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CES 2011

Classé Unveiled

Robert Deutsch Jan 07, 2011

CES Unveiled turned out to have little of interest to Stereophile readersexcept those who are general technical geeks. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!) Most of the products on display involved mobile computing, computer peripherals, etc., and the exhibits were simple table-top setups. Major CES exhibitors like Sony and Panasonic were conspicuous by their absence. Samsung just had some of their small digicams. I guess the high performance audio community decided to pass on this event, and it makes sense: what makes these products special can’t be evaluated by just looking at them.

Fred Kaplan

Moran, Potter, Grenadier, Harland

Fred Kaplan Jan 07, 2011

Photo: Michael Black | BLACKSUN©.

If you’re in New York City and don’t mind the snow (which resumed Friday), go to Birdland in midtown and see the Overtone Quartet, which features Jason Moran, Chris Potter, Larry Grenadier, and Eric Harland. They’re as good as you might expect, better even. They play through Sunday night.

CES 2011

PSB's Imagine Mini

Stephen Mejias Jan 07, 2011

PSB’s new Imagine mini ($700/pair) is available in five attractive finishes and uses a 1” tweeter and 4” clay/ceramic-filled polypropylene cone mid-woofer. The speaker measures approximately 5.75” x 9.5” x 8.3”, has high-quality, gold-plated five-way binding posts, and can be mounted on any hard surface or used on traditional speaker stands. Playing with NAD’s C565BEE CD player ($799), C165BEE preamp ($899), and C275BEE amplifier ($1199), the sound of acoustic guitars was enchanting and commanding, with fine detail, impact, and emotion. Very impressive.

CES 2011

Polk's Blackstone TL3 Satellite

Stephen Mejias Jan 07, 2011

Polk’s Blackstone TL3 ($300/pair) marks the eight-generation of Polk’s satellite speaker systems, and combines prior Polk technologies with new industrial design and improved time-aligned drive units, including a ring-radiator tweeter. The system we heard included a Marantz receiver and Samsung Blu-ray player, and I was very impressed by the small speakers’ ability to throw a wide soundstage with solid center-fill and fine detail.

CES 2011

T+A Caruso 2.1 System

Stephen Mejias Jan 07, 2011

The T+A Caruso ($3000) is a complete 2.1 system with iPod dock, FM tuner, alarm clock, USB input, and CD/DVD player, but is also compatible with external speakers, thus turning its onboard drive units into a center channel. It employs DSP processing for its admirable bass quality and wide dispersion, and seemed to have a very relaxed, enjoyable sound.

CES 2011

Dynaudio's DM2/6

Stephen Mejias Jan 07, 2011

Dynaudio’s DM2/6 ($800/pair) is a bass-reflex design with a 5.5” mid-woofer and a coated soft-dome tweeter. Said to be easy to drive for any amplifier, the DM2/6 has a rated sensitivity of 86dB with a 6 ohm impedance. The DM2/6 is available in very attractive black ash and rosewood vinyl veneers, and is engineered and built in Denmark.

CES 2011

Wadia's 171iTransport

Stephen Mejias Jan 07, 2011

Wadia’s new 171iTransport digital iPod dock ($599) is now also compatible with Apple’s iPad. Other changes include an improved circuit board, new clock chip, higher grade connectors, and a better internal power supply. The remote control has also been redesigned for better ease of use.

CES 2011

MSB Technology's New Universal Media Transport

Jon Iverson Jan 06, 2011

MSB is offering a new universal transport based on Oppo's BDP-93, which plays practically anything on disc including DVD-Audio, SACD, Blu-ray, CD etc. The player also sports a USB input allowing it to stream from a USB memory stick player, external hard drive or computer.

The MSB Universal Media Transport will be available in about six weeks, with a multichannel option available six weeks after that. Price starts at $3,995.

MSB was also showing their new "high res" USB DAC that the company claims can play a 384kHz stream over USB or SPDIF "bit perfect". Depending on options, the Platinum DAC IV starts at $6,500 and tops out at $27k.

CES 2011

Constellation Cygnus Transport/DAC/File Player

Jon Iverson Jan 06, 2011

Constellation's Peter Madnick and Dr. Murali Murugasu return with a new digital source component which, at the moment I had walked in the room, had not yet received a name. But by the time I left was dubbed the Cygnus.

Projected price is somewhere between $15-20k with availability in May. Conceived as a do-everything stereo digital source, the Cygnus will play CDs and SACDs as well as files served from connected drives, computers, etc. and also function as a 24/384 DAC.

As always, case design is exquisite.

CES 2011

Cary Audio Design MS-1 Music Server and Xciter DAC

Jon Iverson Jan 06, 2011

My beat is digital, but I'm particularly on the lookout for music server products. So I was pleased to see that Cary had their MS-1 server on display and fully loaded.

The spartan front panel has a single power indicator and disc drawer for ripping CDs directly to the internal 1 Terabyte SATA drive. On the rear are two USB connectors and an ethernet port to connect to your network. One USB jack operates as the digital out sending the data stream to your DAC and the other is for an external mirror drive or for sourcing files from USB sticks or other drives connected to the MS-1.

Cary has created apps (available for free in Apple's App Store) specific for your iPad or iPhone/Touch to control the system and music library.

The MS-1 is available now for $2,495 with a power supply upgrade to be released shortly for an additional $450. Cary says it is also looking to increase future storage capacity (the current drive can hold about 2,600-2,800 albums as FLAC files).

Stacked on top is the company's new $1,495 Xciter DAC which can handle anything up to 32bit/192kHz with 4 selectable inputs and a complete bevy of connectors on back.