Simaudio's 100Wpc Moon i3.3 ($3300) is a very flexible component. In its stock version, it's an integrated amplifier with five single-ended line-level inputs, an RS 232 communication port, and a headphone jack. However, users can add a phono section module ($300), a balanced input module ($200), <I>and</I> a DAC module ($400) that accepts USB2, S/PDIF, and Toslink. In fact, buy all three modules when you buy the i3.3 and you get the whole package for $4000.
Audio Research is showing their new replacement for the CD7, the Reference CD8 CD player shipping now at $9,995. They've taken a Philips Pro-2 transport and attached it with isolation pads to a machined aluminum I-beam which in turn is bolted to a machined aluminum bottom plate.
With the cover and top plate of the CD8 off, the Philips Pro-2 transport mechanism is revealed along with the damping system coupling the laser and spindle with the aluminum I-beam below.
To access the drive, a drawer on top slides open.
Wadia's iTransport was a <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2008/010708wadia/">big hit</A> at last year's show, so they are back this year with a pile of new products.
Here is Wadia's new 381 Integrated CD Player, which retails at $6,950 and offers the same performance of the company's 581se minus SACD playback.
Wadia is also showing the new 571 CD transport at &7,950 and is also slated for a March ship date.
8 DACs per channel and upsampling to provide a 2,8224MHz data rate with 26-bit resolution from a standard CD. Retail is $33,450 and availability will be March.
I did not make it to <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2009/">CES</a> this year, but my exhibitor badge did. Here's our mischievous web monkey, Jon Iverson, with my name held hostage around his neck.
The original Coltrane speaker from Swedish company Mrten Design got the thumbs-up from Michael Fremer when he <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/205marten/">reviewed it</A> three years ago, so I was not surprised to hear good sound in importer EAR USA's room from the new Coltrane Soprano ($45,000/pair). The Soprano combines a diamond tweeter from Jantzen Audio said to have a 55kHz bandwidth, with two 7" ceramic-cone woofers from Accuton. Other than the 56mm-thick front baffle, the stylin' gracefully curved enclosure is fabricated from carbon-fiber laminate.