CES 2004 Best of Show

Jls3, I too thought the TADs were impressive, but I did not think they played music. I very much sought them out for a listen and left thinking I no longer needed to find the money for them.

I always loved the tweeter on the Acapellas.

I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned the BAT listening room setup with a two channel system with Avalon speakers up front. To my ears their setup stands up well against any two channel system at the show.

Many fine rooms. Silverline Sonata II was awesome. There was an Indian maker of exotic looking speakers, name sounds like Rythm, sound was incredibly beautiful. Joseph Audio and Cary rooms were wonderful. Thiel 2.4's integrated with their subwoofer amazingly well, best high end audio sub integration I've ever heard. Many small exotic vendors (mainly at THE show) with extremely efficient speakers sounded wonderful. Granite's demonstration room sounded fantastic. I loved the Gilmore sound but my friends did not, go figure. Buggtussel (spelling?) showed very well.

My friend loved the Harbeth room, I thought it was nice. Ref 3a's have sounded better to me, not sure what was wrong. Lot's of tube gear and LP at this show, very heartening.

New model Proac, I forget if it was D25 or D38, did not sound so good to me, but I've loved Proacs in my home before while not liking them at shows. Bel Canto - I LOVE their 845 tube SET stuff but at this show they demonstrated their solid state gear, which continues to strike me as grainy in the highs.

I attended Thursday and Friday, attendance did seem a bit light, I figured it would pick up over the weekend.

Great show! (We never even got to the porn star awards show across the street!)

Art