Apple AirPods Pro 3: First Impressions

Hegel H150 Integrated Amplifier Officially Announced

Sonus faber Announces Amati Supreme Speaker

FiiO M27 Headphone DAC Amplifier Released

Audio Advice Acquires The Sound Room

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CES 2018

GoldenEar Technology DigitalAktiv 3 Powered/Wireless Bookshelf Speaker

Jon Iverson Jan 13, 2018

The sign up above said GoldenEar Technology, but when I walked in it looked like any normal hotel room. No big banners, black cloth draped along the walls or spotlights. And then at the far end I spotted company president Sandy Gross sitting on the couch and a single bookshelf speaker sitting on a stand. That was it.

CES 2018

Kanto YU2, YU4, and YU6 Powered Desktop Speakers

Jon Iverson Jan 13, 2018

Kanto has just emerged in the market this past year with a series of three powered bookshelf speakers, a pair of subwoofers and two styles of stands. The company is based in Coquitlam, BC, Canada, and marketing manager Brett Smalley ran through the line.

CES 2018

High Fidelity Magnet Cables

Jon Iverson Jan 13, 2018

For now, I'll file this one under "interesting if it were true," since I can't verify the unique claims about these cables. But the main display certainly caught my eye. You can see the sci-fi looking metal enclosures in the above photo that the Texas company's Casey Whitworth says is the Professional Series Elite Interconnect. The large metal enclosures are Faraday cages surrounding the cable "so we can pile them on top of each other and not have issues with the magnets."

CES 2018

AudioQuest Compares AC Cables

John Atkinson Jan 13, 2018

If there is one thing that raises the hackles of engineers, it is audiophiles' insistence that power cords affect sound quality. But at CES, AudioQuest's Garth Powell (right in photo, with AQ's Alex Brinkmann) was showing how changing just one cable in a system, the one connecting a Simaudio Moon CD player to a Niagara 700 power conditioner, could make or break the system's sound quality. Playing a track from Muddy Waters' Folk Singer, with Moon amplification and Magico S1 Mk.2 speakers, and without changing the volume, Garth compared AudioQuest's new Thunder cable ($700) with AC cables from other companies priced up to $18,000, culminating with the AudioQuest Dragon ($4000).

CES 2018

Audio Research's Transparent Ref160M

John Atkinson Jan 13, 2018

Some manufacturers weren't exhibiting at CES but did have suites elsewhere in the Venetian hotel. One such was Audio Research, who was showing the first amplifier to be designed following the passing of the company's long-time Senior Design Engineer, Ward Fiebiger, who died of a heart attack last March. The Ref160M monoblock offers around 150W into 8 ohms and will cost in the region of $30,000/pair.

CES 2018

Ruark R7 High Fidelity Radiogram All-In-One System

Jon Iverson Jan 12, 2018

England-based Ruark has a complete line of powered small to medium size all-in-one music boxes as well as powered desktop speakers. But what caught my eye was the console-size R7 which managing director Alan O'Rourke called a "Radiogram." For US citizens, a radiogram is a piece of furniture from the UK that historically combined a radio and record player. In this case though, that would be a CD player and radio.

CES 2018

Definitive Technology Demand Series Bookshelf Speakers

Jon Iverson Jan 12, 2018

Three new bookshelf models were unveiled which Sound United's Mark Suskind explained are intended to replace the Studio Monitor Series. The models start with the D7 at $499/pair which feature a 4.5" woofer and 1" aluminum dome tweeter and is also ported. The D9 retails for $749/pair and has a 5.25" woofer and a 5"x9" passive radiator and 1" aluminum dome tweeter. And finally the new D11 has a 6.5" woofer and 6"x10" passive radiator and sells for $999/pair. All available since late last year.

CES 2018

Marantz ND8006 Network Audio and CD Player

Jon Iverson Jan 12, 2018

Emmanuel Millot, from Sound United (Marantz's parent company who also owns Denon, Polk, Definitive Technology, and others), was on hand to walk us through the new Marantz ND8006 CD and network audio player/streamer. Retail is $1,199 and it became available late last year.

CES 2018

JBL L100 Classic With Retro Safety Orange Foam Grill Included!!

Jon Iverson Jan 12, 2018

Discerning college dorm rooms and recording studios rejoice! JBL's famed L100 speaker from the seventies has been rebooted as the L100 Classic (left, in the photo above), which, despite the familiar look, Harman's Todd Eichenbaum says is new from the ground up.

CES 2018

Revel Performa3 Be Series Loudspeaker

Jon Iverson Jan 12, 2018

Slated for release in the next several months, the "Be" indicates beryllium tweeters. Harman's Todd Eichenbaum explained that all of the drivers in the new series are updated from the original performa series.