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CES 2015

The Affordable Audeze EL-8

Herb Reichert Jan 12, 2015

The new Audeze EL-8s ($699) are not just moderately-priced alternatives to the reference quality LCD-Xsthey offer their own special brand of reference quality and new technologies.

CES 2015

To me, the most important issue surrounding the digital vs analog debate is not sound quality (each has their virtues). It is always the user interface: Must I use a keyboard, a remote, or a tonearm finger-lift? I love turntables, tonearms, and cartridges. I especially love them when they are inexpensive, beautiful, easy to use, come with a mounted and aligned Audio Technica cartridge and, amazingly, a uni-pivot tonearm like the new $999 Thorens TD-203 does. Fit and finish looked superb.

CES 2015

Technics Amps and Speakers

Herb Reichert Jan 12, 2015

I had heard she was talented pianist. I had seen her in photos before, but I never expected the beautiful and statuesque director of Panasonic Technics, Michiko Ogawa, to greet me in person at the door of Technics' CES showroom.

CES 2015

T+A PDP 3000 HV CD/SACD player with DSD/PCM DAC

Jon Iverson Jan 11, 2015

There's been some back and forth on AudioStream.com and other forums about how to best play back DSD and PCM, with some finding that having a single digital section converting both formats is less than optimal.

T+A decided that in order to do both formats justice in a single product, they would have to create completely independent decoding and analog output sections (including two sets of analog output jacks on the back!). The result is a design that the company believes is a unique and "fully optimized approach to the decoding of both PCM and DSD."

CES 2015

MSB Media Server

Jon Iverson Jan 11, 2015

They were still playing with name ideas when I spotted the prototype media server, here shown from behind with the top off. MSB says there will be up to 3TB of storage inside (which is expandable with external NAS drives) along with an "industrial-grade" CPU with 7 year guarantee. Also included is the company's legendary Femto clock, and MSB Pro I2S output. Control will be via web browser and the server should be available in around 6 months for approx $29k.

CES 2015

MSB Universal Media Transport V and Diamond DAC V

Jon Iverson Jan 11, 2015

MSB is now shipping new casework for both the UMT ($6,995) and Diamond DAC V ($29,995), which I think better reflect the company's dedication to digital audio perfection. The DAC is shown above and the UMT below.

CES 2015

ReQuest The Beast Music Server

Jon Iverson Jan 11, 2015

Unfortunately The Beast was not in their room when I visited MSB, and only showed up later, so I asked MSB's Vince Galbo to send me some photos. MSB is the North American distributor for the Swiss-built The Beast.

CES 2015

Lumin S1 DAC/Streamer/Renderer and L1 Server

Jon Iverson Jan 11, 2015

Lumin started shipping their flagship S1 this year and displayed it in both silver and black in their room. In the photo above is the silver S1 along with two L1 Music Library UPnP 2 TB servers below.

CES 2015

Constellation Audio Cygnus DAC/Media Player

Jon Iverson Jan 11, 2015

Constellation creates some of the most innovative casework at CES, and the Cygnus is no exception. First shown at CES a couple years back, the product will soon be shipping in two form factors: standalone DAC ($27k) and a DAC/Server ($32k) configuration (shown above).

CES 2015

MBL Noble Line N31 DAC/CD Player

Jon Iverson Jan 11, 2015

Black shiny products are tough to photograph at shows, so trust me when I say the new N31 is dripping with gorgeousness not reflected in this photo.

Priced at $18k and available this May, the N31 will process both 24/192 PCM and DSD sources (including iPods/iPads/iPhones). MBL's Juergen Reis showed me a screen shot of an iPhone playing a 24/192 file in the the USB 2 input of the N31, using iTunes USB storage feature.