     Certainly the Aquos sets are very good, and they offer a couple of innovations, one unique, the other not.
     One of them is superior reds. Taking a cue from Fuji, whose famous Velvia color film included one extra dye, Sharp adds pixels for one more color besides the usual red, green and blue. It calls the extra color "crimson red," a term which sounds like the creation of the department of redundancy department, but its presence is intended to offer a wider range of details in the reds, which are often brighter than some other colors, green notably, and tend to get blown out.
     The other innovation is what Sharp calls Fine Motion Advanced Technology, to offer smoother movement. A split screen was set up to show the difference.

     This is another form of upsampling, you might say. Instead of the usual 60 frames per second, too little to follow fast motion, a proprietary algorithm is used to upsample to 120 frames per second. The result is dramatic.
     It is not unique, however. Pioneer has its similar Motion Focus Technology, which didn't look quite as good as it was set up, and Ölevia has a technology called ME/MC (the two M's stand for motion, but beyond that don't ask).
     Panasonic also has video displays that are easy on the eyes. Give the company full marks for what has to be unique: the Lifewall. It must be seen to be believed.

Yes, the external wall of the house, with its crackling fireplace, is illusion, a vast video picture. You can change the season, turn the image, or part of it, into a Web browser page or a movie. What's more, it can all be done with hand gestures! Practical? Like Pioneer's giant TV screen, this too is a corporate statement.

    But the talk of the crowed in the video venues was the catastrophe that seemed to befall one of the competing high definition discs, HD DVD. For the developing details, see UHF's blog. Rightly or wrongly, the buzz was that the format war is all over, and Blu-ray has won.
     The show must go on, however, and on the stage of Toshiba (HD DVD's developer) the woman at right was putting all her heart and soul into talking up HD DVD to an audience of two, one of them another Toshiba employee. Too bad, because it was a highly competent presentation. That no one seems to care was hardly her fault.
     Over at the Blu-ray camp, the presenter (below) was having an easier time of it, and the crowd was considerable.
     We actually got to see the booth of a Taiwan company called Forgings, on whose mailing list we seem to be. The booth was like a bazaar, heavily loaded with loudspeakers and other electronic goods, some of them with a finish that looks superficially as though it belongs at fancier digs. Among the bookshelf speakers finished in real wood was a pair of "Philip" speakers (the name was written in crayon) offered for the "special price" of $39.95. That would be cash, we imagine.

The zoo is often home to high end companies that have chosen to forgo the superior acoustics of actual hotel rooms (we first heard the Linn Unidisk player here). Not many of them were here this time. B&W was present, but with (predictably) a static display. Klipsch, usually exhibiting in the South Hall, stayed home. There were some rather snazzy-looking speakers from Earthquake Sound, whose take on sound reproduction can be deduced from the corporate name. The company has amps, too, big ones, and they were being used to demonstrate the speakers' seismic potential. We kept wishing a tsunami would wash them away!
The Hilton, adjacent to the LVCC, has literally hundreds of booths, many of them grouped by Asian country of origin (Taiwan and China notably). Touring them confirms that the world is full of electronic products from makers we have never heard of (though some actual brand names rang a bell, such as Hello Kitty). However the upper rooms did include some actual high end companies.

    KEF was one of them. We got to hear the latest (and smallest) member of the KEF's Reference Series, the 201/2. This speaker isn't a downscale model by any means, with a price tag of some $6500. However, if the size seemed at odds with the price, we can't say the same of the sound. These speakers (a three-way design featuring the iconic UniQ coaxial midrange-tweeter) throw up a vast and realistic sound stage that tempted us not to bother moving on. However something far bigger awaited us.
     That something is the KEF Muon loudspeaker. A muon is a subatomic particle, but this speaker (shown below) is rather larger than its namesake. This 230 kg polished aluminum sculpture has an almost liquid look that suggests the T1000 in Terminator 2 (another visitor thought he also saw some kinship to Scarlett Johansson) The smallest driver, the one dead centre, is the same UniQ driver that is in the 201/2 (that gives you an idea of the scale. Thus there is equivalent of seven drivers at the front, plus two you don't see at the rear. A pair of these cost like a Lamborghini (or three Porsche 911's plus a Toyota Camry).
     The sound? Ah, well, a speaker that large cannot have the coherence of the smaller one, but in a somewhat different way it left an impression on both eye and ear.

    Cambridge Audio had also chosen the Hilton as its home. Though the company is known for its Azur series CD player and integrated amplifiers, it was introducing separates: the 840E preamplifier ($1500) and the 840W power amp (200 watts, which we suppose means 100 watts per channel, at $2200). We heard the set, driven by the familiar 840C player, but not enough fo form a firm opinion.
     Cambridge tells us that, perhaps before the end of the year, it will have a preamplifier-processor that can handle the new high definition lossless sound formats, namely Dolby True-HD and dts-HD. The chips will be arriving in the next short while, but they are not there yet. Bryston told us much the same thing, as did Simaudio. We did see a Harman/Kardon unit which supposedly have these featured, but the launch time was indicated as "Summer 2008," and we suspect it was an empty box.
     We're waiting, with all the patience we can muster.
     There's one day to go for Vegas 08, and of course we'll be there to the final cutain. We might get the report out later tomorrow (the show closes at 4 pm to allow exhibitors time to tear down and load the trucks). If not, look for the wrapup some time Friday.
     We anticipate there will be much more to say.

CES 2008 and the parallel show run from January 7-10th, with a special press day on the 6th (Day Zero, we call it). Click to visit each of UHF's live reports. The report will appear early the next day, if not before.

CES Preview

Day 0 (Jan.6th)

Day 1 (Jan.7th)

Day 2 (Jan.8th)

Day 3 (Jan.9th)

Day 4 (Jan.10th)

Welcome to the zoo
     "The zoo" is of course the Las Vegas Convention Center, one of the largest in the world. It's not a place to actually listen to anything, which is why there aren't more than a couple of high end companies present, but most of the high end video is there, as are a number of other interesting products. The reason for the zoo nickname may not be obvious if you have never been to the endless pavillions of the Las Vegas Convention Centre, but it comes to your lips spontaneously once you arrive. What else could you call it? And it's not just because of the animal on the screen below.
     And next door to the convention centre (if anything can be "next door" to such a gigantic venue) is the Hilton hotel, which has its own exhibits.
     The really big halls (there are some seven, not counting the entire building taken up entirely by Microsoft) are the home to the large makers of television sets and other video products. And those are hot, because that's one domain where technology is advancing...sort of.
     We all know that size matters, at least when it comes to television screens, and each year manufacturers vie to have the biggest screen of all. The area measures keep creeping up and up and up. The apparent winner this year is Pioneer, whose 150-inch screen this is.
     It goes pretty much without saying that this is not a practical size unless you own a football stadium, and a moment's thought will confirm that it wouldn't fit through even a double doorway. But it's a macho statement, and it happens this way every year.
     Besides, "bigger" is easier to prove than "better," though of course any company that wants to compete on more than price will need to back a claim of superior technology. Each year Sharp throws up a dazzling displays of its many Aquos television screens, all of them boasting (like its major competitors) full 1080-line progressive images, through upsampling if need be.

     Certainly the Aquos sets are very good, and they offer a couple of innovations, one unique, the other not.
     One of them is superior reds. Taking a cue from Fuji, whose famous Velvia color film included one extra dye, Sharp adds pixels for one more color besides the usual red, green and blue. It calls the extra color "crimson red," a term which sounds like the creation of the department of redundancy department, but its presence is intended to offer a wider range of details in the reds, which are often brighter than some other colors, green notably, and tend to get blown out.
     The other innovation is what Sharp calls Fine Motion Advanced Technology, to offer smoother movement. A split screen was set up to show the difference.


     This is another form of upsampling, you might say. Instead of the usual 60 frames per second, too little to follow fast motion, a proprietary algorithm is used to upsample to 120 frames per second. The result is dramatic.
     It is not unique, however. Pioneer has its similar Motion Focus Technology, which didn't look quite as good as it was set up, and Ölevia has a technology called ME/MC (the two M's stand for motion, but beyond that don't ask).
     Panasonic also has video displays that are easy on the eyes. Give the company full marks for what has to be unique: the Lifewall. It must be seen to be believed.



     Yes, the external wall of the house, with its crackling fireplace, is illusion, a vast video picture. You can change the season, turn the image, or part of it, into a Web browser page or a movie. What's more, it can all be done with hand gestures! Practical? Like Pioneer's giant TV screen, this too is a corporate statement.
     But the talk of the crowed in the video venues was the catastrophe that seemed to befall one of the competing high definition discs, HD DVD. For the developing details, see UHF's blog. Rightly or wrongly, the buzz was that the format war is all over, and Blu-ray has won.
     The show must go on, however, and on the stage of Toshiba (HD DVD's developer) the woman at right was putting all her heart and soul into talking up HD DVD to an audience of two, one of them another Toshiba employee. Too bad, because it was a highly competent presentation. That no one seems to care was hardly her fault.
     Over at the Blu-ray camp, the presenter (below) was having an easier time of it, and the crowd was considerable.
     We actually got to see the booth of a Taiwan company called Forgings, on whose mailing list we seem to be. The booth was like a bazaar, heavily loaded with loudspeakers and other electronic goods, some of them with a finish that looks superficially as though it belongs at fancier digs. Among the bookshelf speakers finished in real wood was a pair of "Philip" speakers (the name was written in crayon) offered for the "special price" of $39.95. That would be cash, we imagine.
     The zoo is often home to high end companies that have chosen to forgo the superior acoustics of actual hotel rooms (we first heard the Linn Unidisk player here). Not many of them were here this time. B&W was present, but with (predictably) a static display. Klipsch, usually exhibiting in the South Hall, stayed home. There were some rather snazzy-looking speakers from Earthquake Sound, whose take on sound reproduction can be deduced from the corporate name. The company has amps, too, big ones, and they were being used to demonstrate the speakers' seismic potential. We kept wishing a tsunami would wash them away!
     The Hilton, adjacent to the LVCC, has literally hundreds of booths, many of them grouped by Asian country of origin (Taiwan and China notably). Touring them confirms that the world is full of electronic products from makers we have never heard of (though some actual brand names rang a bell, such as Hello Kitty). However the upper rooms did include some actual high end companies.
     KEF was one of them. We got to hear the latest (and smallest) member of the KEF's Reference Series, the 201/2. This speaker isn't a downscale model by any means, with a price tag of some $6500. However, if the size seemed at odds with the price, we can't say the same of the sound. These speakers (a three-way design featuring the iconic UniQ coaxial midrange-tweeter) throw up a vast and realistic sound stage that tempted us not to bother moving on. However something far bigger awaited us.
     That something is the KEF Muon loudspeaker. A muon is a subatomic particle, but this speaker (shown below) is rather larger than its namesake. This 230 kg polished aluminum sculpture has an almost liquid look that suggests the T1000 in Terminator 2 (another visitor thought he also saw some kinship to Scarlett Johansson) The smallest driver, the one dead centre, is the same UniQ driver that is in the 201/2 (that gives you an idea of the scale. Thus there is equivalent of seven drivers at the front, plus two you don't see at the rear. A pair of these cost like a Lamborghini (or three Porsche 911's plus a Toyota Camry).
     The sound? Ah, well, a speaker that large cannot have the coherence of the smaller one, but in a somewhat different way it left an impression on both eye and ear.
     Cambridge Audio had also chosen the Hilton as its home. Though the company is known for its Azur series CD player and integrated amplifiers, it was introducing separates: the 840E preamplifier ($1500) and the 840W power amp (200 watts, which we suppose means 100 watts per channel, at $2200). We heard the set, driven by the familiar 840C player, but not enough fo form a firm opinion.
     Cambridge tells us that, perhaps before the end of the year, it will have a preamplifier-processor that can handle the new high definition lossless sound formats, namely Dolby True-HD and dts-HD. The chips will be arriving in the next short while, but they are not there yet. Bryston told us much the same thing, as did Simaudio. We did see a Harman/Kardon unit which supposedly have these featured, but the launch time was indicated as "Summer 2008," and we suspect it was an empty box.
     We're waiting, with all the patience we can muster.
     There's one day to go for Vegas 08, and of course we'll be there to the final cutain. We might get the report out later tomorrow (the show closes at 4 pm to allow exhibitors time to tear down and load the trucks). If not, look for the wrapup some time Friday.
     We anticipate there will be much more to say.

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