Over to "the other" show
     The bane of CES’s high end section has been the unofficial alternative show, T.H.E. Show. Last year the rebels were a number of blocks away. This year they’re back next door, at the St. Tropez, where they’ve pulled away a large number of exhibitors. There are reasons for CES to take the threat seriously. Some years back there was a "rebel" show for adult films, once a CES section. The rebels won. The Adult Expo is now independent, and is held at the Sands convention centre at the same time as CES.
     Is the economy really picking up? The Alexis Park complex had more exhibits than in recent years, but so was the other show. It was clear four days would not be enough.
     T.H.E. show has used a number of measures to draw visitors in. There’s a draw for expensive equipment...but you have to visit certain rooms to qualify. And there’s a free lunch (see our picture), including a noon concert by the Misty River group...about which more another day.
     One of the first rooms we saw was that of Swan loudspeakers, which were once Canadian but hasn’t been for many years. The latest product is a series of home theatre speakers with as many as 16 drivers of 50mm diameter (that’s two inches!). Not bad, for an ensemble priced at US$2500.
     We finally got to hear the ELP laser turntable. The things start around $10K, and you have to add the price of a record-cleaning machine, because dut is opaque to a laser. It is quieter than we expected, with outstanding highs and quick transients. It also sounds leaner. Does the laser have trouble following large excursions? Some years back we were refused a review sample. That doesn’t appear to have changed.
     We heard the Gilmore speakers again, the big ones this time (photo below). The company’s slogan is "Got bass?" It’s a daring question for someone making an open baffle speaker. To underscore that, they were doing a demo with a live bassist playing through the speakers (driven by Atma-Sphere electronics). Yeah...got bass!!!
     One of the largest speakers at the show is the Quintessence Acoustics Stealth, a multi-module four-way speaker...five-way if you count the subwoofer. It looks rather like a Wilson product, and we weren’t astonished to hear that the designer used to own Wilson WAMMs. We liked it better than the WAMMs, though the Atma-Sphere turntable (an old Empire upgraded) contributed its usual sonic signature.
     Granite Audio was showing a new lower-cost Aspen series, still with its trademark acrylic "granite" front. This is the rare company that builds its own system: CD player, amp, preamp, speaker, and all cables down to the power cord. The effect is relaxing, always a good sign.
     Audience, known for cables among other things, was showing its new Adept Response power filter. The front panel shows the line voltage, and along the rear are a dozen outlets, with isolation among components. Projected price: about $2K.
     Cabasse unveiled the biggest subwoofer we’ve seen short of the D-Box Mammouth. Its cone is 21" (55 cm) across, but lighter than the typical 8". Along with a pair of triaxial Baltic 2 speakers, it sounded nothing less than awesome.
     When we see a vertical 360-degree speaker with a diffuser, we figure it’s German, and that’s the case of the Duevel Bella Luna Diamante. However it doesn’t have what we think of as a "German" sound, with prominent upper midrange. With a lovely $60K Pluto turntable from the Netherlands, they sounded gorgeous.
     Less serious but way, way better than expected are the Madison Fielding speakers...built into planters. For indoors or outdoors. The demo was dead serious, we should add: the front end was a Linn Unidisk player!
     At last year’s show, we saw an amazing tiny system from a Japanese company called Almaro: a CD player, tube integrated amplifier and speakers for not much more than US$1000. Almarro was back this year with a much larger speaker, the M50A (in our picture). The finish manages to look like natural, unfinished wood, and at the same time it looks meticulous in its workmanship. This is not an economy product in any sense, with a price tag of US$4900, but it sounded gratifyingly dynamic. And that’s despite the fact that it was being driven by the same tiny tube amplifier we saw last year. Its 6BQ5 single-ended ouput tubes develop a not-extravagant 5 watts per channel. But you’d never guess.
     The Audio Aero Capitole CD player is being joined by an SACD successor, to be known as the Prestige in its final form (what we heard was a final prototype). It converts SACD’s direct stream digital into more conventional PCM, for a claimed 9 dB advantage. It is not only a player but also a preamplifier, with 3 analog inputs and another 5 digital inputs (we tried to think of five digital devices we could buy today, but we’re still thinking). The price may need a raid on the retirement account: US$13,360.
     Next door was the lovely Orpheus system (transport, DAC, preamp, amplifiers), feeding Wilson Benesch speakers.
     One of the nicest new speakers was the DeVore Fidelity Silverback, a three-way speaker with subwoofers on both sides (in push-push formation). They were so far apart they nearly had different area codes, but their killer image kept the music together. Not many speakers can pull that off. The price: around US$12K.
     We got a glimpse of the Canadian-made 3-D DVD system, that of Sensio. There are now seven 3-D films available, including several from IMAX. By the way, Sensio now works with rear projectors. The glasses are nice (see our picture). We hope to get a review sample in the next short while.
     We ended the day with a Naim CD-X2 player feeding Plinius electronics (including the brand new M8 preamp), feeding Harbeth Compact 7 speakers. The combination clicked, and the sheer musicality of the system made it difficult to move on. An interesting detail: the room was using the Rives adaptive equalizer to tame the room acoustics. By and large we would as soon shoot an equalizer as listen to it, but this one impressed us last year, and it did it again this time.
     And there we have it. Tomorrow: over to the "zoo" (the convention centre), and the other hotel of T.H.E. Show. The report will probably appear only the next morning. And remember, we’re on Pacific time.

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