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CES 05

CES comments...
In the Sutherland room were the Avalon Vision at 23K, one of only two pair in the Universe and they sounded superb with the VPI HRX. Alison Krauss sounded nearly as good as she did live last year. I have always liked the Avalon sound...clean, delicate and very open with great dimensional contrasts. Sutherland knows how to do phono right.
Cary Audio:There was magic being made in the Cary room. The piano music being played was full of weight and body and demanded to be listened till the piece was over. I liked this room very well.
Threshold:Good news is that Threshold is making gear again and in the Threshold tradition they made great music. The Threshold S/3700e was listed at 3500.00. The system was used with Cardas Neutral Reference interconnect and Speaker cable.
Sound Lab: The M1 SL speakers with the Parasound JC1's provided a grand liquid sound that was very musical. I spoke with John Curl for some time and I was very impressed with the engineering effort that went into the JC1's.
jallen
trelja
3,223 posts
 
Excellent reports Jallen and Metralla! Thank you!!!
the_kid's avatar
the_kid
465 posts
 
Thanks so much for all the great information from the show!

Cheers,

Chris
golden_ears
224 posts
 
Metralla reports from the Avant Garde room:

"I really wanted to hear the Zanden combination, but the folks in the AvantGarde room claimed that their Zanden transport + DAC was too "green" to show off their system to the best; and they used a 32 bit Audio Aero."

Oh sure, so they brought a brand new component, not broken-in yet to the largest CES in the world? I don't think so!
Oh my goodness, like, what else would they have said? Certainly not the truth, that the Audio Aero kicked the Zanden's butt!
metralla
945 posts
 
Thanks Golden_ears. You could be right. I've got to learn to be a little less trusting. I did hear the Zanden combination the previous year in the Audiopax room at THE Show, and I was suitably impressed with the sound in that room. I did want to hear it again; I think the DAC has been revised.

There were quite a few Audio Aero machines at CES this year, and that says something.

Regards,
tbg
5,263 posts
 
The many Audio Aeros may merely say that they made them available to all. I would be shocked were the Audio Aero the equal of the Zanden setup, not that I think either are top digital units.
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