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Conrad Johnson's TEA 2 phono stage was being fed by one of my favorite moderately priced record spinners: the Acoustic Signature WOW XL ($2395) with its own TA-1000 tonearm ($1995) and an Ortofon 2M Black moving-magnet cartridge ($755). The CA150 integrated amp was driving the 2-way, stand-mounted Penaudio Cenya Signature loudspeakers ($4000/pair)—the presentation had this fast forward-moving grainlessness that I found quite beguiling.
After 30 years of dancing in high-end audio, I only met Lew Johnson when I was working on my recent Magnepan .7 review (August 2015), and now, at CES 2016, I finally met Bill Conrad. Worse yet, after 40 years of knowing about them, I have never used, reviewed, or owned a Conrad-Johnson product. I am hoping that will change before the Summer Solstice.
I really enjoyed talking with Bill Johnson: he has a head full of tube and transistor knowledge that I can't wait to tap into. We talked for about 30-minutes, but it was enough to know I was completely enamored with the new Conrad Johnson…
ELAC America introduced a new 100Wpc, class-A/B integrated amplifier with a switching power supply, the "Debut Series DA101EQ" ($499), which looked so Walter Gropius' Bauhaus: Moderne. I was deeply impressed by its industrial design quotient. Hidden inside its elegant 2.1-channel skin, the ELAC integrated includes an "Auto Blend" control feature that measures the nearfield response of your main speakers and subwoofer and then corrects phrase and adjusts crossover frequency to suit the listener's room.
It also has "Remote EQ," which takes a bigger room-sized picture and tailors your system…
In a second GoldenEar room they had a Jefferson nickel standing on edge on top of the new "Super Sub X" bass speaker ($1249 each). The Super Sub-X has two "inertially balanced" 8" long-throw drivers in the horizontal plane and two "inertially balanced" 10" x 11" planar infrasonic radiators in the vertical plane. This force cancelling inertial balancing ". . . preserves and focuses all the energy produced by the transducers in order to more effectively move the air in the room." Well, the box didn't vibrate, the nickel didn't fall, the base was taut and nimble—and the great (and venerable)…
I reviewed the GoldenEar Technology Triton 5 ($1998/pair) in November 2015. Obviously, I know how they sound (I really liked them) and I know also how I wished they sounded (ie, a little more punch and sparkle). Well, GoldenEar was showing two new models at CES: the Triton 3+ ($2500/pair) and the larger Triton 2+ ($3500/pair).
Unlike the passive Triton 5 that I studied, both new GoldenEar loudspeakers have powered low-frequency drivers. The Triton 2+ and 3+ models both have new bass-mid drivers, new balanced crossovers, new bass tuning, and "new Triton 1 voicing!" Moreover, surely,…
In addition to the Cary Audio AiOS, Cary Audio Design was showcasing its elegant DMS-500 network audio player/digital music streamer ($4999), which they claim, is virtually "future-proof." It streams native PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz, and DSD64, 128, 256, 512, plus any files from any Mac or PC computer, NAS drive, or Internet Music Service. More importantly, you may connect it directly to USB hard drives, thumb drives, or SD Cards, which allows for "computer-less" playback of digital music.
The DMS-500 uses TruBit PCM and DSD technologies to convert PCM to DSD 64, 128, 256, or up to 768kHz…
I was out of audio, teaching and making art, for almost 12 years (2003–2014). During that time, on-line retailer Music Direct acquired the rights and relit the ancient Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab torch. Now both brands are burning more brightly than ever. I picked up the new ½"-thick Music Direct Catalog at CES and it reminded me ever so much of an audiophile version of the soft-porn Bruce Weber created for the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog. The Music Direct catalog (#16) has Grace Slick and Janis Joplin on the cover and tons of crazy (almost-naked) gear inside! I can't stop looking.
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I hadn't even reached the listening area when five-time Grammy Award-winning engineer Allen Sides declared, "I have something symphonic-like that I think you'd like to hear." Not knowing the identity of this tall, skinny, kinetically-inclined person who kept staring at his iPhone while walking in circles like a dog chasing its tail—he's also the owner of Ocean Way Audio and Ocean Way Recording Studios, and the force whose ears guide Ocean Way's speaker design engineers—I thought to myself, "Oy, more second-rate film score music masquerading as art."
Other than noting that the music was…
Accuphase's head of engineering, Masaomi Suzuki, introduced the company's new P-7300 flagship class-A/B stereo power amplifier ($32,000). The amp claims ultra-low noise and a super-high damping factor—the clipping power is higher than before, and the amp is 50% quieter than its predecessor—and outputs 125Wpc into 8 ohms. Its versatility extends to outputting 800Wpc into 1 ohm, which means that loudspeakers with challenging, amp-wilting impedance curves should not present insurmountable problems.
Along with what I believe to be the Accuphase C-3850 stereo preamplifier and DG-58 Digital…
Monitor Audio has now moved to its second-generation Platinum series loudspeakers, which Monitor presents as "most accurate and beautiful loudspeakers" the company has ever made. Shown was the top-of-the-line, towering PL500 II ($28,995/pair), whose front baffles are hand-upholstered in the same Ingleston leather used in many luxury British brands.
The PL500 II has an MPD (micro-pleated diaphragm) tweeter based on AMT technology, with increased pleats and reduced length to improve sound. It also boasts dual 4" midrange units. Drivers are RDT II (Rigid Diaphragm Technology 2nd Generation…