Anything exciting at CES?

First, the sound of the Pipedreams at both the Alexis & the Tuscany rooms was HORRIBLE! One look at these towering monsters in the teeny Alexis room, and I knew why they didn't work. I've heard these properly set-up in a good showroom, and the sound was nothing like at the C.E.S. Can't tell you why they didn't work in the MUCH bigger Tuscany room, although Plinius wouldn't be my first choice of amp for these. They really do sound MUCH BETTER THAN THIS!!! Second, Avant Garde...you've got to be kidding!!! The horns do not blend well with the powered cone sub woofers...more appropriate for PA sound re-enforcement than home audiophile. I thought that the sound of the Moon Dogs was how a horn speaker should sound! Totally blew away the Duo's! And this with puny 3 watt 2A3 mono blocks. Third, the Capellas had excellent mid-range that seem to leave the rest of the frequency spectrum behind! But considering that they probably had to grease the tops of these behemoths to stuff them into a totally inadequate room, I imagine much of the problem would vanish with a proper listening environment!

Lornecherry: Thanks so much!

I suspect the bass is a little weak (compared to, say, big wilsons). They are 92db efficient. I've seen a waterfall graph of their tweeter, and it is absolutely amazing.

I also would love to hear the tenors with the pipedreams! All they had at the show was Marsh and Plinius, both solid state, and VAC.

Fatparrot: I heard the pipedreams in all 3 rooms at CES/Show, and thought their character was quite evident in al three (I agree that the Plinius room was the worst sound of the three).

Re: Avantgarde - I was refering to their dynamic capability. Live music is quite dynamic and I would like my speakers to be able to reproduce this aspect of the sound. I have found that, in general, highly efficient speakers are much better at this than low efficiency speakers.

Re: The Moon Dogs. Yeah, I went back to hear these a second time, being impressed the first time as well. Unfortunately, they were playing them too softly to tell much (except that the bass was somewhat reticent when played softly :-). They only go down to 40hz or so, which is a negative for us. What did you think of the Inner Ear room with the Tenors and Churchills?

Re: The Capellas. Thansk for your impressions. I(we) thought they did darn well considering, as you say, they had very little room in which to work (what, a 1 inch clearance between the tops of the speakers and the ceiling? :-) And so this was actually a plus for us - that they could produce decent sound in such an environment.

Re: the overall sound at the CES/Show... I think some of you people are too picky! :-) Most of the systems we hear at high-end dealer showrooms are no better (and often worse) than those we heard at the conference.

And I think the character of a system *should* show through regardless, and if it takes extensive setup and tweaking to get something to sound good (not great, just decent) - then, how do I say this, the system is inherently unstable: any slight change will make it sound bad again. And, personally, I do not want a 'persnickety system' - but maybe that is just me :-)

Lornecherry: I thought the Acapella's were very lush and polite sounding. The Audio Aero amps provided more than enough power for them. Really nice sound, just a different sound than I want in my listening room. I could easily see the sonic appeal for many people, just not what I would call "live like".

I spent most of my time on the 2nd floor of the Tuscany at the Tenor / Rockport / Audio Aero / Jena Labs / Machina Dynamica room where I was working (it did not feel like work), but I have to agree with Justacoder that all the rooms (acoustically) were much better than described. Each of the rooms had some great things going on...

Pipedreams / Plinius - Great dynamics and low distortion
Essence / Shunyata - Detail, speed and impact galore (A real surprise)
Kharma / Lamm - Fantastic transparency, texture and imaging
CAT / Wilson - Incredible soundstage and dynamics
Tenor / Rockport / Jena Labs - Incredible musicality, tonality and cohesiveness (my favorite, of course:)

The biggest disappointment for me was the SoundLabs room. I have heard these speakers sound so great and am a big fan. I am positive that they were not setup properly and this was definitely one system where the room hurt them a great deal.

Other rooms I enjoyed were, Musical Surroundings, Immedia, Audio Excellence AZ, Audio Aero's smaller room, and the Manger Swing room.

Shunyata did a demonstration with some new interconnects they are introducing shortly utilizing "stardust" technology. We listened first with the technology and then without. There was a very dramatic difference.

It was great to put faces with the names... Albert and Brian, you were having too much fun. Everyone was much younger than I thought. :)

Jonathan

Jonathan- Did you go for the massage that I have heard oh so much about already? lol, by the sounds of it I sure hope you did!
~Tim

I loved the Pioneer ELITE DV-47A multi format player. Darn thing does it all: SACD, DVD-A, DVD-V, Mp3, CD, Video CD, CD-R, CD-RW. Great way to bypass the format wars and enjoy the music.