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"We are your one-stop shop for cables and tweaks," proclaimed Joseph Cohen of The Lotus Group, while leading me through two rooms filled products. Even the new products took up two pages of notes. Through it all, I remained extremely jealous of legendary mastering engineer Steve Hoffman, who had settled onto a couch in front of the fabulous Feastrex $55,000/pair speakers, and was blissfully tapping his foot to the extremely realistic, full-range sound of a jazz combo playing back on a A Feastrex modified EMT studio type CD player with outboard line transformer.
Sam Laufer of Laufer Teknik has become the US manufacturer and distributor of Bybee Wire and the distributor of the Bybee Power Purifier ($4500) that is manufactured by Transparent. Here he's pictured holding the new Bybee wire, which contains the equivalent of three Bybee Golden Goddess Speaker Bullets. While I haven't tried the wire, I have two sets of Bullets on each of my reference speaker inputs, and am continually startled by their ability to clarify and refine low-level bass detail. I never, ever thought I could get this much bass clarity from my speakers, especially from…
When John Atkinson requested that I check out the new state-of-the-art Sennheiser HD 800 headphones ($1399.95), which will debut next month, I dreaded descending into the madness of the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Little did I know that instead of encountering an impossible throng of tech-crazed computer geeks, I would have my peak sonic experience of CES 2009.
As it turned out, due to the economic downturn, the crowds in the South Hall were far easier to handle than the primed-for-12-step throngs one encounters trying to navigate thru the casino that separates…
Siltech Importer Ethan Wood, who claims to be the biggest man in the high-end industry, gave me low-down on the family affair known as Siltech and Crystal Cable. (Note: Crystal Cable is in the process of choosing a new importer for its cable and speaker line). Siltech was founded by Edwin Van der Kleig, while Crystal is property of his wife Gabi. Both companies use highly pure silver and 24K gold in the majority of their products.
Siltech, which believes that 60–80% of a cable's sound is determined by its quality of metallurgy, and the rest by its geometry and insulation, uses…
As I was heading out dazed from the Sennheiser headphone experience, Dynaudio’s Mike Manousselis invited me to briefly listen to their demo. In the middle of the Convention Center’s huge South Hall, and at a reasonable volume level that did not attempt to drown out the ubiquitous din, a very cool Patricia Barber had claimed the space as her own. Abetted by a Wadia player and Simaudio amplification, speakers that I think were the Focus 360—Mike, help me out here; I hadn’t yet come down to earth from the Sennheisers—were doing a marvelous job of filling the space with inviting sound. If…
Ad Manager, Laura LoVecchio, is obviously having a great time at CES.
Check out our 2009 CES Show Report.
As Stereophile's senior editor, Jonathan Scull wrote a popular column called "Fine Tunes." He now handles marketing and press relations for Bel Canto, Furutech, Loiminchay, and Ultralink/XLO. And does a pretty decent impersonation of me.
Check out our 2009 CES Show Report.
Chord demonstrated the absolutely stunning Indigo Advanced D to A ($15,000). Yes, that's an iPod dock on top, but the Indigo isn't just another iPod dock. For one thing, you can only dock Chord modified iPods directly into it, allowing Chord to access the digital data in the iPod. The Indigo also has a A2DP radio "dongle" that can seamlessly stream digital radio ir music from anywhere in the room. Another dongle is supplied to stream analog output from unmodified iPods.
Additional digital inputs include S/PDIF, AES/EBU,TOSLINK, USB, and high-quality Bluetooth. What's that, you say…
Lamm was driving the new Wilson Maxx series 3 with its 32Wpc ML3 Signature SE triode monoblocks ($139,290/pair). It was my first chance to hear either, so I can't tell you if it was the speakers or the amps that were making the magic happen, but happen it did.
The ML3 Sigs employ no overall feedback and are pure class-A. They utilize a direct-heated GM-70 and "one of the most sophisticated power supplies that have ever been used in building any audio device."
No need to state the obvious—that's a stratospheric price tag. And I'm not sure that if I could easily afford it, I…