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Meetings were frequently in progress when I glanced at the HDTracks booth in the Hi-Res Audio Workshop ballroom. Every time I take a look at the company's site, it's loaded with new releases from everyone from The Who and Eric Clapton to Anna Netrebko and a host of Grammy 2015 nominees. It was great to see David Chesky again, even though he kept mistaking me for tenor Jonas Kaufmann. I should be so lucky.
For the second consecutive year, Hi-Res Audio made a major statement on the main floor of the Venetian Hotel via a large Ballroom exhibit and star-studded panels. How many non-audiophiles took the time to explore beyond their schedule of meetings, conferences, and gizmo gatherings, I do not know. But the impact of two presentations per day, and the special press presentation by Neil Young (reported on earlier), will live on in reports and recorded footage of the events.
Although I was unable to attend "Hi-Res for Mobile Lifestyles," moderated by Rob Sabin of Sound & Vision, which…
Black shiny products are tough to photograph at shows, so trust me when I say the new N31 is dripping with gorgeousness not reflected in this photo.
Priced at $18k and available this May, the N31 will process both 24/192 PCM and DSD sources (including iPods/iPads/iPhones). MBL's Juergen Reis showed me a screen shot of an iPhone playing a 24/192 file in the the USB 2 input of the N31, using iTunes USB storage feature.
The DAC also sports a proprietary 3-stage jitter reduction design, and MBL's custom Minimum Phase digital filter with emphasis on short post-ringing, and no "…
Constellation creates some of the most innovative casework at CES, and the Cygnus is no exception. First shown at CES a couple years back, the product will soon be shipping in two form factors: standalone DAC ($27k) and a DAC/Server ($32k) configuration (shown above).
The smaller box sitting under the main unit in the photo houses the power supply and for the server, a Linux computer, USB media ports, ethernet jack and Wi-Fi control. Constellation uses a unique DVI connection which conveys clocks and I2S data back and forth between the two chassis.
The server version…
Lumin started shipping their flagship S1 this year and displayed it in both silver and black in their room. In the photo above is the silver S1 along with two L1 Music Library UPnP 2 TB servers below.
The S1 includes both DSD and PCM playback as well as 4 ESS Sabre 9018 DAC chips (2 per channel) with the company's new clocking system and dual-toroidal power supply. There is an HDMI digital audio output and both balanced and unbalanced analog outs. The inputs include USB and you can also hook up its ethernet port to a standard NAS or computer as source or the new L1 2 TB music server…
Unfortunately The Beast was not in their room when I visited MSB, and only showed up later, so I asked MSB's Vince Galbo to send me some photos. MSB is the North American distributor for the Swiss-built The Beast.
Galbo says that The Beast is an an effort to provide an "ultra premium" music server with software geared towards especially difficult categories and sub categories relating to classical music. He says for example that users can can drill down and differentiate the same conductor, the same orchestra, the same composer, the same music piece, on different dates, etc. Storage is…
MSB is now shipping new casework for both the UMT ($6,995) and Diamond DAC V ($29,995), which I think better reflect the company's dedication to digital audio perfection. The DAC is shown above and the UMT below.
They were still playing with name ideas when I spotted the prototype media server, here shown from behind with the top off. MSB says there will be up to 3TB of storage inside (which is expandable with external NAS drives) along with an "industrial-grade" CPU with 7 year guarantee. Also included is the company's legendary Femto clock, and MSB Pro I2S output. Control will be via web browser and the server should be available in around 6 months for approx $29k.
There's been some back and forth on AudioStream.com and other forums about how to best play back DSD and PCM, with some finding that having a single digital section converting both formats is less than optimal.
T+A decided that in order to do both formats justice in a single product, they would have to create completely independent decoding and analog output sections (including two sets of analog output jacks on the back!). The result is a design that the company believes is a unique and "fully optimized approach to the decoding of both PCM and DSD."
Resolutions up to 32…
I had heard she was talented pianist. I had seen her in photos before, but I never expected the beautiful and statuesque director of Panasonic Technics, Michiko Ogawa, to greet me in person at the door of Technics' CES showroom.
What I did expect was that the sound quality of the new Technics C700 series components would be exceptional—and I was not disappointed. I hope it's a new theme or at the very least a smart new marketing ploy—but suddenly several companies' "trickle-down" products sound as good or better than their more expensive "statement" offerings. These new Technics C700…