Jason Victor Serinus

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the producer of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), has finally confirmed the rumors that have been circulating for many weeks: The industry sector that CEA terms "high-performance audio" will move from its customary venue at the Alexis Villas (originally the Alexis Park) to the Venetian Hotel in 2007. In addition, "high-performance audio" and "high-performance home theater" will now be represented under the same umbrella.

As usual with shows of this type, many of the systems demoed at FSI cost tens of thousands of dollars. However, Angie Lisi of Audiopathic, distributor of some stratospherically-priced equipment, made it a point to assemble a relatively affordable yet highly musical-sounding system, consisting of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/integratedamps/1299manley">Manley Stingray</A> integrated amp ($2250), <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/1104totem">Totem Rainmaker</A> speakers ($1198/pair), and an Accuphase CD player. Oh, did you want to know the price of the CD player? Umm&mdash;$6995. When I pointed out to Angie the incongruousness of having this expensive CD player as part of the system, she replied&mdash;somewhat sheepishly, I thought&mdash;"It was the cheapest CD player I had around."

Dan Wright of ModWright started out modifying CD/SACD players and D/A converters (I still use the ModWright version of the Perpetual Technologies D/A converter), and his success in this area has encouraged him to come out with products of his own. New at the show was the SWLP 9.0SE prototype phono+line stage preamp (about US$4000).

Bang & Olufsen, a company that usually gives audio/home entertainment shows a wide berth, had an extensive display, featuring their futuristic-looking omnidirectional speakers. I enjoyed the sound&mdash;maybe because they were playing Frank Sinatra.

The big news at this years Festival Son & Image (FSI, aka "The Montreal Show")
was the change in venue. After many years at the Delta Hotel in downtown Montreal, the Show moved this year to another downtown hotel, the Sheraton Montreal.

A new Massive Attack album and <I>The Belfast Telegraph</I> breaks the story. "We don't like each other very much. It's always been quite tempestuous for us in the studio&mdash;we always seem to lose a member after every album," says Grant Marshall.

New study: <I>High Times</I> is not a gateway publication to hard reading.