CES 2012 – Sceana speakers, Silver Circle, Critical Mass Systems


When I first visited this room – the door was locked.

I did come back 3.5 days later – the last half-hour of the show…


I did not get to hear this system much. It was on for a few seconds and then there was some joke telling [not by me – I am terrible at it – and no, don’t remember the jokes, either. See, I doubly bad at this].

Neli heard this room. Neli [and I, small town boy that I am] grew up in such a way that our faces largely reveal what we are thinking. So maybe I should mention each system she heard and then QUICK take her photo. That way you can immediately recognize the Wow, or WTF, or Confusion, or Boredom, or Horr-IF-ic, or OMG or whatever she thought of the room without me having to translate for her and write something.

No, of course she would never let me do such a thing. But it entertains me just thinking about it 🙂


The Sceana subwoofers were down the landing in the main part of the room


Not sure oif the call these Sceana subwoofers ‘depth charges’ anymore. There is very little info on their website.


The back of the Sceana line-array speakers


The side-view of the Sceana speakers


A close-up of the base of the Sceana line-array speaker.


The Silver Circle Audio ‘Pure Power One 0.5’ power conditioner


The Conrad-Johnson ART amplifier


The Conrad-Johnson ART amplifier


Close-up of the Conrad-Johnson ART amplifier. A little too dusty to see the tube there clearly – and the glass might also be causing some refraction preventing us to see clearly as well.


The had 3 Nordost ‘Quantum’ boxes in this system [one was up on the equipment rack], with lots of Nordost Odin power cords, interconnects and speaker cables.


Nordost ‘Quantum’ boxes and Odin power cable, ic, and speaker cables


Nordost ‘Quantum’ boxes and Odin cables


The Veloce LS-1 preamplifier


The Veloce LS-1 preamplifier remote control


The Veloce LS-1 preamplifier (linestage)


The Veloce LS-1 preamplifier


The DCS Scarlatti. They had the whole Scarlatti stack but the other photos cam out fuzzy.


This is a … Sceana music server? Crossover?

CES 2012 – Audio Lineaire


Audio Lineaire [their website shows this as being 2 words] is a French manufacturer of colorful speakers.


Some Audio Lineaire ‘Harmonie’ speakers


Some Audio Lineaire ‘Harmonie’ speakers


Some Audio Lineaire ‘Harmonie’ speakers


A number of frontspieces of different colors for the Audio Lineaire speakers


The Viola Forte amplifier. Viola had a much more significant presence here at CES this year.


The Audio Aero La Source CD/SACD player


Audio Aero’s LaSource CD/SACD player


The Viola ‘Solo’ preamplifier

CES 2012 – Jones Audio


Our good friend Steve G., who usually has good ears, insists that the new Revel Salon speakers are pretty good – but I have yet to hear a system with these speakers that captures my interest. I liked the old Salons fine, and I am one of those who prefers the older look as well [I know I am not alone! This is one of those tube versus solid-state kind of wars among us Revel followers :-)]

Now these amps… I think these new Jones Audio PA M300 amps are some of the best looking solid-state amps ever. I hope to hear them in several different systems at the shows later in the year.


Revel Salon 2 speaker


Revel Salon 2 speaker


Jones Audio PA M300 monoblock amplifier


Jones Audio PA M300 monoblock amplifier. Love the way the ventilation holes are set in a random, yet organic, pattern.


Jones Audio PRE S-1 Stereo Preamplifier.


Jones Audio PRE S-1 Stereo Preamplifier.


This is one of several rooms using the OPPO CD/.DVD player as a source this year.