Jason Victor Serinus

KEF has just upped the ante on the LS50W, the wireless version of its lauded LS50 bookshelf speaker, with the release of the LS50W Nocturne Special Edition ($2499.99/pair). Engineered by KEF Head of Acoustics Jack Oclee-Brown and sporting an eye-catching design by Dutch Designer Marcel Wanders—I regret that my photo fails to capture all the graphic detail on KEF's Uni-Q driver and cabinet—the LS50W Nocturne Edition will be available on January 15.

Sitting next to its big brother DAC/transport combo, Chord Mezzo 75 amplifier (75Wpc into 4 ohms, $4995), and new Spendor A2 loudspeakers ($2395/pair) was the diminutive new Chord Qutest DAC ($1795).

Chord Electronics, distributed by Bluebird Music, took pride of place in two systems in their multi-chambered suite on the 35th floor…

For John Atkinson and me, CES began with a trip to the Hi-Res Pavilion in the Las Vegas Convention Center's enormous Central Hall. John must have been a dog in a past lifetime, because his ability to find the booth in the middle of that huge glittering morass, which could be euphemistically characterized as high tech on steroids, smacked of a sixth sense.

It may look like any other smartphone, but LG's V30, shown by Vanessa Marrero, is smart enough to incorporate ESS's Sabre 32-bit Quad DAC…

With Mytek's Michal Jurewicz in the background, the company's Chebon Littlefield showed the new Clef high-resolution, MQA-equipped, Bluetooth-equipped, mobile USB DAC/headphone amplifier ($299).

With Warner, Universal Music Group, and Sony as major shareholders/partners, it's no wonder that MQA figured so prominently in the CES Hi-res pavilion. MQA wasn't everywhere—Qobuz hasn't seen fit to embrace it as yet, and the majority of audio manufacturers have yet to get on board—but it has certainly come to mobile phones and players.