CES
2012 and the parallel T.H.E.Show run from January 10th-13th, with a
special press day on the 9th (Day Zero, we call it). This blog will
cover the show day by day.
Jan. 13, 2012: THIEL AFTER JIM THIEL
It was a shock, over two years ago, when Jim Thiel died of cancer at a shockingly young age, but he left behind a lot of designs. Based on his legacy, Thiel has developed the CS1.7. Likely to sell around $5500 the pair, it still needs some tweaking of its crossover (and Thiel crossovers are not simple devices).
The shape makes it obvious that it's a Thiel. The aluminum "pie plate" driver is familiar too. Like all recent Thiel speakers, it uses drivers with short voice coils in deep magnetic fields.
Somehow Thiel and its show partner, Bryston, manage to make the horrible ballrooms sound good. The CS1.7's were driven by two channels of a Bryston 6B multichannel amp. The source was of course Bryston's own DAC and digital player. The result was excellent, and congratulations are due all around.
As we ended the listening session, CES 2012 was closing too, and it was time to go.
CEA, which organizes the show, says there were some 153,000 attendees, which would break a record. We don't doubt it. Despite much thinner crowds on the final day, this was a busy show. The LVCC was at time difficult to navigate, and the show floors at the Venetian Towers were crowded as well.
There were more sections to the show, including a "green energy" section, and one called "Eureka" (for the brightest of bright ideas, we suppose). To make room, the Adult eXpo, which normally shares space at the Venetian, though it is not a CES event, was pushed out to the Riviera.
Does the clear success of CES 2012 mean that the worldwide recession will soon be a thing of the past? It's hard to be optimistic if you read the financial pages, of course. Las Vegas was no doubt happy for a little balm on its woes.
In the hallways of the high end section of the shows, there was one particular concern among exhibitors: the disappearance of the full-service high end dealer. Many have closed, and the founders of many others will soon be retiring, without putting a solid succession plan in place. Yes, you can sell through the Internet, but how do you prove that your expensive product is worth its cost if buyers can't hear them?
Inevitably, this will be an ongoing debate in the months and the years ahead.
Jan. 13, 2012: APRIL AND WILSONS
Somehow we expect powerful monoblocks to be physically large. But Korea's April Music is an exception. Its DP1 preamplifier is shown here, and the monoblocks are the same size. Small. And inexpensive.
Actually the S-1 amps aren't monoblocks, but bridged stereo amps, thus delivering a kilowatt between them. They were driving a pair of Wilson Sashas, and we wondered whether Peter McGrath, recording engineer and Wilson sales director, was at the show. He was, though our paths didn't cross. However his recorder was there, and so were some of his superb recordings. Nice!
Also using copies of master recordings was TAD, originally known for studio gear (and associated with Pioneer's pro division), but now aiming at the well-heeled audiophile. Yes, we know the right source makes a big difference, but by any standard the TAD gear (loudspeakers and electronics) sound outstanding. The demo took quite a bit of time, and was worth every second
Jan. 12, 2012: SCIENTIFIC FIDELITY...SORT OF
As long as we can remember, there has been a parallel show for the high end during CES. Most were so poor that we actually stopped covering them. But a number of years ago, maverick high end designer Mike Maloney started T.H.E.Expo (as it was then called), and promoted it aggressively. Known for odd, though good-sounding products, including triangular tube amplifiers, he put the accent on better service, and of course lower prices. Mike has soon moved on, but the show he founded lives, and has multiplied.
This year at the show Scientific Fidelity was "back." Here's the triangular amp, yet it isn't. The original (good-sounding but notoriously unreliable) was a thing of beauty, and one of them is now in a museum in London. The new system was less attractive in everay way. Unfortunately, the exhibitors spoke almost no English, and we don't know a lot about what they're up to.
Jan. 12, 2012: JAN-ERIC AT T.H.E.SHOW
That's Jan-Eric Persson, founder of Opus 3, one of the original audiophile record labels. Jan-Eric was at T.H.E.Show's Marketplace section, to support his new US distributor, Elusive Disc.
We discussed a number of questions, including his recent decision to release recordings in two-channel SACD rather than 5.0 or 5.1 channel (we understand and approve the decision). However there may be an exception. Jan-Eric will be making a new organ recording, featuring Sweden's largest organ, in the hall where they award the Nobel prizes. He will be recording it in 4.0 channels, and will decide on the final release format later.
Also at Marketplace was Reference Recordings' Jan Mancuso. Running across her is always a pleasure.
The Marketplace section, the only one to sell products, was once part of CES, and had special exemption from the CES no-selling rule. For a reason that wasn't clear, when CES left the Alexis Park, it didn't bring the Marketplace along, and it therefore became part of the competing T.H.E.Show. One well-known distributor, this year, sold a few recordings from its CES room, and got threatened with a heavy fine if it persisted.
Jan. 12, 2012: BEYOND HDTV
So you thought that, having blown a bundle on your new HDTV, you were set for at least a decade! So did we.
But several companies are offering (well, offering to offer, in the indeterminate future) TV sets with even higher resolution. We've seen 4K sets (they're cheating, packing in four times as many total pixels, not four times as many pixels in each direction), and now Sharp was showing what it billed as the world's first 8K set. The cityscapes on the large set were certainly amazingly detailed, but...
You must be wondering when we'll get 8K source material for it. Sharp included a demo of normal 1080p HDTV shown on a normal set and an 8K set, side by side. The 8K image looked wonderful, but we were not the only observers who thought that the image on the standard HDTV seemed to have been sabotaged. The detail was so smeared we suspect a low-pass filter had been inserted in the feed.
As you can see from the photo, the "8K" set is an LCD. For better or for worse (and we think it's for worse), the LCD dominated plasma at this show.
Jan. 12, 2012: DRAMATIC TUBE AMPLIFIER
Each year at CES, there seems to be more new brands of tube amplifiers. This one was new to us.
Its's from Audio Power Labs, using 833C tubes. Expect amplifiers like this to have very low power, to fit the currently-fashionable high-efficiency loudspeakers, but this one in fact puts out 200 watts. And it's a monoblock.
Also dramatically styled were the oddly-named Einstein amplifiers and electronic components. They were in a large room with the familiar Acapella Violoncello II speakers. These are horn speakers, with plasma tweeters that are unique. We spent some time listening to a little-known Beethoven piece, his Choral Fantasy. It resembles a piano concerto, but with a choral ending, like the Nineth Symphony. Engrossing, both sonically and artistically.
Less engrossing were the open-reel recorders from United Home Audio, refurbished Tascam models. The demo, in a large room with Shadow 5 Quintesscence speakers and PBN amplifiers (unknown to us) varied between dead and downright annoying. Even the Shakti stones (yes!) on the amplifiers couldn't supply the missing magic.
Jan. 11, 2012: THE SONY SURPRISE
When was the last time you listened to a Sony loudspeaker? For us, it was some years ago, when Sony was showing the very first SACD player (admittedly very good), and added large speakers with super tweeters to highlight the SACD's very large bandwidth (well, compared to that of Red Book CD). They were awful, and it was only once we head heard the player on a better system that we realized what a terrific product it was.
So what can we make of the Sony SS-AR1 speaker, an upscale model that will cost some $27,000?
And this is mere vanity piece. True, the speakers were being shown with gear that was beyond the ordinary: a Sonoma digital recorder controlled by a MacBook Pro, with optical line to an emmLabs DAC and preamp, with a pair of large Pass monoblocks handling the heavy lifting. It is little wonder that the first selection, Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now, a DSD mixdown from the original master, gave us chills. So did the other selections. Wow!
We wondered how Sony was planning to market this super loudspeaker. It surely wouldn't be featured at the Sony store!
We ran across the Sony speakers again before the end of CES.
Ray Kimber's IsoMike room, which features his special surround music productions in a heavily damped room, used four of them (last time we heard the IsoMikes he was using SoundLab electrostatics so large we had wondered how they had fit through the door). Once again, the Sony speakers had the advantage of being matched to a spectacular source and upstream gear, of course, but there was no better-sounding room at the show. We could have blown the whole day there, as selection after selection (classical, Blues, jazz, rock, etc) made us forget any fatigue we had felt.
In the full report in our next issue, we will delve into what Sony has done, and -- if we can find out -- why it has done it.
Jan. 11, 2012: THE PATHOS SYSTEM
Now here's a company that doesn't hide its light under a bushel. Its heat sinks (barely needed, since this is a preamplifier) spell out its name with pride.
We are used to seeing Pathos amplifiers and preamplifiers, often both together, but this was a complete Pathos system, including CD player and also large loudspeakers (you'll see pictures in our print issue). No surprise here: this was one of the good rooms.
We spent a little time at the Kondo roo (Kondo is the Japanese heir of Audio Note). We nearly walked out because there was so much talking going on, but after the hangers-on were shushed we did manage to lend an ear. What we heard from this complete system (like Audio Note UK, Kondo makes everything, down to the cables) was rather good. There was a little hollowness to the bottom end, probably due to the room, but we liked the impact on percussion, which was solid without seeming unnatural.
Jan. 11, 2012: SOME LOUDSPEAKERS
New to us, this rather heavy loudspeaker is from Wadax, which was here with a lot more than just a speaker.The source was a Brinkmann turntable, for which Wadax was providing custom RIAA equalization...in other words, it was compensating for shortcomings in the cartridge. It claims the same thing for room acoustics.
Now, we are a little skeptical concerning the use of what amounts to the use of equalizers, whether in the analog domain or in the digital domain, as here. That said, the results were spectacular, with projection of a very large space, and highly-convincing reproduction ofinstrumental timbres.
We are always happy to see Vienna Acoustics, which had come with its large Momentus speakers, driven by Jeff Rowland electronics (a class AB amplifier, not its mediocre but ridiculously expensive class D model). The source, as in many other rooms, was a MacBook Pro, not a CD player.
A McBook Pro was also the source over at EAR, whose latest electronics was driving a pair of Marten Django speakers (Marten is one of several companies using ceramic drivers, and with rather good results). The sound was lively and dynamic. We had expected no less.
Jan. 10, 2012: TELL THE RECORD COMPANIES TO SHOVE IT
We've suggested this before: new technology allows you not only to play back music at home, but also make it. At Showstoppers, the non-CES after-hours show, Line 6 was showing new accessories for the iPad. What you see here is a keyboard, but also a guitar.
And it's not an air guitar. This is not Guitar Hero. And the instrument has actual strings.
We might add that, as last year, the iPad was ubiquitous. In the high end rooms, it was frequently a remote control for a music server (usually Amarra, Pure Music or just iTunes, on a MacBook Pro), or else the actual music source, streaming music digitally to an Airport Express or other Airplay-compatible device.
And then there's this device, from iBlue, which docks with your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. It is, as you may have guessed, a stereo microphone. Perfect for picking up material for your next bootleg album. The company previously made two analog-only versions for iOS devices, which now no longer have analog connections on their docks. The new one, in stores shortly for $99, is all-digital. The accompanying software is free, and has been cleverly designed so that its screen is upside down...but of course right side up when you're using it. We've asked for a review sample.
But now on to some of the other venues, as we dodge the crowds. CEA says that this will turn out to have been the biggest CES in history. It tends to spin the figures, but for once we are inclined to believe them. There are new sections (an enlarged iLounge for iOS accessories, Eureka for allegedly brilliant innovations, PMA for photography, and more yet), and there are more crowds than we recall seeing in the past decade.
What does it mean? Has the economy finally recovered from the big meltdown? There's not much sign of that in Vegas itself, where the abandoned skeletons of new buildings remain mere skeletons. Still, someone thinks there are reasons to pour money into a show.
Let's look around some more.
Jan. 10, 2012: ORACLE
Oracle still shows up at shows with its Delphi turntable and its other stainless steel creations, but at CES much of the attention in its room was grabbed by more of its Paris products.
The first was of course the Paris turntable (named for the character of antiquity, not the city). But now there's a CD player (shown here), along with a matching DAC. They were in Ferrari red, though there is now a new color, referred to unofficially as "Lamborghini yellow."
Why a CD player and not a CD transport? Because a basic DAC chipset adds little to the product, and so it is included even if the machine is meant to be used with an outboard DAC.
Jan. 10, 2012: A MORE AFFORDABLE VAC
VAC is an upscale amplifier brand, and there are no two ways about it (although a couple of companies at CES made them seem like bargains). This new integrated amplifier costs $9990, not usually VAC territory.
The sound isn't in economy class, though. VAC's Kevin Hayes was packing vinyl, and played some cuts from the legendary Trinity Sessions, by the Cowboy Junkies. This is serious amplification!
Elsewhere, Totem was demonstrating what looked like (and is) a smaller version of its Element Fire loudspeaker. The dynamics and the broad range of sound, including bass, was surprising. It's called the Ember, at least for now, and should sell for a little more than $4000.
Jan. 10, 2012: FOCUSED
Focus Audio is a long-established Toronto speaker manufacturer. Most of its speakers are expensive and wonderfully finished, but now it will branch out into electronics. It was showing the prototype of its integrated amplifier.
As you might guess from all the air slots, this is a tube amplifier, using an especially large and heavy power transformer. Focus will be doing more work on the appearance. We would guess that larger knobs would be a plus. The demonstration, which was very good, was done using a new oversized bookshelf speaker, the Focus Master 6. The speakers are available now for $8000 a pair. The amplifier is expected to sell for $15,000.
VTL unveiled the updated version of its S-400 tube amplifier (it looks like the Siegfried monoblock, though of course you need only one). This impressive $35,000 amp was mated to VTL's other electronics, with a Spiral Groove SH-1.1 turntable and a pair of rockport Avior speakers. We listened to several selections, a good sign right there. On a Haydn cello piece, the illusion of the musician's presence was complete.
Jan. 9, 2012: DIGITAL EXPERIENCE
It's one of the off-site events for the press, not sanctified by CES...but there's not much it can do about it. The orgazining company is called Pepcom, and in a large ballroom at the MGM Grand it has free food and drink (always a journalist magnet since the days when the news was carved on stone tablets). Numerous companies pay good money for a presence, and better access to journalists than they can hope for when they are drowning in a sea of exhibitors.
As with last night's CES Unveiled and tomorrow's Showstoppers, it's not the place we can see a lot of high end commpanies. Even Altec Lansing was showing iPod boomboxes, not the good stuff.
However we were intrigued by the latest version of a device we had seen before: a light bulb that is also a loudspeaker. You unscrew the bulb from any standard lamp, and screw in this device instead. It still lights up, but it also contains a speaker than can stream music remotely. It goes without saying that it can't replace your main music system, but for casual listening... For (as the Irving Berlin song goes) "Soft Lights and Sweet Music."
The question we had was whether a pair of lamps can stream stereo. It turns out the answer is yes, and you can stream to two separate zones. There's more. You can add a subwoofer too. It doesn't provide light, but you would probably tuck it out of sight anyway.
It's called the Audiobulb. Clever, and perhaps useful.
There were other companies we were happy to talk to, not always for high end reasons. Adobe was there with a new Photoshop application for the iPad, one of our major tools. There were a lot of devices that can stream video, invariably with lossy compression (that pretty much cut the conversation short). And there were just fun devices, like Parrott's ubiquitous remote-controlled Quadricopter.
On Tuesday the real CES opens. For us, Day One will be at the Venetian, where most of the high end exhibitors hang out. We'll be filing stories either Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. But remember that we're in the Pacific time zone, so "early" for us is not that early for you if you're on the east coast...or in Europe!
Jan. 9, 2012: SAMSUNG
No one gets bigger crowds during press day than Samsung. It's not much of a mystery. Samsung does make some great products, and indeed UHF's reference HDTV has long been a Samsung plasma. It is also a formidable competitor. Such powerhouses as Pioneer and Sony are leaving the business, or at least closing down plants. And who's picking up the slack?
Last year we couldn't get in to the Samsung press con? This year? Same thing, us and close to a thousand other journalists, analysts, and such.
Samsung doesn't always hit home runs, however, and some of its smart TV "innovations" actually provoked laughter. This year, as last year, we need to depend on the reports of others. So what's up?
As last year, Samsung wants its products to talk to each other. And like LG, it wants its TV sets to be controlled by hand gestures (essentially handing the remote to your toddler...perhaps that's what it means by providing customized education plans for your kids). Samsung also promises its TV sets will provide new ways to bring your family together. Which, last time we looked, was not what TV does best.
In other flashes, you'll be able to play Angry Birds on your Samsung TV. And the sets will have cameras. Handy, in conjunction with the Skype app, to do some unintentional sexting.
And then there's Sony. For years we had been persona non grata at the Sony press conference, because...well, perhaps it's obvious and perhaps not. This year we got an invitation. But while the other conferences were at the Venetian, Sony was at the Convention Center. No shuttles. Parking kilometres away. No go, alas.
Jan. 9, 2012: LG AND MONSTER
LG was actually giving out 3D glasses at the entrance to its press conference. Why? One of its many screens was showing a 3D promo which was largely computer-generated, though it featured real 3D. Too bad that one of its boasts was that its new TVs would feature really good 2D-to-3D conversion. Since such conversion violates the laws of physics, we're not sure what separates "good" from "bad."
The new TVs can also be controlled by gestures, which a 3D camera can pick up and interpret. Okay if you live alone, no doubt, but if your household is a battleground for control of the remote, the result should be great fun. Especially once your toddler figures out the motions.
The other revelation, which drew applause, was a large screen OLED 3DTV. It's 55-inch according to the press release, though the one we saw was smaller.
Less inspiring was the lineup of LG home appliances. If you've used an LG stove, which requires pushing a button numerous times just to put the soup on simmer, you'll know that LG's connection with real life is less than solid. Buy its new fridge, and you'll be invited to "tell" it via smartphone everything you put into it, so that, when you're at the store, it can tell you that your yogurt is done and your salad will go poof in two days. The fridge can even suggest recipes based on what it "knows" you have that's still fresh enough to eat. Sure!
Monster Cable has changed name to just "Monster," something we thought it had actually done years ago. Among its new products is "People Power," a system that lets you turn current-sucking appliances on and off by phone, iPad, etc. Less promising is the Monster Micro, a very small voice-controlled boombox. And there were more new headphones than we could count.
Jan. 8, 2012: UNVEILING CES
For years CEA (the Consumer Elecvtronics Association, which organizes CES) has been giving out Innovation Awards in advance of the show. And the CES Unveiled event was a showcase for the winners in the many categories. However the competition forced a change.
There are two competing off-site events, Showstoppers and Digital Roundup. These two invitation-only press bashes feature displays by exhibitors who pay to be there. The result? CES Unveiled has morphed into much the same thing.
You can imagine that the real high end audio companies are not here, but there were some innovations nonetheless. The device at right is from Griffin, one of our favorite sources of clever products for iPods and and their successors. It's the Twenty-On, a small class D integrated amplifier with built-in DAC. The device plugged into it is an Apple Airport Express. There is an even an output for a powered subwoofer. Price to be announced.
And from Other World Computing, the well-known on-line store for Apple-oriented accessories, comes the MiniStack Max, meant to stack under or over a Mac mini. A lot of audiophiles are adding the inexpensive and silent Mac mini to their high-end systems, but the new minis have no optical disc drive and of course limited hard drive storage. The MiniStack Max adds both. Oh, it has a card reader at the front as well.
The less said about the buffet the better. The open bar was popular, though.
Oh, a word about the press lineups, which in recent years got pretty much out of hand. This year, CES clamped down on "journalists," "bloggers" and "analysts," hoping to slough off the tourists with blogs or Facebook pages read by maybe 20 people. It doesn't seem to have worked. The lineup for CES Unveiled was half again what it was last year.
And a further word about analysts. One of these curious creatures, Peter Svensson of Associated Press, says that CES is cursed. We quote him: "The largest trade show in the Americas must be a great place to show off new products, right? Wrong. The International Consumer Electronics Show is quickly becoming a launch pad for products that fall flat." His examples: Netbooks, 3DTV and HP's WebOS tablet. Huh? So? His further point: Apple doesn't go to CES, never has. And Microsoft, whose CEO is giving the main keynote this year, won't be back.
You know what? It sounds being an analyst. And it gets you into CES free!
Jan. 6, 2012: THE VENUES
The show is pretty much where it is every year, which is to say all over Las Vegas. Vegas is a convention town as well as a tourist destination, but CES is the biggest of all its conventions. When the LVCC (The Las Vegas Convention Center) doubled its floor space a few years back, it was specifically to accommodate CES. Even so, there are temporary buildings in what should be the parking lot. Most of the high end exhibits are at the Venetian, a luxury hotel right on the strip. However the daily press releases we've been getting indicate that more non-audio exhibits are moving to the Venetian.
We'll see whether the Venetian's press room, which shrank dramatically last year, grows again to accommodate more reporters. With the press room overflowing, especially on press day, when presentations take place at the Venetian, the corridor became the unofficial press room, as you can see in this picture.
(Us? We have a secret alternative! Where is it? What part of "secret" do you not understand?)
The Adult Entertainment (read: porn) eXpo, which usually coincides with CES, is a week later this time, leaving more room for CES exhibits.
Oh, one more thing. The number of "journalists" and bloggers has been trimmed. Even CES alumni of many years had to submit bylined articles to gain accreditation. We hope it helps.
Jan. 6, 2012: OFF TO THE SHOWS
One good piece of news: CES is very slightly later than usual. Last year our plane was on January 2nd. For many CES visitors, the usual Red Eye flight was also the Hangover flight.
But it wasn't so bad for journalists. Pity the poor high end manufacturer. He didn't see his family over the holidays because he was busy tweaking the prototype of that new tube amplifier he was planning to show in Vegas. And then he shipped it on New Year's Eve. And then UPS...but don't get us started! Ask anyone, and another week later would be easier yet.
For us, we barely get time to come down after the flight. The show begins on the 10th, but the first event, CES Unveiled, is on the 8th. Not that they unveil much, in fact. At one time it showcased the winners of the CES Innovations awards. Today it's a press buffet, ringed with tables that exhibitors have paid big money for. Possibly useful all the same. We'll let you know what we find.
Jan. 5, 2012: BRYSTON & THIEL
Buying space at a show like CES is expensive, and it's natural for companies to make alliances. Thiel makes speakers but not amplifiers. Bryston makes amplifiers and a lot of other things, but not speakers. Once again they'll be exhibiting together at CES 2012.
Thiel will be showing the next generation of its SmartSubs, the cleverest subwoofers we've ever seen. We first saw them a long time ago. They were in the gestation period so long that CES gave it not one but two innovation awards.
Well deserved, though.
We're not sure what to expect from Bryston, which recently launched its latest AV sound processor and its headphone amplifier. We shall see.