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Abbey Masciarotte, Tannoy's representative at CES 2015, showed me the company's floorstanding Canterbury loudspeaker. The Canterbury has a striking retro look and uses a dual-concentric 15" drive unit that mounts a high-frequency compression driver inside the throat of a 15" woofer. The bi-wired, low-loss, 2nd-order crossover is set at 1.1kHz, and the speaker's frequency range is rated at 28Hz–27kHz. Peak power handling is 600W! The Canterbury features an oiled-walnut cabinet made from birch plywood, complete with the Tannoy lightning-strike logo.
T+A's lively and energetic Jochen Fabricius was eager to fill me in on the new, 3-way, 183 lb, $55,000/pair T+A CWT 1000-8 SE floorstander. This speaker uses a 25" by 2" electrostatic line tweeter that covers the frequency range from 2kHz to 40kHz. The midrange is handled by eight 4" drivers while the sealed bass enclosure houses four 8" woofers, each with a gigantic motor structure, an extremely stiff cone, ultra-long linear excursion, and a low resonant frequency. Two woofers are positioned at each side of the loudspeaker.
I was most impressed by these 53"-tall loudspeakers. I didn't…
Lamm Audio used two ML3 Signature amplifiers ($139,490) and two ML2.2 amplifiers ($37,290) to power a pair of Verity Audio Lohengrin IIS loudspeakers ($120,000) in one of the Venetian's largest exhibit rooms. When I entered the room, there were a large number of guests politely listening to the music, including our own Michael Fremer. From the short time I was able to spend in the room, the sound was simply superb.
Naim has updated both the highly touted SuperUniti and UnitiQute this year adding Bluetooth and Spotify as well as other tweaks. The SuperUniti (above) is a just-add-speakers product that includes UPnP networking, wireless streaming, and digital and analog inputs for $6,495. The smaller 30 wpc UnitiQute is below and retails for $2,395
Michael Lavorgna reviewed the X30 (above) earlier this year after spotting it at CES last year. ML details all the spex in his report, so I'll stick to the basics: the X30 retails for $1,695 which includes the remote you see to the right of the box, and also includes a 50 wpc amp and on-screen graphics when hooked up to a display.
The X12 CD Ripper/Server/Streamer (above) retails for $699 and also includes a built-in amp, this time 30 wpc. Clearly aimed at the all-in-one customer, the smaller X12 handles PCM files up 24/192 and can connect to your network to stream from NAS…
Rega has updated their compact DAC with a new remote control and three user selectable digital filters. A pair of Wolfson DAC chips inside handle digital files up to 24/192 via USB, SPDIF or optical digital inputs. There are also unbalanced analog, SPDIF and optical digital outputs on the back. Retail price is $1,195 and the DAC-R is available now.
This is the third year I've seen QAT at CES and they seem to making steady improvements. Part of that progress is the new RS3 server, from their lower-priced KUAN series, which retails for $1,800 and is available now. Features include a front-loading replaceable 2.5 inch HDD/SSD with capacity up to 2TB as well as both PCM and DSD support.
There are both digital and balanced and unbalanced analog outputs on the back as well as wired and wireless networking for NAS drives. Around a dozen file formats are supported including all the big players.
In the Devore Fidelity room was the Line Magnetic DAC that sports both a tube and solid state user-selectable output section via a front panel switch. Async USB, SPDIF, optical and AES/EBU connectors on the back and the LM-502CA has been updated inside to accept up to 32/356 PCM. Available now for $1,795.
Though they only had a prototype board (in the photo below) as well as the poster (in the photo above) in the room, Calyx were announcing the new PaT DAC which should hit retailers in February for $99. Handles PCM up to 16/48, but no DSD. One interesting feature is the buttons on the panel can control your play, volume and skip features on the connected phone.
This is a handsome iPod like player with 4.65 inch OLED display on the front and a pair of memory slots on the top (as shown in the photo below). The slots included are one micro SD and one regular SD with current maximum capacity of 512GB. The company says that they should be able to accept cards of up to 2TB in the future.
Price is $1,099 and now includes a new time domain minimum phase digital filter. Handles both DSD 128 and up to 32/384 PCM via a handful of formats including DXD. The only thing I didn't see on the list were FLAC files.