CES 2007

The very first room I visited at CES featured VTL and dCS electronics powering Avalon Eidelon speakers via Transparent cabling. This was a good start. I had become an instant convert to VTL sound at HE2006 last May, where Wilson Sophia speakers, driven by VTL electronics via Cardas cable and a Jadis tranposrt and DAC delivered some of the best sound I heard at the show. Since then, I've heard VTL gear in three other environments, this being the fifth. Each time, it has sounded different, but always musical.

For their room at the 2007 CES, VTL's Bea Lam and Luke Manley spent six hours carefully moving the Eidelons from one position to another, fine-tuning their placement to provide full-range, amazingly controlled sound in what was virtually a square cubicle. Paired with the VTL TL7.5 Mk.2 preamp, the VTL Stereo 400 amp produced warm, sweet, romanticized sound. By comparison, the long-awaited 450 autobias monoblocks, which go into production right after the show, were more neutral in color, as well as fuller and warmer in the bass. Piano and bass in Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata, played by Jean-Guihen Queyras and Alexandre Tharaud (Harmonia Mundi), proved an especially rich delight. Although booming music from the next room did Schubert in after a few minutes, I left this room smiling.