CES 2018

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.

Seen in passive display, Transparent's new XL PowerIsolator, aka XLPI ($7995 including a $2400 Transparent XL 2m power cable with 20 amp connector), sits right below Transparent's Opus PowerIsolator. With 4 outlets in isolated banks of 2 outlets each, it is claimed to deliver unrestricted, in-phase power to all audio components, including high-current amplifiers. It also provides integrated Network Source Protection compatible with Gigabit Ethernet and PoE, hydraulic-magnetic circuit protection, and avalanche diode failsafe surge protection. In the event of a volcanic eruption, run.

VTL has finally released its long-promised TP-2.5i phono preamplifier ($3750). A completely redesigned replacement for the venerable 2.5, which was in production for close to two decades, its upgrades include shunt regulation and technology trickled down—oh, how I hate that phrase—from VTL's flagship TP-6.5 phono stage. JFET/tube hybrid circuitry is used for the MC stage, and all-tube circuitry for the MM stage. It has what VTL calls "enhanced" RIAA compensation and a front-panel-switchable filter/mono function.

Crystal Cable isn't new to the "portable cable" market—it has manufactured cables for Astell&Kern for the past three years—but its new Crystal Duet (€700 for 1.2 meters) is the first such cable branded and marketed under their own name.

Kanto has just emerged in the market this past year with a series of three powered bookshelf speakers, a pair of subwoofers and two styles of stands. The company is based in Coquitlam, BC, Canada, and marketing manager Brett Smalley ran through the line.

If there is one thing that raises the hackles of engineers, it is audiophiles' insistence that power cords affect sound quality. But at CES, AudioQuest's Garth Powell (right in photo, with AQ's Alex Brinkmann) was showing how changing just one cable in a system, the one connecting a Simaudio Moon CD player to a Niagara 700 power conditioner, could make or break the system's sound quality. Playing a track from Muddy Waters' Folk Singer, with Moon amplification and Magico S1 Mk.2 speakers, and without changing the volume, Garth compared AudioQuest's new Thunder cable ($700) with AC cables from other companies priced up to $18,000, culminating with the AudioQuest Dragon ($4000).

Slated for release in the next several months, the "Be" indicates beryllium tweeters. Harman's Todd Eichenbaum explained that all of the drivers in the new series are updated from the original performa series.