CES 2004 Best of Show

I too liked the Halcro/Wilson room. Although some of the recordings had voices comming from behind us, most of the multi-channel recordings were good. The system was in a great room which helped a lot. I also liked the Ascendant speaker by Avalon. They gave a deep spacious sound for chump-change (10k) compared to the Wilson/Halcro 250k system and was a welcome price tag. The CD Duevel speaker was very interesting and I would like to hear more. It was an omnidirectional 2-way-fullrangehorn. They had a 91db sensit., 40-20khz response, and are made in Germany. They had a wide sweet spot and were fast and dynamic. A bit of bite in the upper midrange was the only flaw I heard. Digital was playing so I don't know where the bite was comming from. Analog is a better source for me to hear systems with. The Vandersteen 5 was also good. The Lamm system was also very warm, spacious and great sounding ( solid state system). The Gilmore system was there in the flesh minus the ad flesh...I had to see if she made it there. No luck this year, maybe next year. O yes, the system driven by Atmasphere sounded pretty good, but not as good as the Audio Artistry system several years ago with the open baffle design. A good year, I will be back. How about an Audiogon dinner one night so those Audiogon members who attend can compare notes at the show? Jallen

Jls3, I too thought the TADs were impressive, but I did not think they played music. I very much sought them out for a listen and left thinking I no longer needed to find the money for them.

I always loved the tweeter on the Acapellas.

I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned the BAT listening room setup with a two channel system with Avalon speakers up front. To my ears their setup stands up well against any two channel system at the show.

Many fine rooms. Silverline Sonata II was awesome. There was an Indian maker of exotic looking speakers, name sounds like Rythm, sound was incredibly beautiful. Joseph Audio and Cary rooms were wonderful. Thiel 2.4's integrated with their subwoofer amazingly well, best high end audio sub integration I've ever heard. Many small exotic vendors (mainly at THE show) with extremely efficient speakers sounded wonderful. Granite's demonstration room sounded fantastic. I loved the Gilmore sound but my friends did not, go figure. Buggtussel (spelling?) showed very well.

My friend loved the Harbeth room, I thought it was nice. Ref 3a's have sounded better to me, not sure what was wrong. Lot's of tube gear and LP at this show, very heartening.

New model Proac, I forget if it was D25 or D38, did not sound so good to me, but I've loved Proacs in my home before while not liking them at shows. Bel Canto - I LOVE their 845 tube SET stuff but at this show they demonstrated their solid state gear, which continues to strike me as grainy in the highs.

I attended Thursday and Friday, attendance did seem a bit light, I figured it would pick up over the weekend.

Great show! (We never even got to the porn star awards show across the street!)

Art