search
The prototype speaker I shamelessly coveted at the 2007 RMAF, the Harbeth 40.1, resurfaced in final form at THE Show’s Alexis Park location. Paired with Resolution Audio’s exceptional-sounding components, it again made my mouth water. Now positioned on new, lower stands (which, in my not-so-humble opinion, look far more attractive, and far less like a funeral casket, when not draped in black cloth), the full-range 40.1 monitors have an immensely detailed, beautifully layered, extremely controlled midrange whose harmonic richness is hard to resist. Toed-in toward the listener, the…
While Day 1 at the Venetian was all hustle and bustle, the atmosphere at the Las Vegas Hilton was something different, was almost contemplative. Navigating the Venetian halls was an exercise in agility. I found myself weaving in and out of massive traffic with a skill perhaps common only to a weary New Yorker, making quick and random stops to chat friends and colleagues. But when I arrived at the Hilton, the silence—as we like to say—was palpable.
Of course, there are fewer audio manufacturers residing at the Hilton, and it was approaching the end of show hours…
The striking Vivid Audio Giya G1 loudspeaker ($54,000/pair) is the work of acclaimed designer, Laurence Dickie, who is perhaps best known for the creation of B&W's famed seashell-shaped Nautilus.
Our eyes must have shot open when we walked into the listening room. On A Higher Note's Philip O'Hanlon, distributor for Vivid Audio and Luxman, approached us and admitted, "It's one of those speakers that will polarize people. People will either love it or hate it."
We listened. At the end of a jazz piece, the first row of listeners broke into applause and shouted praise…
"Big," I said.
"There's no substitute for size when it comes to designing a subwoofer," JA explained. "A lot of small subs do a lot of things well, but when you want to reproduce truly deep, controlled bass, you need big drivers and a big box."
Wilson Audio Specialties' newest subwoofer, Thor's Hammer, certainly seems to have what it takes. Coming from a long line of serious subs, including the coffee-table-sized WHOW and seven-foot-tall XS, Wilson's newest design stands 59 inches tall, weighs over 400 lbs, features dual 15" long-throw woofers, and, of course, invokes the…
"Our Asian and Pacific clients were strongly requesting it," said Mark Levinson's Walter Schofield, VP of Sales and Marketing, "so we designed an amplifier in the older Mark Levinson tradition with external heats."
Sure enough, the large, heavy—try 140 lbs—dual-mono, $15,000, No.532 amplifier had the characteristic, classic, curved black-silver monolithic shape enjoyed by Mark Levinson amplifiers designed in the early 1990s.
"It may have the classic Mark Levinson appearance," continued Walter, "but it enjoys the latest in our technology. Its output levels are matched to…
T.H.E. Show at the Alexis Park reminded us of the new Will Smith movie—the
infrastructure was intact, but there were few signs of life.
We asked one exhibitor how show traffic had been. "There's ample parking," he said.
Things were a little busier at the San Tropez, but as we T.H.E. Show, we heard the CEA's official attendance: 143,695. "Nah," said our cab driver later in the evening, "the real count is closer to 150,000—and tomorrow the Adult Entertainment Expo will bring in another 40,000."
Thiel's press conference at the Sands Convention Center on Day One of the 2008 CES opened with a detailed critique of the complexities and challenge of installing a home theater system. Ekin Binal, Vice President, Product Development, of BICOM, an IT company partnering with THIEL to address these issues, spoke in detail about the complex, labor intensive, time-intensive, cost-intensive installation of multiple speakers and channels. Furthermore, updating such a home theater system is never simple nor convenient, nor is moving a system from an old house to a new house either simple or…
Erin Binal of Bicome finished his lecture on Thielnet by stripping off the front grillw on the small, two-way, IP-addressable, powered SCS4D loudspeaker. There are twin ports above and below the coaxial driver. With the grille on or off, the SCS4D is rated with a frequency response of 48Hz–20kHz, ±3dB. Pricing was not specified. And yes, those are WiFi antennae.