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Mikey loves JBLs—Who Knew?!?!!

A number of Stereophile writers have been having unexpected musical moments with JBL's massive horn-loaded K2 9800 loudspeaker at recent shows, but the 2007 CES saw the US debut of the awesome Everest ($60,000/pair).

Designed, like the K2 9800, by veteran JBL engineer Greg Timbers, whom I first interviewed 25 years ago when he was working on the JBL 250, the Everest represents the Californian company's ultimate effort to achieve high-end sound from high-efficiency, horn-loaded drivers.

With a pair of Everests driven by a Lexicon disc player and Mark Levinson amplification,…

The Ultimate Everest Test—Uncle John's Band

Mikey had brought along to the JBL Everest demo CD-Rs burned with dubs of his favorite LPs played on his Continuum Caliburn turntable. We listened to Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Orbison, Joni Mitchell, and John Lennon, but it was when Mikey asked Greg to play track one on the second CD-R that the listeners visibly relaxed and the room filled up with good vibes.

Even Everest designer Greg Timbers (left) and veteran classical recording engineer and JBL alum John Eargle (third from right) loosened up as we all lowered ourselves into the warm audio bath of the Dead's "Uncle John's Band,"…

VTL Features Avalons

The very first room I visited at CES featured VTL and dCS electronics powering Avalon Eidelon speakers via Transparent cabling. This was a good start. I had become an instant convert to VTL sound at HE2006 last May, where Wilson Sophia speakers, driven by VTL electronics via Cardas cable and a Jadis tranposrt and DAC delivered some of the best sound I heard at the show. Since then, I've heard VTL gear in three other environments, this being the fifth. Each time, it has sounded different, but always musical.

For their room at the 2007 CES, VTL's Bea Lam and Luke Manley spent six…

A Rogue: Eggleston's The Nine Speaker

After encountering several rooms filled with overly warm, romanticized tube sound, it was a welcome shock to discover tube gear from Rogue that sounded far more neutral. Alas, the sound from Rogue’s Zeus amplifier (225Wpc, $7495) and prototype reference-level linestage preamp seemed a bit soft around the edges, lacking detail. However, who knows how much of what I heard was due to the plethora of Echo Buster paneling with which the exhibitors had tried to tame the room's acoustics. Paired with the Egglestonworks The Nine ($12,900/pair), introduced at the show, I heard much promise…

More Eggleston: This Time with McCormack

Wanting to hear more of newest addition to the line that includes the Andra II, successor to Stereophile's 1997 "Loudspeaker of the Year," I visited Egglestonworks' second The Nine room after the Show's first day closed at 5pm. Here I discovered a wonderful depth to the presentation, thanks to McCormack's UDP-1 universal player and DNA-500 amplification, as well as to the Kubala-Sosna cabling. The treble was also nicely focused. Alas, despite another round of Echo Buster room treatment and a striking-looking Grand Prix rack, The Nine's bass control was defeated by the room's square…

Monitor Audio Goes Platinum

English speaker company Monitor Audio has been producing a range of excellent affordable speakers since its managment buyout nine years ago, including the Silver RS6 tower that so impressed Bob Reina last March. Their suite at the Hilton, however, saw the Platinum series, an assault on the state of the speaker art from a design team led by Dean Hartley (above).

In the bookshelf Platinum 100 ($4295/pair plus stands) and the tower Platinum 300 ($8995/pair) a wide-bandwidth, ceramic-coated ribbon tweeter, combined with lower-range drivers that use aluminum-honeycomb diaphragms and…

KEF Goes WiFi

When Stereophile webmaster Jon Iverson speaks, I listen, so when, in a conversation the night before the Show opened, he mentioned that he felt wireless speakers would be big in 2007, I looked out for examples.

The advantage of going wireless, of course, is that for rear channels in particular, there can be no more of those significant-other–annoying wires draped across the floor. The KEF Wireless System features a transmitter that connects to the owner's A/V receiver and two matching wireless receivers, one of which is seen here powering the English company's R203/2 bookshelf…

New KEF References

When I reviewed KEF's top-line Reference 207 loudspeaker in February 2004, it featured a supertweeter perched atop the module housing the coaxial Uni-Q tweeter/midrange driver to achieve true ultrasonic performance. A redesign of the Uni-Q driver, the tweeter in particular, has meant that the supertweeter could be dispensed with for the Mk.2 version, launched at the 2007 CES.

The 2007/2 was on static display, but I very much enjoyed the sound of my new Cantus CD played on a pair of the smaller Reference 205/2 speakers, driven by an Esoteric SACD player and Audio Research…

CES Coverage

In case you were wondering, you can find me in Vegas. Our live coverage takes you into the heart of the Consumer Electronics Show.

Repping the Brands

The ever-gracious Rosemarie Torcivia running the Primedia room at the Venetian.