Latest Updates
- Details
- Written by Brent Butterworth Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events Shows-Events
- Created: 11 January 2018 11 January 2018
CES 2018: Wireless Speakers
Much of the talk at the 2018 CES centered on wireless speakers. But there wasn’t much discussion of the speakers themselves; it was more around the voice-command systems, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, that many of the latest models use. Of course, I saw plenty of new wireless speakers using only Bluetooth, but most of the ones getting attention had Wi-Fi as well as some variety of voice-command.
- Details
- Written by Roger Kanno Roger Kanno
- Parent Category: Shows-Events Shows-Events
- Created: 10 January 2018 10 January 2018
CES 2018: Roger Finds Audiophile Speakers
As expected at this year’s CES, the high-end audio exhibitors were primarily restricted to one floor of the Venetian hotel -- and the exhibitors that were there didn’t even fill the entire floor (companies from other industries were located in some of the suites). But I was still able to find some interesting speakers on my first day at the show, including a couple that were offsite at the Hard Rock Hotel, where Harman (the parent company of JBL and Revel, among other brands) was exhibiting in addition to having a suite at the Venetian. All prices in USD.
- Details
- Written by Brent Butterworth Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events Shows-Events
- Created: 10 January 2018 10 January 2018
CES 2018: Headphones, Part 1
The annual CES in Las Vegas is probably the best place in the world to experience a wide variety of headphones. Shows like CanJam probably have more high-end models, but the offerings at CES typically run from under $20 to well over $2000.
- Details
- Written by Brent Butterworth Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events Shows-Events
- Created: 09 January 2018 09 January 2018
CES 2018: CES Unveiled
CES Unveiled is the first major event of the CES show, which runs through Friday of this week in Las Vegas. The 2018 Unveiled took place Sunday night, packing a predicted 1500 journalists and 100 tech companies together into a large ballroom at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. While a few large companies show up, it’s mostly small companies who might be missed in the maelstrom of CES’s main show floors.
- Details
- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Parent Category: Product Debuts Product Debuts
- Created: 08 January 2018 08 January 2018
Magico A3 Loudspeaker -- the Sound
Magico’s founder, Alon Wolf, isn’t the kind of person to say things just to appease you; he’ll tell you what he thinks with absolutely no softness in his delivery. It’s hard, just like the metal used in the cabinets of his speakers. For example, he’s told me that my Canon camera is crap, my recommendation of the 2013 movie Gravity is a “stain on my résumé,” and that my high praise for a well-regarded two-way standmounted speaker that many other writers also like is an embarrassment. Don’t talk to him if you’re easily offended.
- Details
- Written by Brent Butterworth Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events Shows-Events
- Created: 07 January 2018 07 January 2018
AISE 2018: The Craziest (and Maybe Best) Speaker in Vegas This Week
The attendees at the ALMA International Symposium and Expo (AISE) 2018, held this week in Las Vegas, are mostly audio product design and testing professionals. Having heard and tested almost everything, they’re more skeptical of new technologies than attendees at an ordinary audio show might be. So when a friend of mine who’s a veteran of the audio measurement industry insisted I go hear a new speaker technology being demoed at a suite in the South Point Hotel, which hosted AISE, I figured I’d better go. I’m really glad I did.
- Details
- Written by Brent Butterworth Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events Shows-Events
- Created: 07 January 2018 07 January 2018
AISE 2018: New Materials for Headphones
When I saw a seminar titled “What’s New in Headphone Technology” on the schedule for ALMA International Symposium and Expo (AISE) 2018 -- an audio convention aimed at engineers and product developers that precedes the January CES in Las Vegas -- I naturally thought I’d be hearing about such topics as advanced digital sound processing and new methods of noise canceling. But there wasn’t a word about electronics. The presentation, by Mike Klasco, president of consulting firm Menlo Scientific, dealt entirely with new materials that could improve headphone performance.
- Details
- Written by Brent Butterworth Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events Shows-Events
- Created: 07 January 2018 07 January 2018
AISE 2018: New Ways to Measure Headphone Noise Canceling
The Association of Loudspeaker Manufacturing and Acoustics (ALMA) hosts its annual convention, the ALMA International Symposium and Expo (AISE) every year in the days leading up to CES, held each January in Las Vegas. AISE 2018 kicked off today at the South Point Hotel with a full slate of seminars targeted at audio product engineering and measurement professionals. During the first day alone, I found myself involved in more fascinating discussions about audio than I’d normally experience in a year’s worth of audio shows.
- Details
- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Parent Category: Product Debuts Product Debuts
- Created: 28 December 2017 28 December 2017
Magico A3 Loudspeaker -- the Concept
There’s no shortage of high-end loudspeaker companies whose products few people can afford. Five- and six-figure speakers from these companies line the halls of almost every hi-fi show I go to, with an occasional seven-figure model showing up from time to time. That’s all well and good, but when I see these loudspeakers I can’t help but ask, how many actually get sold? After all, that’s a lot of money for just loudspeakers.
- Details
- Written by Howard Kneller Howard Kneller
- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio BloggingOnAudio
- Created: 18 December 2017 18 December 2017
YG Acoustics Sonja 2.2 at GTT Audio
It was only a matter of time before some of the technologies behind YG Acoustics’ two-tower Sonja XV (extreme version) flagship speaker system ($265,900 USD/pr.) trickled down to one of the company’s lower-priced model lines. That’s exactly what has happened with the new Sonja 2.2 speaker ($76,800/pr.), which YG introduced to the press in early December at Bill Parish’s GTT Audio & Video, located in Long Valley, New Jersey. I was fortunate to be treated to my own private listening session during what has become an annual pilgrimage to GTT in order to hear YG’s newest speaker design.
- Details
- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Parent Category: Audio Video Show 2017 Audio Video Show 2017
- Created: 20 November 2017 20 November 2017
Audio Video Show 2017: Warsaw's World-Class Hi-Fi Show and Poland's Budding Hi-Fi Industry
It’s November 19, 10:30 p.m., and I’m in my hotel room writing this article, knowing that the same thing that happened last year just happened again -- we weren’t able to cover all of Audio Video Show (AVS) the way we wanted to. I wish we could’ve done so much more . . .
- Details
- Written by Super User Super User
- Parent Category: Audio Video Show 2017 Audio Video Show 2017
- Created: 19 November 2017 19 November 2017
Audio Video Show 2017: Product Coverage Gallery 3
Companies featured in gallery below: Symphony, Gold Note, Trenner & Friedl, Fezz Audio, Aurelia, Amare Musica, Fram Audio, Tri-Art Audio, Buchardt, Luxman, Ubiq Audio, Muarak, Eryk S Concept, Audio Hungary
- Details
- Written by Brent Butterworth Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Audio Video Show 2017 Audio Video Show 2017
- Created: 19 November 2017 19 November 2017
Audio Video Show 2017: Headphones and Headphone Amps
Poland isn’t exactly a nexus of the headphone biz, perhaps because neighboring Germany plays such an outsized role in that industry. Yet Warsaw’s Audio Video Show 2017 did reveal a couple of Poland-based companies striving to make their mark in headphones or headphone amps, as well as a couple of big-name products we haven’t yet had a chance to report on. Here are the new headphones, earphones, and headphone amps we saw, with prices listed in euros (€), US dollars ($), or Polish zlotys (zł).
- Details
- Written by Super User Super User
- Parent Category: Audio Video Show 2017 Audio Video Show 2017
- Created: 19 November 2017 19 November 2017
Audio Video Show 2017: Product Coverage Gallery 2
Companies featured in gallery below: Boenicke Audio, Sigma Acoustics, Gauder Akustik, Döhmann, Thrax Audio, Holophony, Closer Acoustics, Shape of Sound, Yayuma Audio, Monolith Audio, Genuin Audio
- Details
- Written by Super User Super User
- Parent Category: Audio Video Show 2017 Audio Video Show 2017
- Created: 18 November 2017 18 November 2017
Audio Video Show 2017: Product Coverage Gallery 1
Companies featured in gallery below: Metaxas and Sins, Sonus Faber, Audio Research, Blumenhofer Acoustics, Mytek, Zeta Zero, SoulSonic, Natural Sound, Esa Loudspeakers, Furutech, MySound, Dynaudio, Pivetta
- Details
- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Parent Category: Audio Video Show 2017 Audio Video Show 2017
- Created: 17 November 2017 17 November 2017
Audio Video Show 2017: Sonus Faber Aida 2017 Debut
“Aida is Aida and it’s timeless,” Sonus Faber industrial designer Livio Cucuzza told me. His statement goes a long way to explain why the newest version of the Aida loudspeaker, which was unveiled in the largest display room at the Warsaw National Stadium location of Audio Video Show 2017, looks pretty much the same as the one that debuted in 2011. “Cosmetically, no big changes—just updated the front and rear baffles,” he added. He also said that in addition to the Red and Walnut finishes of the existing Aida, the new model is now available in a dark-brown Wenge finish, which debuted at Munich’s High End 2017 in the company’s Homage series.
- Details
- Written by Brent Butterworth Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events Shows-Events
- Created: 10 October 2017 10 October 2017
RMAF 2017: Grab Bag
At the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver, Colorado, there are always lots of products that don’t fit the categories I usually focus on, but which merit audiophiles’ attention nonetheless. Here are the most interesting ones I found, from headphone pads and AC regenerators to things that are way too complicated to describe in one sentence. All prices in USD.
- Details
- Written by Brent Butterworth Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events Shows-Events
- Created: 10 October 2017 10 October 2017
RMAF 2017: Headphones and Earphones, Part 2
A big part of the 2017 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest is the CanJam show, which focuses on headphones and headphone amps and accessories. CanJam filled a large ballroom and a section of the main floor at the Denver Marriott Tech Center in Denver, Colorado. Here’s the second part of my coverage of new headphones and earphones at RMAF, with all prices in USD.
- Details
- Written by Brent Butterworth Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events Shows-Events
- Created: 09 October 2017 09 October 2017
RMAF 2017: Audio Electronics, Part 2
Here’s the second part of my coverage of the new audio electronics introduced at the 2017 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. All prices in USD.
- Details
- Written by Brent Butterworth Brent Butterworth
- Parent Category: Shows-Events Shows-Events
- Created: 09 October 2017 09 October 2017
RMAF 2017: Audio Electronics, Part 1
The 2017 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest showcased a wide variety of new audio products shown for the very first time in public (or at least for the first time in the US). Of course, there were lots of new amplifiers and other audio electronics on display. I probably saw only a fraction of them, but here’s the first batch of electronic components that most caught my interest, with all prices in USD.
Most-Read Last 90 Days
- Audeze's CRBN: An Actual Game-Changer in High-End Headphones?
- Exploring the Heart of the SVS SB16-Ultra Subwoofer: An Interview with Smith Freeman
- The Technics SU-R1000: Fully Digital Tour de Force Integrated Amplifier Plays Records
- Unboxing the SVS SB16-Ultra Subwoofer
- Temple Audio: In a Class of its Own
- CanJam SoCal 2021: Part 1
- CanJam SoCal 2021: Part 2
- Pairing the SVS SB16-Ultra Subwoofer with My Monitor Audio Speakers
- Toronto Audiofest 2021—Keeping it Safe
- Evaluating the SVS SB16-Ultra Subwoofer