CEDIA 2007 Coverage Coming Soon!
Stay tuned for live reports from Denver.
CEDIA Grumpiness
My bus was early, so I almost missed it. I sprained my ankle on Monday, so I can barely hobble down the aisles. Denver is humid. CEDIA is an A/V show.
Bitch, bitch, bitch.
Bitch, bitch, bitch.
Certified!
Thiel was showing honest-to-God production samples of its CS3.7 ($9900/pair), which has a few cosmetic flourishes I hadn't noticed the times I spotted prototypes at earlier Shows. I could be wrong, but that aluminum cowling looks better-integrated with the body than I recall.
Edge/Montana
Don't get me wrong, I heard some very good two-channel sound at CEDIA—Thiel and Wisdom Audio leap to mind—but arriving at the Edge Electronics/PBN Montana room at T.H.E. Show was a breath of fresh air. Why? The Denver Convention Center is a noisy place and even the "rooms" are merely shells set up within that vast space. The Denver Athletic Club is both solidly built and quiet.
Eminent Technology
Once">http://blog.stereophile.com/cedia2006/091906soundfield/">Once again, I was treated to a demonstration of Eminent Technology's $12,900 TRW-17 rotary woofer and once again I was baffled by its seeming lack of practicality, while being amazed at its creative approach to producing the lowest notes.
Even More Affordable Pioneer Speaker
Just a short note to tell you that the smaller brother of the affordably priced but high-performance Pioneer Elite S-1EX loudspeaker that I enjoyed so much last Marchhttp://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/307piosex/">March; has made its way to these shores. The S-3EX is slightly shorter and narrower, with 7" woofers in place of its bigger brother's 8" drivers. Retained are the CST Driver technology, the Aramid/Carbon-composite–shell woofers, the clean design and construction and, presumably, all the sound except at subwoofer levels. Not retained is about a third of the cost with the S-3EX estimated at $6000/pair instead of $9000.
Front and Center
Magnepan's Wendell Diller promised to demonstrate "an intriguing solution to the center channel," which was nebulous enough. Imagine my surprise when he demoed his new solution with a stereo! A three channel stereo, true, but a stereo nonetheless.
Furman Reference
Furman's Reference line of power conditioners are handsomely packaged and feature packed. The $1499 20A SPR-20i Stable Power Regulator has linear filtering technology, multi-stage power surge suppression, extreme voltage shutdown, a detachable module for telco surge suppression, as well as three pairs of HD ready cable/satellite TVSS isolated F-connectors.
Holy Sapphire
Dynaudio actually had a "production prototype" of its $16,500 Sapphire 30 30th anniversary loudspeaker at CEDIA, seen here photographed by Kal Rubinson. All of the drivers are "Evidence-grade," Michael Manoussellis told us. The drivers are Dynaudio's 1.1" (28mm) soft-dome tweeter, 5.5" (15cm) MSP-cone midrange, and two 8" MSP-cone woofers. The cabinet is faceted, hence the jewel reference. It's pretty dramatic looking. Now we're slavering to hear it.
Insider Tip
I stuck my head in Joseph Audio's room and asked, "What's new?"