CES 2016

We wanted the best possible sound, so I asked the record label, Blue Castle (formed by Graham Nash and David Crosby), if I could have an HD copy of Nash's new album This Path Tonight straight from the mastering studio. The album was mastered in 24/96 PCM by Bob Ludwig, and the label agreed to supply the first digital copy to be played in the wild on the condition that it never leave Graham's laptop where they would place it themselves. I agreed.

As soon as Graham arrived in Las Vegas, we had dinner and I went to his room and installed the Roon music player app on his laptop and registered it. Roon immediately found the folder with the new album, and pretty much the rest of the music on the computer as well (Neil Young's latest popped up for example). I pulled up a couple tracks for testing and sound poured out of the computer speakers. We were in business in less than 4 minutes.

I had arranged with each of the rooms we were going to visit to have a USB input available. AudioQuest graciously loaned us one of their top-of-the-line Diamond USB cables for the day and I added it to the Cardas USB cable I already had in my bag. In the end, three rooms chose the Diamond, two used the Cardas, and the rest supplied their own USB cable.

In each room, we hooked Graham's laptop up to the DAC, booted the computer and then booted Roon, putting the player into Exclusive Mode (for highest possible sound quality), checking the box next to "Use Integer Mode if Supported" and selecting the exhibitor's DAC.

I held my breath in each room as I hit play for the first time since everyone in the room including Nash is looking at me, but it always worked without a single hitch. Nash would direct me as to which cut he wanted to hear and off we went. Graham always sat in the sweet spot, sometimes with other listeners and sometimes by himself. We usually listened to three tracks all the way through, including something acoustic and something that pushed the needles to the red.

Depending on where we were in the schedule, we'd ask the room host if they'd like to play something for us, then get some group photos and head out the door. We tried to spend between 30-45 minutes in each room and I quietly snapped photos with my iPhone. As we were walking down the hallway I'd hit record on the "Voice Memo" app on the phone and get Nash's impressions of what he'd just heard.