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Many of the best rooms at CES featured the beautiful quietness and flow of the Joseph Audio Pulsar loudspeaker ($7700/pair). I can hear you wondering, What does he mean by quietness? It's difficult to describe, but I'm a long-time fan of Jeff Joseph's designs and I have experienced them on countless occasions—and each time the word "quiet" comes to mind. No matter what the amplification, there is a unique inter-note silence that captures my attention. I find it uniquely attractive, and I suspect it's a product of Joseph's steep-rolloff, "asymmetrical infinite slope" crossovers. Whatever the…
Sometimes it's love at first sight. I know appearances can be deceiving, but I couldn't stop looking at Rogers High Fidelity's 114Wpc EHF-200 MK 2 amplifier ($15,900). The beautiful KT150 tubes, the glossy red front panel, and the thick plexiglass tube cover were eye candy. This product's quality finish is directly related to designer Roger Gibboni's background building communications and radar equipment for NASA. As with all Rogers amps, the EHF-200 MK2 is American-made; it comes with a transferable lifetime warranty; it employs point-to-point hand-wiring using 18 gauge Teflon-coated silver-…
Since I focus on digital product introductions at CES, Crystal Cable wasn't on my radar until John Atkinson suggested checking them out last year when bringing Graham Nash to the show. Boy am I glad I did! Not only did Graham love his visit there in 2016 (and JA subsequently reviewed their speakers), Jake ended his CES 2017 tour on a high note in the room with an encore performance that brought tears to more than one visitor's eye.
The Crystal room is also one of the smaller available for CES exhibitors, but again, the company made the most of what they had. Jake sat on the couch in…
Photo: John Atkinson
How to sum up the smallest high-end showing ever at a 21st Century CES? While it seems likely that CES trade-show attendance in general was down just a bit this year from the 2016 high of 177,393, the official estimate of "more than 175,000 industry professionals, including 55,000 from outside the US" stands in sharp contrast to the scene on the upper floors of the Venetian Tower, where some hallways that had formerly been packed with what CES calls "high performance" exhibits and industry people were now dominated by tech-company exhibits and visitors.
How to sum up the smallest high-end showing ever at a 21st Century CES? While it seems likely that CES trade-show attendance in general was down just a bit this year from the 2016 high of 177,393, the official estimate of "more than 175,000 industry professionals, including 55,000 from outside the US" stands in sharp contrast to the scene on the upper floors of the Venetian Tower, where some hallways that had formerly been packed with what CES calls "high performance" exhibits and industry people were now dominated by tech-company exhibits and visitors.
When all is…
"Great" is not an adjective to be invoked lightly. But once you hear mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton hold forth on her debut solo album, All Who Wander (Delos)—available in 24/96 from HDTracks, which features songs by Mahler, Sibelius, and Dvorák, you will harbor no doubt that she is one of the great vocal artists of our era.
For those new to her singing, Barton is a Georgia-born, Houston Grand Opera Studio grad whose win at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2007—the year she turned 26—was followed by snaring both the Main and Song Prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of…
More on the Torreys firmware upgrade from February 2017 (Vol.40 No.2):
In his report, in the November 2016 issue, on the Torreys firmware upgrade for PS Audio's DirectStream D/A processor ($5999), Robert Deutsch wrote that he had noticed "an increase in resolution"—and at that, my ears pricked up. I had purchased our original review sample of this processor following Art Dudley's favorable review in September 2014, and I had upgraded it, in the summer of 2015, to the Yale operating system, which I prefer to the earlier Pikes Peak and v.1.2.1 versions. As much as I enjoy the sound of the…
John Atkinson tested the v.2.5.6 firmware upgrade in February 2017 (Vol.40 No.2):
In April 2016, I reviewed the AR-M2 portable player from Acoustic Research (footnote 1), concluding that "It's good to see the Acoustic Research brand applied to such a well-engineered product after all these years." When I compared the AR-M2 with the Astell&Kern AK240, I found the differences between the two players small, commenting that "on balance, if I didn't have to count pennies, I'd go for the $2500 Astell&Kern—but for $1300 less, the Acoustic Research comes very close." A limited-time,…
"What are your thoughts on this year's CES?": A multi-dimensional question that means many different things to the many different people who share the high-end audio realm. For my first attendance at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, I had a mission: to compile answers to this complex question and fit my findings on a visual medium, a time capsule of sorts. Is this the last year of CES? Was the low attendance in the high-end audio segment at the Venetian just a temporary lull? Or could it be a turning point for the high-end audio industry? Whatever might happen, 2017 struck me as a…
Last July and September I made two loudspeaker-related road trips: first to Rockport Technologies, in Maine, to audition their new Lyra; and then to high-end dealer-distributor GTT Audio, in deepest, darkest New Jersey, to audition YG Acoustics' new Sonja XV. Both speakers offer innovative, proprietary drive-units and heroic audio engineering, especially regarding their enclosures, which are constructed from aluminum. Both experiences took place in superbly well-designed and optimized listening rooms with front-end and amplification components that were beyond reproach. The sound quality…
The Band: The Last Waltz 40th
Rhino RR 273925 (2 CDs). 1978/2016. Robbie Robertson, prod.; Ron Fraboni, John Simon, co-prods.; Terry Becker, Tim Kramer, Elliot Mazer, Wayne Neuendorf, Ed Anderson, Neil Brody, engs. ADD? TT: 2:09:11
Performance *****
Sonics ****
Rhino RR 273925 (2 CDs). 1978/2016. Robbie Robertson, prod.; Ron Fraboni, John Simon, co-prods.; Terry Becker, Tim Kramer, Elliot Mazer, Wayne Neuendorf, Ed Anderson, Neil Brody, engs. ADD? TT: 2:09:11
Performance *****
Sonics ****
To clear the air, if not the sinuses, let's dispose right now of the traveling-booger-matte controversy. If Robbie Robertson and the late Levon Helm are to be believed, in The Last Waltz, Neil Young performed "Helpless" with a very suspicious chunk of something hanging out of one nostril. When Young and his management…