CES 2004 Best of Show

My favor room is Joule Electra(preamp LA150 & OTL monoblock), Joseph Audio(Pearl)and Audio Aero Capitol CDP and David Elrod power cords and Linestage PC. The sound was so smooth, seductive and awesome.

I agree, Joule/Joseph was certainly one of the best rooms. Another was the Marten Design/EAR room with EAR electronics driving the new Coltrane Alto speakers, $22K (not to be confused with the original Coltranes). Also, the Musical Surroundings room with the Acapella Arts horn speakers (have I got the name right?)--wonderful!

Other good ones: Fried, Plinius/Harbeth and also Harbeth/Plinius.

The new Vandersteen Quattro was news to me--had that been shown before? It's a $6500, tall svelte pyramid with powered subs.

Can anyone comment on the turnout?

I have a friend who went out this year as an exhibitor, and I heard through a mutual friend that his assessment was that the turnout was astonishingly low this year. And, despite the vast number of companies in high end these days, he seems worried about the state of the industry(don't worry about my friend, he is retired, and only makes a very small product for fun).

Anyway, I would have enjoyed it, as with the number of exhibitors, I would be like a kid in a candy store.

Why does the Joseph Audio Perl alwys get a rave year after year? This year paired with different electronics than in the past. They must truly be damn fine speakers, as simple looking as they seem. Yes, I've heard them too, in the pst, with Manley electronics and they were truly exceptional.

Enjoy,
Bob

My experience may speak to Trelja's comments.

While I'm a hardcore two-channel guy and have vastly more dollars invested in my two-channel setup versus HT, I thought this year represented the first time I was wooed by multi-channel.

In particular, the DTS room in "the zoo" was by far the most impressive multi-channel demo I saw. Of course, we're talking about approx 12 Halcro bridged amps powering 6.1 surround with Ayre, reference JBL, Straightwire associated equipment and one of the best projection images I've seen. Unfortunately, I doubt many people saw it, since it was out of the way and you needed a special ticket to get in.

Besides a quarter million dollar (or more) worth of equipment, the demo disk had incredible material and they gave each audience member a copy. This started quite a buzz and many people who couldn't get in the demo were inquiring about just getting the disk.

Among other things, it included a band who purposely mastered their material to simulate you being in the middle of the stage with them (very cool). Of course, the DTS channel separation and overall integration was suberb and negated many of the typical multi-channel negatives. The setup was perfect and all material supremely mastered. Rear-channel material truly seemed ambient and not like it was specifically coming from a rear/side speaker. Dynamics were unparalleled and overall it made even the nice McIntosh, Faroudja/Meridian and other HT rooms sound pedestrian, IMO. Even the very impressive (and expensive) Halcro/Wilson/EMMlabs multi-channel audio room didn't have the same impact on me.

In any case, my oberservations were that multi-channel audio and HT is starting to advance to a level that can excite even hardcore audiophiles. Sure, many of the two-channel rooms mentioned were exceptional, but were they any better than what we just saw at HE2003? Any special new technology in 2 channel audio other than the surfboard corian speaker (Glacier Audio) that was everywhere?

Hence, the turnout for a state-of-the-art show like this could be waning for 2 channel. Yes, that's a reason to sigh, but there's also a reason to be optimistic about what is to come in multi-channel. I'm choosing to look at the glass half-full, but I'm sure there are many that disagree.