Reimyo electronics.
 
  
 
 
 
Checkout those feet they have under the Reimyo DAC. And the way they are positioned. Severalof these pieces here seem to have different kinds of vibration control feet under them.
 
           
 

 

 

 

 

STYLE


Not Sure

 

SOUND


Not Sure

 

 
A room showing off the Sonneteer products. Sonneteer no longer has the music distribution market to itself - to say the least.
 
 

               
 
 

 

 

 

 

STYLE


Not Sure

 

SOUND


Not Sure

 

 
I have no memory of the sound in this room - which is strange because these look like interesting speakers and we [you only vicariously, of course] have heard the Mastersound electronics in quite a few rooms by now - so we should be able to actually narrow down quite a bit which part of the sound the speakers were contributing.

Of course, not a lot of sound is probably being played with the CD drawer open like that - so that might have something to do with it [whew! at my age, I worry about my memory constantly - at least when I remember to, anyway]..

 
  
 

               
 
End of Wing A on floor 29. We have no completed two Wings out of six. Moving right along aren't we.

 

 

 

Copyright © Audio Federation, Inc.. All rights reserved.
All pictures in this report are freely copyable and distributable
if attribution is given but may not be included in multi-room show reports without written permission.

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