LATEST ADDITIONS

Seen last year in prototype form, the production version is here and as shown above, consists of two units: the RF transmitter is the smaller grey thing (on the left) that connects to your computer or tablet/phone, with the other unit, the receiver, connecting to your audio system. HRT claims that RF has sonic benefits over Bluetooth for sending a signal through the air.

You connect the B1 to the analog input of your system and then pair it with your bluetooth smartphone or tablet and you're off and running. The Cambridge audio DAC I reviewed a couple months back had this capability built in and my guests loved using Bluetooth to play music from their phones over the system.

Inside is a 24 bit DAC and Sam Tellig raved about the aptX B1 last month in Stereophile. The B1 should be available for purchase starting now for $189.

Though still sporting the classic Mac look, there is plenty of new tech packed into the D150. USB gets you up to 32/192 PCM as well as DSD 64/128 and DXD 352.8/384 and there are also two SPDIF and optical connections. There is a custom DIN connector for connecting a McIntosh CD/SACD transport such as the new $3,500 MCT450 (available in a couple months).

There's also a high quality headphone amp and Mac's "Advanced Quad Balanced" DAC section. Price is $3k.

Walking the halls of the Venetian, you often hear music emanating from the rooms, the sound prompting you either to want to check it out or to walk on by. I was attracted by the music coming from the room identified as Crystal: a clear, lively sound that could be appropriately described as "crystalline." I assumed that the exhibitor was Crystal Cable, which I knew to make some excellent speakers, but which have prices above my CES report coverage limit of $10k/pair. Nevertheless, I went into the Crystal room to have a closer listen—and discovered that the exhibitor was not Crystal Cable, but a company called Crystal Acoustics, based in Greece.

Dynaudio, which often exhibits with Simaudio Moon electronics, this time was doing a demo (with Mick Tillman in the photo) of their Contour S 3.4 LE speaker ($7850/pair) in a system featuring the Octave V110 integrated, T+A Elektroakustik music player/CD transport/DAC, and In-Akustik cables.

Speaker designer Paul Barton is not known for coming up with new models willy-nilly, so a new model that represents a potential advance in sound quality—rather than just meeting a particular price point—is a significant event. The new speaker is the T3 ($7500/pair), and represents collaboration with a different overseas manufacturing facility than earlier models like the T2.

"Have you heard the Larsen speakers?" The person posing this query was one of CES attendees in the elevator with me at the Venetian, who looked at my badge and noted my affiliation. "No, I can't say I have. I don't think I've even heard of them." He then proceeded to tell me that he owned these speakers, and loved them. They were exhibiting at the Venetian.