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Mutoaki Ohmachi, Esoteric's founder and resident genius, is a man full of passion. At CES2009, he spoke about the importance of music in his life and how hewing true to he sound of music had always been the motivation for Esoteric products.

That kind of personal mission statement used to be common for the big Japanese technology companies—at least in the flagship departments—now that kind of old-scholl audiophilia seems radical.

Ohmachi-san walks the walk though—he had 10 classic Decca recordings remastered to SACD "to original master tape standards. They're available on…

Esoteric E-03 Phono Section

Also on display at Esoteric was the nifty E-03 phono section ($5500). It has two phono inputs—MC and one that can play either MC or MM cartridges. It also sports a demagnetizing function, which takes a scant 30 second. It has externally selected impedance and capacitance for each input. The E-03 also has a high-voltage custom power supply. It should be available in March.

Tri Harder

Triode Corporation Ltd of Japan had a room full of equipment featuring—you guessed it—triodes! The TRV-4SE($2800)) preamplifier has an S/N ratio of 96dB and has an internal MM phono section, Its frequency response is 10Hz-100kHz. The TRV-4SE uses Mundorf and Nichicon capacitors, kiwame precise resistors, and an exclusive Triode Corpration stepped attenuator.

Criterion!

"What's new?" I asked Jeff Rowland.

"Define new," he said.

Ah, engineer humor.

I guess you could consider this new," he said, "seeing as how it is finally a reality."

He pointed at the petite Criterion preamplifier ($18,500). "It's battery powered, has user adjustable gain on each input, and a really great display that can be customized for each input. It has three separate balanced outputs, including one that can be run independent of the other two. It uses a 32-bit microprocessor for the commands. It also has a separate recording output with variable…

The Heart of the Qsonix Server

This one box contains all eight DACs, two hard drives selected by the customer, and all processing power to run the software and audio.

Qsonix Touchscreen Music Server

In addition to Sooloos and Blue Smoke, Qsonix was also demonstrating the latest iteration of their touchscreen music server system. The fully self-contained Q110 package is comprised of the single DAC/HD drive/software box and up to four touchscreens.

The Q110 package can be built with a variety of options. Disc drive capacity ranges from 250MB to 1.5TB, and you can choose either a 15" or 17" touchscreen. So a 1TB system with 15" touchscreen for example is $7,100. Add $700 for the 17" screen and $1,800 for each additional screen.

The single black box that contains all the…

Navison Audio's New Deal

Richard Rives, famous for tuning rooms around the world is now distributing audiophile products. Among those is the new Navison Audio Reference 228 CD Player which sports the latest Philips CD-Pro2M transport and 24 bit Delta Sigma DAC technology.

Currently available in a natural wood and gold finish, black and silver are coming soon. The player sells for $9,500.

Luxe!

Luxman is another old-school, technology-driven Japanese company. Looking at the 250Wpc B-100F (80th Anniversary Commemoration) ($55,000/pair) is a reminder of the days when the great Asian manufacturers fought for the title "best." The B100F is huge and can deliver 2000W into 1 ohm.

It's packed with unique tech, too. Luxman believes that undyed circuit boards sound better, so they use uncolored Teflon boards and coats the copper traces with gold to deter corrosion. Luxman engineers also assert that 90-degree turns sound audibly inferior to gentle curves, so they perform "feng shui…

Rough Breathing

Ypsilon was showing a monster of an amplifier—the 120W SE-100 Mk. II($70,000/each). A single-ended hybrid, it uses a 5842 input tube and a row of MOSFET output devices. It's entirely wired point-to-point and sports custom power transformers. Of course, it's stuffed with boutique components.

I've never subscribed to the "too much power is almost enough" school of thought—and, truth to tell, 100w isn't all that much—but the Ypsilons had more of that effortless imperturbablity that I heard from other massive amplifiers this week. It's not overwhelming, simply a sense that everything…

Master of Sonic Arts

Nagra's new 60Wpc MSA stereo power amp ($8000) is loosely based on its older "pyramid" PSA amp. This MOSFET stereo amplifier (geddit?) sounds far better than the older one, IMHO. Verity's John Quick played some tracks from Manu Katches stunning Neighborhood and the new guy had better pacing and, more importantly, far better timbre. I heard deeper into the soundstage, especially hearing more of Katche's superlative stick work.

And I have to admit, I'm a sucker for Nagra's grittier industrial design, having never really liked the way the PSA looked. Superficial, I know, but there…