CES continues...
     As you probably already know, CES is not the only show in town. A group of exhibitors, a few years back, began grousing that CEA (the CES organizer) was not giving much to the high end community, but was charging too much for high end rooms at Alexis Park. They organized their own, separate show. For the most part these shows were abysmal failures. Then along came Mike Maloney.
     Mike, some CES-goers may know, was founder of Scientific Fidelity, maker of speakers, and also of tube electronics whose design landed them a place in the Victoria and Albert museum in London. But we digress.
     Mike did what no other rebel organizer had been able to do. He leased rooms in the hotel next door to the Alexis Park. The result was that CES began hurting, and it used its considerable power to strike back against what it had always regarded as parasites. Last year the rebel show (known as T.H.E. Expo) was not next door. It was within walking distance (according to Mike), an expensive cab ride away (according to people with their feet on the ground).
     In 2003, T.H.E. Expo is in the San Remo, a high rise but moderate quality hotel well off the strip on Tropicana Boulevard. We’re on our way there, but first...
     
     We spent a bit of time listening to a system by DPL, which used to be called EAR. Either way, the equipment was designed by Tim de Pavaricini (the tube monoblock is shown here). With a Townshend Rock turntable and the very large Coltrane speakers from Marten Design, they sounded quite wonderful.
     We dropped in to see the Hsu subwooofers (at Alexis Park, let is be said). The good news is that they are now available with nicer finishes: wood veneer sides with piano black top and bottom. Not so good is that Hsu has designed an inexpensive sub for BIC. There is no way on God’s green earth to match a subwoofer to the pocket-sized BIC speakers. The result is painfully-excessive bass and inexistent lower midrange. Good luck decoding dialog.
     Avalon was there with a new model, the Ceramique (it appears to be made of wood products despite the model name), with the company's trademark slanted front. Driven by the Muse 160 monoblocks and a CD player of the same brand, it sounded quite arresting. The guitar sounded quite convincing, not so much because of the speed of the string sound as because of the realistic reconstitution of the guitar's characteristic woody resonance.
     And now off to the San Remo.
     The first observation: traffic was heavier than in previous years, and possibly heavier than at Alexis Park. On the other hand the number of exhibitors seemed smaller.
     Early on we ran across one of the really good rooms, featuring Edge amplifiers. The speakers were grey and anonymous ("speakers are not the key component," said an Edge representative). The sound, from a VPI TNT turntable, was just stunning. And definitely not...edgy! Of course, using vinyl may seem almost like cheating, but the system sounded similarly superb with a Gamut CD player. Wow!
     In the same room were the huge pyramid-shaped monoblocks, offering 800 watts per channel, and--as often happens with very powerful amplifiers--a lot less detail and musicality.
     There were more turntables than ever at the show. The most impressive was the Italian-made Vyger Indian Signature vacuum-suspended turntable. All polished stainless steel, with industrial-looking pressure gauges, it drew lots of attention. The sound was not quite incoherent, however, and we suspect the setup had not been done quite completely.
     Audio Research had set up a surround system with six Magneplanars (they were doubled up for the centre speaker). It sounded very good, though we later found an even more impressive Maggie surround system, using wall-mounted main speakers and the all-new centre speaker. The system was satisfyingly spacious, with an identifiably "Maggie sound," but none of the marque’s idiosyncracies.
     Audio Research was also showing the MP-1, a pre-production surround preamp without a digital processor. The rationale: putting digital in with analog is a recipe for problems. No decission on production has been taken.
      The huge Avantgarde horns may be growing on us. A set of the very large Trio 3.0's and the even larger Basshorns (four of them) were an awesome sight. Judge for yourself.

Not everyone can give them houseroom, as you can imagine, but we enjoyed what we heard. They require little power (except for the Basshorns, which are self-powered), and they were easily handled by a pair of Brazilian Audiopax 88 tube monoblocks.
     Also unorthodox (and large) was the Element E50 clear acrylic speaker. With arrays of speakers for the three voices (ribbons for the midrange and top end), they sounded quite decent. Unlike most large speakers, the E50’s disappear...though the manufacturer sais, with a sigh, that visitors have already asked about grille cloths. The price is US$50K for the pair.
     The impressive-looking Halcro amplifiers turned in a performance that was entirely too "hi-fi" in one room, but did very much better in the surround sound room, driving Wilson Maxx and Sophia speakers. A master tape of the Verdi Requiem from a Nagra open-reel machine was surprisingly poor, and the system actually did much better with a CD, using Ed Meitner's EmmLabs DAC6 converter.
     One of the best rooms was that of Globe Audio, which was showing stacked pairs of Braun LE1 electrostatics. The LE1 is a modernized version of the original Quad ESL-57 (it now has a protection, circuit, however). The German company had bought the tooling from Peter Walker when Quad was sold a decade ago. They can also repair old Quads, and indeed supply reproductions of the original Quad.
     The sound? The ESL-57 has often been criticized for not being a full-range speaker, but when you’re listening to it you don't care. The refreshing speed and lack of midrange distortion is so delightful that you just relax and enjoy.
     Astonishingly effective is the TacT (it’s written like that) set of room-correcting preamp and digital amps. You place the speakers, including subwooofers if any, where you like, plug in a microphone, and let the system do frequency and time domain corrections. The speakers used (Dali Symphonias from Denmark) were crossed over to subwoofers at a very high 300 Hz frequency, with the subs some distance away in the corners. It was a bit of a mess without correction, but settled down nicely once correction had been applied.
     We finally got to see the new version of an older Reference 3a speaker, the curved Intégrale Nouveau. Unfortunately, the Art Audio tube monoblocks driving them were running out of breath on the slightest exertion, and a nasty hum suggested that at at least one tube was headed for a Bettter World.
     We love to find gear with exotic styling, and we were well-served at the Cain & Cain room. The horn speakers (designed by descendents of the two Biblical brothers?) were driven by two of the most amazing monoblock amplifiers we have ever seen. The sound? Does it mattter? Oh yes, well perhaps it does...and it was more than decent.
     Looking for a nice little entry-level system? The tiny but efficient Almarro speakers from Japan are available for US$1200, complete with a single-ended amplifier using two EL84 output tubes. Surprisingly good.
     We were surprised to find speakers in the Earthworks room, since we know the company for its excellent microphones. The engineers use their own calibrated microphones to measure and correct speaker errors. The speakers, which are quite small, are designed for coherent sound. Nice.
     One of the best roooms at T.H.E. Expo was that of SLS, known for its professional grade speakers (used by such companies as Telarc and Sony). Its HT8R monitors are not expensive, at US$1095 each, but the sound was warm and intimate. We didn't feel like leaving.
     That wasn't all we saw, to be sure, but we have to leave something for the report in the next issue of UHF. Next stop, tomorrow, the "zoo" (the Las Vegas Convention Centre) and the Hilton. Talk to you soon.

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