Anything exciting at CES?

Tireguy: Not me, but every story has a happy ending :)

Justacoder: I wish you would have introduced yourself to me, I would have enjoyed meeting you. BTW, Since I stopped using the Extrema's, my electric bill halved. :)

Vegasears and Sean,
The Apex was designed as a mid-lo end player, the Pioneer is not. The Pioneer, and the Apex too, use separate chips for DSD and DVD decoding , so there is no problem at all doing the digital decoding properly (verified this with Pioneer at their booth). Whether the d/a conversion, clocking circuitry and output paths are up to snuff for all source types remains to be seen. However, the Pioneer is clearly aimed at high end, since they have designed in a removable power cord and room correction EQ in the separate processor. Further, they have a full year's experience and feedback after their first universal player a year ago. Let's hope that this is the beginning of a new era in hi-rez.

Various models of Soundlab speakers are easily mistaken. Just to set the record straight: The speakers in the Soundlab, Wolcott room were not the $ 32,000.00 U-1's, but rather the $14,000.00, M-1's.

Thank you Albert, my mistake. I know how good that room should and could have sounded, that is why it upset me so much.

They should demo at your house next year.... Chez Porter!

I also thank you, Albert; you were the second person to correct my mistake in the trip report - I will post a corrected version over on the Asylum after awhile (this can't be the only, factual, mistake we made).

However good or bad the Sound Lab room sounded - the speakers potential showed through clearly, and we were suitably impressed (and, given that they are the M-1 and not the U-1, the price/performance ratio is amazing).