One hundred and ninety-nine thousand dollars isn't quite enough to buy a detached home in my city any longer, but it is enough to buy a decent condo or a townhouse, and it's way more than enough to buy one of the most amazing sports cars you can imagine and be envied by almost every guy in the city. It’s also enough to buy one of the worst loudspeakers I’ve heard in years: the Venture Xtreme, priced at exactly what I just said for a pair.
Mirage's original M1 loudspeaker was released in about 1987 and is considered by many to be a legend. Back then, the Mirage brand was owned by Canada's Audio Products International (API), and the M1 looked like the Monolith from 2001. All that's changed.
Polk Audio has significantly redesigned their top-of-the-line LSi series of loudspeakers and dubbed them LSiM. Even with all of the new upgrades, the price of a pair of bookshelf speakers starts at only $1500 and goes up to $4000 for a pair of their largest floorstanders.
You would think that someone would have figured out a way to future-proof surround processors and receivers. Most surround-sound components become obsolete as soon as a new type of audio or video processing is introduced, requiring the consumer to upgrade by purchasing a new unit if they want to remain at the leading edge of technology.
Companies featured in gallery below: Simaudio Moon, Differential Technology, Copland, Audience, Clearaudio, Musical Fidelity, GutWire, Peachtree Audio, Roksan, Audio Technica, Sennheiser, Sonus Faber, Sony, Totem Acoustic
For $15,000, consumers should expect to get a pair of loudspeakers that are extremely well built, beautiful looking, and incredible sounding. All told, a speaker that costs this much should be amazing and, perhaps, even approach the state of the art. Case in point: Vivid Audio's B1, which won our 2010 Pioneering Design Achievement award.
Vegas is a place where almost nothing is free and few things are cheap. The exception to this rule is Wi-Fi, at least at the Venetian.
There's a well-known saying: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. We now have another one: What you buy in Vegas will be many times as expensive in Vegas.
Let's get down to brass tacks and talk results. Here is what I heard from the Super Speakers of CES 2011.
There's a fine balance between humility, genius, and arrogance. High-end audio is full of people who profess to genius, who make their careers by claiming to have special insight into electronics or speaker design.
Back in 2008 I reviewed the Crystal Cable Arabesque all-glass speaker and found it to be the most thrilling product that I've ever covered. It sounded fantastic, and just look at the thing -- it’s drop-dead sexy and absolutely unique!
You have to admire aspiration and vision. The renderings for Verity Audio's new Monsalvat loudspeaker ($325,000 per pair) show truly inspired thinking. It's simply beautiful. Not beautiful as in a really good-looking loudspeaker, but beautiful as art in and of itself.
Companies featured in gallery below: Crystal Cable, Anthony Gallo Acoustics, Focus Audio, Vitus Audio, Esoteric, Bel Canto Design, Zanden Audio, Eximus, Convergent Audio Technology, dCS, Constellation Audio, M2Tech
Companies featured in gallery below: Alpha Design Labs, Furutech, DH Labs, Essential Sound Products, Genesis Advanced Technologies, Estelon, MSB Technology, Venture, Volent, Beyerdynammic, Sherbourn, Cambridge Audio, Audio Aero, Avalon Acoustics, Boulder Amplifiers, Hi-Fi Tuning, EgglestonWorks
We'd just finished presenting the crew from Ayre Acoustics with the 2010 Product of the Year award in the electronics category for the MX-R mono amplifiers and KX-R preamplifier when we noticed the new VX-R stereo amplifier, which is sure to be a hit with audiophiles worldwide.
SoundStage! Network contributor Roger Kanno goes by the nickname Mr. Las Vegas. He knows every slot-club and coupon deal in the city, he's mapped out shortcuts through each casino, and he's established quality ratings for every hotel buffet. So when it comes to CES meals and event planning, he's our man.
Rarely do I hear anything at a show that makes me sit up and take notice like the PSB Imagine Mini did. But after hearing it, I couldn't wait to get back to my SoundStage! Network colleagues and tell them how good PSB's new Imagine Mini sounded.
Companies featured in gallery below: Bryston, Jones Audio, Lamm Industries, NuForce, Parasound, Tidal Audio, Usher Audio, YG Acoustics, Audio Power Labs, Magico, Dan D'Agostino
The Paradigm Atom loudspeaker has been one of my favorite budget recommendations for many years. Paradigm is now set to introduce an active version of the Atom called A2.
The world is perverse and it thrives on irony. Today I went into the Venetian hotel, home of CES's high-performance exhibits, looking for the rich vein of analog gear that I just knew would be threaded through the entire show.
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