CES 2013

I have been impressed by the sound of the line-source Scaena speakers at previous shows, but nothing had prepared me for the drop-dead gorgeous, real silver finish on the Silver Ghost 10th Anniversry Edition speakers at CES. Costing a breathtaking $153,000/system with the active subwoofers, the Silver Ghosts were driven at CES by the battery-powered Veloce amps and preamp and connected with the High Fidelity cables that Jason Serinus wrote about earlier in this Show report. (The regular speakers cost a relatively more affordable $83,000/pair.)

I was puzzled when I saw the Silver Circle AC transformers/conditioners in the system—the Veloce amps are battery powered—but after Silver Circle's David Stannard told me that he initially felt like a "gasoline salesman at an electric car convention," he explained that his units were being used for the AMR source components and the powered subwoofers.

The sound in this room was impressively clean and neutral, with precise imaging. But playing my recording of pianist Hyperion Knight performing orchestral arrangements of the Gershwin Preludes for piano, I was puzzled not to hear as much hall ambience as I was expecting.