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Details: Written by: Administrator; Category: Photos; Created: 10 September 2011

Companies featured in gallery below: AudioQuest, MartinLogan, Sonus Faber, Monitor Audio, Atlantic Technology, GoldenEar Technology, Velodyne, Monster

All prices in US dollars unless otherwise indicated

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Features; Created: 10 September 2011

Anyone who's followed me around an audio show knows that my short attention span precludes me from sitting through a demo that's four minutes long, let alone one that's 40 minutes. But that's the amount of time it took for QuantumLogic Surround Lab's demonstration in Harman International's mobile sound room, which was parked at the back of the exhibit hall.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Features; Created: 10 September 2011

Not that many people know how to throw a great party, and likewise, not many companies know how to make a great trade-show exhibit. Most of the booths and displays I saw at CEDIA Expo 2011 were dark, drab, and really ho-hum, but two really stood out this time: KEF and Digital Projection, for quite different reasons.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Features; Created: 09 September 2011

Most audio reviewers get excited about the really expensive equipment -- the stuff that costs in excess of ten grand. Invariably, that's what they look for at shows. It's the kind of gear that most people can't afford, so maybe this fixation lets these reviewers live in a fantasy world of lavish expense. On the other hand, I get really charged up about the affordable gear because it represents what I can buy. Fantasizing, at least for me, isn't all that much fun -- I want the real thing to be within my reach.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Features; Created: 09 September 2011

Light traffic is a good thing if you're talking about roads and freeways. In fact, in Indianapolis the road traffic is lighter than I've ever seen in any major city, making it a snap to get from the Courtyard Marriot near the airport, which is where we're stationed, to downtown, which is where CEDIA Expo is. It's almost as if everyone in the city left just to make it easier for us out-of-towners to get around. We like that.

Details: Written by: Administrator; Category: Photos; Created: 09 September 2011

Companies featured in gallery below: Audio Research, NAD, Definitive Technology, Devialet, Focal, Steinway Lyngdorf

All prices in US dollars unless otherwise indicated

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Features; Created: 08 September 2011

It's been a while since we've heard much from Canada's Anthem, which is a subsidiary of Paradigm, Canada's largest and best-known speaker manufacturer. That changed just a couple of days before CEDIA Expo 2011, when the company sent out a press release about the new Statement M1 monoblock amplifier, which retails for $3500. It's a doozie, even if at first glance it doesn't impress. The design is basic black with styling similar to other Anthem products, but when I read the specs, my jaw dropped.

Details: Written by: Administrator; Category: Photos; Created: 08 September 2011

Companies featured in gallery below: Bryston, Anthem, Paradigm, ParadigmShift, PSB, Polk Audio, Totem Acoustic, Bowers & Wilkins, KEF, Energy

All prices in US dollars unless otherwise indicated

Details: Written by: Administrator; Category: Photos; Created: 22 May 2011

Companies featured in gallery below: NAD, Vandersteen, Siltech, NuForce, Ascendo, VTL, German Physiks, SurrounTec, Vienna Acoustics, Audio Resolution, Ultrasone, Zellaton, TW-Acustic

All prices in euros unless otherwise indicated

Details: Written by: Jeff Fritz; Category: Features; Created: 22 May 2011

Three preamplifiers, six power amplifiers, two integrated amps, two CD players, four loudspeaker models, a complete line of cables, power distribution, phono stages, spikes and demagnetization devices, and even racks as well as furniture. Gryphon Audio Designs of Denmark can assemble a number of complete audio systems using only their components. Although the breadth of their offerings is large, what's most impressive is the high quality with which they do it all. What's more, it's all designed and built in Denmark to world-class standards and then sold worldwide.

Details: Written by: Administrator; Category: Videos; Created: 22 May 2011

Without question, one of the fastest-growing segments of the market has to do with computer audio and music-server devices. At High End 2011, Austria’s Pro-Ject Audio Systems showed the new Stream Box SE, which retails for 700€ and has a wealth of features including support for 24-bit/192kHz playback and high-resolution USB. What’s kind of ironic about Pro-Ject offering such an innovative device is that the company is best known for turntables!

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Features; Created: 22 May 2011

One of the things that irked us this year had nothing to do with the show. Instead, it was our beloved digs, Fleming's Hotel, which is where we stay every year.

Fleming's Hotel is located in the Schwabing district, which is close to the event center and closer yet to all the best restaurants. The place was as clean as it has been in the past and the breakfasts were good, but the water temperature in the shower kept fluctuating and the Internet kept cutting out. This isn't just irritating; it disrupts your work life.

Details: Written by: Administrator; Category: Videos; Created: 21 May 2011

KEF’s new Blade speaker is as big of a hit at High End 2011 as the Concept Blade was when they unveiled it here two years ago. It not only took some radical thinking to conceive of the idea for the Blade’s overall design, but also some innovative technology to put it into production and make it work. In this video SoundStage! Network publisher Doug Schneider talks to KEF’s Johan Coorg, who discusses the Blade’s technical details and explains how the unique five-driver array works and why they call it “Single Apparent Source.”

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Features; Created: 21 May 2011

Hegel's Bent Holter has some opinions about asynchronous USB connections that are sure to throw audiophiles into a tizzy, stir up some controversy, and cause some to say that it's flat-out heresy. Bent is the chief designer at Hegel, a Norwegian company with a 30-year track record. Bent believes that while an asynchronous USB connection can be a good way to transfer music data from a computer to a DAC, it's not the only way and it might not be the best way -- a claim that runs contrary to the thoughts of many who feel that asynchronous USB connections represent the holy grail of low-jitter data transfer.

Details: Written by: Administrator; Category: Photos; Created: 21 May 2011

Companies featured in gallery below: Crystal Cable, Amphion, Vitus Audio, Nordost/QRT, Acapella Audio Arts, Kharma, Kawero!, Purist Audio Design, Trilogy, YBA, Shunyata Research

All prices in euros unless otherwise indicated

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Features; Created: 21 May 2011

Previously, I wrote about three lavish stand-mounted speakers that I described as "sinfully sensational." I called them sinful because of how expensive they are, and I called them sensational because they're so darn cool. But being sensational isn't limited to expensive products; ironically, the product that caught my eye today is one of the cheapest I've seen at this show: the tricked-out NuForce uDAC-2.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Features; Created: 21 May 2011

From comments that I hear, I'm led to believe that many people think two things about me: 1) I favor mostly two-way, stand-mounted (i.e., bookshelf) speakers, and 2) I like only cheap stuff.

Details: Written by: Jeff Fritz; Category: Features; Created: 21 May 2011

In a previous article, I made a big deal about the fact that more and more serious speaker companies are now building their own drivers. Another example is Raidho Acoustics from Denmark, and their flagship C4.0 speaker (85,000€ per pair) was making some mighty fine music in Munich. In the case of Raidho, their driver designs consist of a proprietary sealed ribbon tweeter along with ceramic cone drivers of varying sizes featuring neodymium magnet systems. The result is a trademark sound that's both full and detailed, expertly walking the fine line between "musical" and revealing.

Details: Written by: Administrator; Category: Videos; Created: 20 May 2011

Do USB and FireWire cables make a difference? In this video, SoundStage! Network publisher Doug Schneider talks to AudioQuest's director of marketing, Steve Silberman, about the performance benefits that can come from using high-quality USB and FireWire cables that, in the case of AudioQuest, range in price from $30 to $650.

Details: Written by: Jeff Fritz; Category: Features; Created: 20 May 2011

There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when small speaker companies could not compete in specific aspects of loudspeaker design with large speaker companies. For instance, even five years ago it was almost impossible to find a specialist high-end speaker manufacturer that designed its own drive units. When I say "design," I don’t mean using modified drivers (or ordering custom drivers to spec or having a name stamped on the chassis by the OEM), I mean drivers engineered from the ground up by the company for the company. That's not to say that good results can’t be had having someone else do that work. But wouldn’t a company always be limited, to even a small degree, because they aren’t in complete control of their project? With recent advances in computer simulation software along with some highly specialized in-house engineering, a number of small companies are now operating on a world-class level in every aspect of the design process, including driver design.

High-end speaker making has officially graduated from its hobbyist roots.