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RR's Keith O. Johnson and Jan Mancuso celebrate 30 years of great sound with a handful of recent releases.
I don't enjoy feeling like an ignoranus, but that's exactly how I feel after spending a day at the Convention Center during CES. The word "hate" keeps coming to mind. As in: "I hate it." But I don't think I really hate it. As I told JI, during one of my many pouts, I'm sure the experience is good for something. I just don't know what it's good for.
Patience? Grace?
Jon and Wes are teasing me now, as we sit in the hotel lobby, posting our thoughts. Jon thinks I need a nap; Wes thinks I need a drink. They're probably both right.
But then, Jon also says I'm too…
It was nice to see Audiolab products again—simple components with simple livery, not the stylish, but incomprehensible faceplates of the products manufactured after TAG Mclaren acquired the firm. Jon Iverson, Stephen Mejias, and I didn't get a chance to hear the new 8000Q preamplifier, 8000M 125W mono amplifier, 8000P 100Wpc stereo amplifier, 8000CD CD player, or 8000S 60Wps integrated amplifier ("all priced under $1000, we hope"), but we wanna. They ship in March. We can't wait.
Jon Iverson ponders where he's seen that speaker shape before. He's pretty sure it wasn't in this booth, with the suspicous company name "Forgings Industry."
Dynaudio has rethunk its midlevel Focus line, wrapping the cabinets in real veneers rather than the woodgrained vinyl of the original series. They sure is purty.
The includes the two-way Focus 110 ($1400/pair), two-way Focus 140 ($1800/pair), two-and-a-half-way Focus 220 ($3000/pair) and the Focus 200C center channel speaker ($1000). All include Dynaudio drivers. Stereophile has, well, I have a pair of Focus 140s in for review now.
Walking through the Las Vegas Convention Center, Jon Iverson, Stephen Mejias, and I were stopped in our tracks by a set of sleek, colorful, sexy loudspeakers, Jamo's new dipole Reference R909s ($14,999/pair). I was struck by how nicely Jamo has covered the backs of the speakers with a handsome grille-cloth shroud, only to have Chris Otte tell me that "of course, very few customers will want to cover them up." I'm not so sure—I suspect most folks can do without the sight of the two woofers' nether regions.
The speakers boast cast-iron frames and bases, Scanspeak Revelator tweeters,…
There's so much for me to learn.
That's the main thing that I learned from spending an entire day coursing through the Convention Center with Jon and Wes.
I felt as though everything — everything — was completely new to me.
So much to learn, so much to learn, so much I don't know about.
And walking around, and taking in all of the sounds and sights drained me. By the end of the day, I was in a pretty foul mood.
Jon and Wes had one last thing to teach me before calling it a day: a word.
"Stephen's a ne'er-do-well, don't you think, Wes?"
"A…
A product that impressed me last year was OliveMedia Products' Symphony music server. The size and appearance of a conventional CD player, the Symphony incorporates an 80GB hard drive and a WiFi hub so that it can act as a music-file server, all for just $899. I wrote my positive impressions of the Symphony with its digital output driving my high-end rig in our mid-November eNewsletter, so I checked out Olive at CES. The company was demonstrating the new Opus, which increases the HD size to 400GB and uses a high-end D/A section. The Opus will be available mid-February for $2999.
In our forthcoming February issue, I review the 5.2 loudspeaker from Genesis Technologies. Like many Arnie Nudell designs, the 5.2 demands a lot of current from the partnering amplifier. (See, for example, my 1989 measurements of Arnie's classic IRS Beta design.) I was impressed, therefore, to hear the 5.2s being driven to great effect on a track from singer Jacintha by Genesis' new i60 60Wpc integrated tube amplifier. Made in China, with design input from veteran amplifier maven Bascom King, the i60 uses KT88s and will cost $3495. Rather than show the normal frontal shot of the amp, I…