I welcome this kind of remote after having struggled with my Touch's screen as a remote for a few months now, deciding that having real buttons for core functions like start/stop/skip and volume is the best way to go. I'm finding that others feel this way too, noting that using an iPhone or Touch as a remote is a step backward in speed and convenience.
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Remote control for the Wadia 171iTransport and 151PowerDAC mini with hard buttons for volume and track navigation.
Wadia introduced their iTransport/Dock at the 2008 CES a couple years back and, it's no understatement to say, changed everything.
Ever since that time, the company has been introducing improvements and companion products, and this year's CES is no exception. The 171iTransport (shown at top in this photo) continues the tradition, adding iPhone/Touch compatibility, power supply indicator and button remote for navigation through playlists and albums. They've dropped the S-Video output, with component and composite video instead. SPDIF and Toslink connectors are ready to connect to…
Stereophile scribe Kal Rubinson examines the small forest of connections on the back of the Black Box.
Music server manufacturer Blue Smoke returned to CES this year as part of the Rockport Technologies suite in the upper echelons of the Mirage. The company's product is the $6,995 Black Box music server where they focus on creating an optimal environment for digital music on the hardware side and assume the customer will choose a Windows compatible music player and interface. For their demo, Windows Media Center was used with a Dell touchscreen (seen on the right) and keyboard/mouse combo for the control functions. A MSB DAC, located under the Black Box in the photo above, converts the…
Vandersteen's $45,000/pair, time- and phase-correct, four-way, floorstanding, Model Seven loudspeaker made its debut at the 2009 CES but is now in production. I sat with Richard Vandersteen in his suite at the Venetian, and listened intently to his description of how he designed the Model Seven. He started by saying, "I didn't really understand the advantages of carbon-fiber as a material that could help speaker design until I built my own airplane." From there, he described how he developed a patent-pending sandwich of high-Young’s Modulus carbon-fiber skins bonded to a balsa-wood…
It was a case of Johnny Hartmann the third time over. In the room shared by Hansen and Tenor Audio, my third encounter with Hartmann's vocalism at CES 2010 came via a CD transfer of a 1964 recording. Happily, the CD retained much of the vocal richness of the two Hartmann LPs I had heard earlier in the show.
The speakers were something else: the brand-new, 650 lb, 10-driver, three-way Hansen The Grand Master ($239,000/pair). Bearing an uncanny resemblance to an extraterrestrial, the speaker's cabinet is a specially molded Hansen composite matrix. Composed of three different layers,…
Visiting one of Aaudio Imports' rooms gave me another opportunity to hear Tidal loudspeakers from Germany. I initially encountered an extremely imposing pair of these speakers on the first day of the show, paired with BAlabo electronics and Echole cabling. Now before me was a smaller pair of the Tidal speakers, either the Contriva Diacera SE ($73,500/pair) or Piano Cera ($28,400/pair). (The equipment sheet listed both models).
The rest of the system consisted of Bergmann of Denmark's Sindre Airbearing Turntable ($21,000); Ypsilon of Greece CDT100 CD transport/CD player ($26,000),…
Beckoning like the mythical paradise for which the Coloradon company is named, the Avalon Acoustics Time loudspeakers ($47,995/pair) stood in a large suite on the 34th floor. Surrounded by a large complement of room-tuning devices that only partially controlled their low end, the beauty and clarity of the Time's diamond tweeter transmitted the beauty of Renaud Capuüon's violin as few other speakers I have heard.
I soon forgot all about the 5378 other rooms I had hoped to get to in the next 30 minutes, and basked in the glory of Beethoven's Violin Concerto. When a speaker makes you…
Dynaudio had something for almost everyone with an exhibit that ranged from affordable to cost-no-object. At one of the room stood the imposing Consequence SE, whose bass was so powerful that it would interact with the spongy wall behind it unless the mighty Michael Manousselis braced himself against the corner. But on the other end of the long room sat a marvelous little system composed of the Contour S 1.4 ($3500/pair, with optional stands costing an additional $450), Octave V40SE 40Wpc integrated amp ($4900), and an optional capacitance Black Box ($1200) that increased the…
I have little to tell you about Dolby IIz, or Audyssey's DSX or Dynamic Volume, because they added little to my musical enjoyment when I tried them or heard them in demo with this product. They work, and I encourage you to sample them for yourself. I'm somewhat undecided about Dolby Volume and Audyssey Dynamic EQ. Both will adjust tonal and channel balance to compensate for the changes in auditory perception associated with changing sound levels. While they work pretty well, I tend to listen to music at comfortably high levels. As a result, neither is really necessary for my serious…