CES 2018

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CES 2018
Is M&K the High End's Best-Kept Secret?
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jan 15, 2018  |  6 comments
I really don't know the answer; I just know that loudspeaker company M&K says that's the case. I also know that the original Miller & Kreisel was founded in 1973 by music lovers who wanted to manufacture speakers good enough to do justice to recordings by Steely Dan. 35 years later, the company went bankrupt, and was relaunched shortly thereafter by new Danish investors who have a strong home theater orientation. For the past 10 years, the company's owner has been Lars Johansen, who spoke with me in their room in the Venetian Hotel.
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CES 2018
YG Acoustics Sonja 2.2 Loudspeaker
Jon Iverson  |  Jan 15, 2018  |  0 comments
"This is the evolution of our Sonja series," Explains YG Acoustics senior account executive Kerry St. James. "This follows the Sonja 1 series and the 'dot' indicates how many modules there are in the model. So this is a Sonja 2.2 (he points to the demo in the room) meaning it is the second series and has two modules. The 2 series is available as one module or expanded into three modules, the Sonja 2.3."
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CES 2018
Viola Audio Laboratories Chorale Integrated Amplifier
Jon Iverson  |  Jan 15, 2018  |  0 comments
Paul Jayson, president of Viola Audio Laboratories, New Haven, CT was on hand to demo the company's new Chorale Integrated Amplifier. Price is still to be determined, says Jayson, "but we are looking at around $19,000, and plan on shipping in March."
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CES 2018
Raidho XT-5 Loudspeaker
Jon Iverson  |  Jan 15, 2018  |  2 comments
Rune Skov, sales director for Dantax Radio, manufacturer of Raidho, directed me over to the XT-5, explaining that it is the latest addition to their extensive line of speakers. "And as you can see, it is a type of a line source because we are using multiple drivers. In the X series we normally use ceramic drivers, but for the XT series we are using titanium drivers instead."
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CES 2018
Emotiva XPA-DR and XPA Gen3 Series Modular Amplifiers
Jon Iverson  |  Jan 15, 2018  |  0 comments
Emotiva's new DR series (as shown in the above photo) is a configurable amplifier that can go from one to three channels. "These are capable of up to 600 watts per amp module," says the company's Damon Steele. "However due to how the power supply works, as you add more modules the power drops a bit. So with two in the chassis, they run at 550 watts each. If you do three, you get 440 watts per channel."
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CES 2018
Mighty Impressive Sound from Elac
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jan 15, 2018  |  1 comments
Both Andrew Jones, who designs Elac loudspeakers, and Peter Madnick, who is responsible for Elac's Alchemy series of components (the successors to the Audio Alchemy brand), were on hand to demonstrate a system that sounded equally wonderful on both of the "Red Book" files I heard there. I loved how beautifully this system captured the seductive midrange of David Roth's voice on "Before I Die" as it conveyed his music with captivating warmth and lovely layering. Timbres on Count Basie's 88 Basin Street were also natural and compelling.
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CES 2018
Earphones by Etymotic
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jan 15, 2018  |  0 comments
Etymotic's Albert Arends was showing four models of the company's earphones. The Etymotic ER3SE (Studio Edition—$179) has a flatter response than the ER3XR (Extended Response—$179), which has "a bit of a bass lift" in the 100Hz-1kHz region. One major difference between these models and the higher level ER4 SR (Studio Reference—$349) and ER4XR (Extended Response—$349) is that only the latter are channel-matched to within 1dB.
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CES 2018
DeVore Fidelity Gibbon Super 9
Jon Iverson  |  Jan 14, 2018  |  0 comments
Shown here is the new DeVore Fidelity Gibbon Super 9 ($9,900 pair) which falls in between the company's big Gibbon 10 3-way and the Gibbon 88 smaller 2-way floorstander.
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CES 2018
Audioengine A5+ Wireless Speakers
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jan 14, 2018  |  0 comments
The wireless version of Audioengine's highly regarded A5+ loudspeakers ($499/pair in black or white, $569 in bamboo) uses aptX HD Bluetooth to transmit signals up to 24/48…
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CES 2018
Excellence from AMG, DS Audio, Musical Surroundings, and more
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jan 14, 2018  |  0 comments
Beautiful and warm sound, gorgeous midrange, absolutely quiet surfaces with silence between the notes—these were some of my impressions upon hearing Natalie Merchant's performance of "The Butcher's Boy," from the LP version of Kronos Quartet's Folk Songs, on this brightly backlit, hard to photograph system from Musical Surroundings.
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CES 2018
Soundots
Jon Iverson  |  Jan 14, 2018  |  13 comments
This is hands down my favorite new "Concept of Show". Here is a small powered speaker coming out of Sweden that has some surprising tricks up its sleeve. You can see from the photo that these are not big speakers, but they have a unique method of overcoming this limitation.
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CES 2018
Klipsch Heritage Series
Jon Iverson  |  Jan 14, 2018  |  4 comments
"All products in the Heritage Series are built in the Klipsch factory in Hope Arkansas," the company's Kerry Geist begins. Klipsch has chosen to only demo the Heritage stuff here in the Venetian, with the bulk of their contemporary line back at the main convention center. And the room is quite crowded, so they clearly understand their demographic.
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CES 2018
Heady Sound from PSB and NAD
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jan 14, 2018  |  0 comments
Paul Barton of PSB was on hand to demonstrate the RoomFeel technology he uses in his headphones. "Headphone listeners listen to recorded music that was designed to be heard in a room," he said. Therefore, his RoomFeel technology adds a simulated room response to music.
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CES 2018
New from Esoteric
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jan 14, 2018  |  1 comments
Esoteric's N-01 network player ($20,000), which debuted at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in October, is now equipped to decode MQA. It was part of a system that produced very direct, fast sound and that, on LP, rendered Ray Charles' voice with exceptional clarity.
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CES 2018
Vandersteen Audio M5-HPA Monoblock Amplifier
Jon Iverson  |  Jan 14, 2018  |  1 comments
Richard Vandersteen, hailing from Hanford, California, was on hand to show off his new creation, the M5-HPA monoblock amplifier. Vandersteen notes that this is a high-pass amplifier, not intended to go full-range, for a system that would also include a subwoofer. The selectable high pass settings are 20Hz, 40Hz, 80Hz, 100Hz or 200Hz. The 80 and 100 Hz settings are optimized to work with Vandersteen subwoofers.
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