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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…
Sidebar: Contacts
Integra, 18 Park Way, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. Tel: (800) 225-1946, (201) 818-9200. Web: www.integrahometheater.com.
Audyssey Laboratories, 350 S. Figueroa Street, Suite 233, Los Angeles, CA 90071. Tel: (213) 625-4300. Fax: (213) 625-4383. Web: www.audyssey.com.
Blind though I am to the allure of blind testing, I can appreciate some degree of review-sample anonymity: Distinctive products elicit distinctive responses, but a plain black box encourages us to leave our prejudices at the door. It asks of us a certain . . . objectivity.
So it was with the Micromega AS-400 digital source/integrated amplifier ($4495), the anonymity of which was compounded, in my case, by a generous helping of forgetfulness: I suppose I was told, ahead of time, that this was a class-D amplifier, but at some point in time before my first at-home audition I apparently…