Elac, which has been around for many more years than Andrew Jones has been designing speakers for them, has now released their Roon-friendly Discovery DS-S101-G music server ($1100), which allows you to play your own music files via an external HD or NAS
With Mytek's Michal Jurewicz in the background, the company's Chebon Littlefield showed the new Clef high-resolution, MQA-equipped, Bluetooth-equipped, mobile USB DAC/headphone amplifier ($299).
With Warner, Universal Music Group, and Sony as major shareholders/partners, it's no wonder that MQA figured so prominently in the CES Hi-res pavilion. MQA wasn't everywhereQobuz hasn't seen fit to embrace it as yet, and the majority of audio manufacturers have yet to get on boardbut it has certainly come to mobile phones and players.
Pennsylvania-based distributor/exporter Dyson Lai proudly presented the gorgeous new TPC-1HP tube preamp from Seattle, Washington-based Increcable Acoustic Lab. Retail will be $6,000 when the preamp is released in the next couple months.
Pro-Ject has launched several new models of turntables this year intended for the budget conscious market. Company president Heinz Lichtenegger explained that after helping to kick-start the analog resurgence, they introduced the new entry level models in response to "analog transitioning to a feature-driven market dominated by Chinese brands" bringing out ever cheaper all-in-one feature-laden products.
Since they are based in Vienna, Austria, Pro-Ject decided to commemorate the Vienna Philharmonic's 175th birthday by creating a bespoke limited edition (175 units made of course) turntable, priced around $8,000-9,000.
Heinz Lichtenegger, Pro-Ject president starts by exclaiming "it's a revolution at the price point!" Built around the ESS Sabre ESS9038 dual DAC chip, the $399 S2 also has full MQA processing, up to DSD 512 and 24/192 PCM, 7 selectable digital filters, jitter claimed as low as 100 femtoseconds, and headphone jack. "It's the lowest jitter you can measure," says Lichtenegger.