Anything exciting at CES?


I wasn't able to go this year. What caught your ear (or eyes) at CES? Is there anything that you'd consider a breakthrough product? And why?
brianw
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.
Thanks for your perspective on the Acapellas. I did not think we were the of the type that go for 'lush and polite', but I guess we do own Extremas... :-)

I am sorry we did not get a chance to get back to hear the Rockports after you guys got them setup the way you wanted them.. **sigh** Hopefully next time we will be slightly more efficent with our CES room traversal algorithm.
Vegasears, the bottom line about the Pioneer is "does it sound good, on ALL sources" ? Sound and Vision just reviewed the Apex "all in one" multi source digital player and it is a piece of junk ( much as i suspected ). I have a hard time believing that they could fit all of the proper decoding devices into one box, do it neatly and optimize each circuit for the ultimate in performance. That is, doing it and keeping the price somewhat reasonable. Then again, the times, they are a-changin'. Sean
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