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CEDIA Expo 2018: Speakers, Part 1

The annual CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association) Expo focuses on home automation and custom-installed audio/video systems. It’s a hot spot for the introduction of new speakers in the North American market. The focus is on speakers designed for custom installation, but every year the Expo also hosts the launch of several conventional speakers. I’m currently in San Diego attending the 2018 CEDIA Expo, and just in the first day, I’ve seen many new models, including a surprising number of affordably priced mainstream products.

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Bowers & Wilkins 600 Series Loudspeakers: The Sixth Generation

Past

Bowers & Wilkins and I have some history. Theirs weren’t the first speakers I bought -- those were PSBs, when I was 17, in 1981-- but a year later, the very first hi-fi seminar I attended was one held by B&W. It took place not in a hi-fi shop but in a hotel, during a large conference packed with audiophiles. Back then, the British company, founded by John Bowers in 1966, was called B&W (or the more conversational “B’n’Dub”), and was already a big and influential player in hi-fi worldwide. Now formally renamed Bowers & Wilkins, they still are.

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Sonus Faber Sonetto Loudspeakers Launch

Thirty-five years. That’s a generation. A long time to be alive. It’s halfway through the biblical three-score and ten that us humans are supposedly allotted -- the best half of a life, some might say.

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On the Road at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab

In early April I drove up from an artist retreat south of San Francisco, where I’d been staying for a month, to Sebastopol, which is in Sonoma County, California, where Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) is located. Mobile Fidelity specializes in remastering new LP records from the original master tapes and has been doing so since 1977.

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MartinLogan Launches the Next Generation of Dynamo Subwoofers

Undeniably, MartinLogan’s Dynamo subwoofers, first introduced in 2004, have been a smashing success. At one point, I owned the now-retired Dynamo 1000W, and over the years, I have known many very happy Dynamo owners. Likely of intense interest to those owners and many other home-theater and music aficionados, MartinLogan has launched a revamped Dynamo line. In late June I braved 100-plus-degree temperatures in Dallas, Texas, to visit one of the company’s largest dealers, Starpower, for the launch celebration.

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Howard's Trip to Tokyo to Visit Esoteric

My visit to Esoteric’s Tokyo, Japan, headquarters and factory in January of this year not only promised to be interesting; it also offered a temporary respite from the harsh US Northeast winter. With Tokyo’s high temperatures logging in at a relatively balmy 45 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, I left my winter coat at home.

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BACCH-SP at the Hi-Fi Sales "Bringing It All Together" Manufacturers' Event

I traveled several hours on a rainy May afternoon to the Cherry Hill, New Jersey, showroom of Hi-Fi Sales for its “Bringing It All Together” manufacturers’ event. Scheduled to attend were Gary Ko, president and CEO of Genesis Advanced Technologies; Robert Pleyer, sales director of Rogers High Fidelity; Princeton University professor Edgar Choueiri, the founder of Theoretica Applied Physics; and the father-son team of Harry Weisfeld and Mat Weisfeld, the founder/owner and president, respectively, of VPI Industries.

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T.H.E. Show Newport 2018: Headphones and Accessories

The Home Entertainment Show Newport 2018, which was quickly organized after the abrupt cancellation of the Los Angeles Audio Show 2018, turned out to be a small but interesting and fun show, featuring a wide variety of high-end audio products I hadn’t seen before. The show was held June 1-3 at the Marriott Irvine Spectrum in Irvine, California.

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T.H.E. Show Newport 2018: Speakers and Audio Components

The fact that The Home Entertainment Show Newport 2018 is even happening comes as a welcome surprise to Southern California audiophiles. After the show’s founder passed away in 2016, the show organizers split into warring camps. One started the Los Angeles Audio Show, which took place in June 2017 and was generally considered a success. T.H.E. Show 2017 ended up being cancelled due to lack of interest. But when the organizer of the 2018 LAAS abruptly cancelled that show last month, Maurice Jung, who ended up owning T.H.E. Show, quickly put together a 2018 event, from June 1 to 3 at the Marriott Irvine Spectrum in Irvine, California.

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High End 2018: Headphone Highlights

Given the overwhelming number of innovative speakers, amplifiers, turntables, and other gear being introduced at High End 2018, it’s easy to overlook new headphones, DAPs, and portable DACs. Unless you’re specifically looking for them, of course, which is something we made a point of doing. Here are a few highlights from the headphones category, which more than once provided us with a moment of peace and escape during an otherwise frenetic show.

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High End 2018 SnapShots 2

A random selection of photos from High End 2018, held May 10-13 in Munich, Germany. All photos by Doug Schneider.

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High End 2018: Product Coverage Gallery 4

Companies featured in gallery below: EMM Labs, Merging Technologies, Boulder Amplifiers, Monitor Audio, Dynaudio, Q Acoustics, DALI, T+A, Innuos, Goldmund, Technics, Amphion, iFi, Audio Research, Kii Audio, Marten, Engström

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High End 2018: A Couple of Cool UK Integrateds - Cambridge Audio and Cyrus Audio

I love integrated amplifiers -- and I love integrated amplifier-DACs even more. There’s just something about the simplicity, and cost savings, of having your preamplifier, power amplifier, and digital source all in one box. At High End 2018, there were plenty of integrated amps ranging from the very frugal to the super spendy, but a couple of new models really caught my eye.

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High End 2018 SnapShots 1

A random selection of photos from High End 2018, held May 10-13 in Munich, Germany. All photos by Doug Schneider.

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High End 2018: Product Coverage Gallery 3

Companies featured in gallery below: Focal, Diapason, Stenheim, Simaudio, Gryphon Audio Designs, Hegel Music Systems, Elac, Vimberg, PMC, Audio Physic, Nordost, Göbel, Wilson Benesch, Brinkmann Audio

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High End 2018: Marantz KI Ruby

Marantz is using the occasion of High End 2018 to release its new SA-KI Ruby SACD player and PM-KI Ruby integrated amplifier. The KI in there stands for Ken Ishiwata, the company’s brand ambassador, who is celebrating his 40th anniversary with Marantz (hence, the Ruby designation).

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High End 2018: Flemming Rasmussen and Life Beyond Gryphon

I first met Gryphon Audio Designs’ Flemming Rasmussen at High End 2001. Back then, High End was held in Frankfurt, Germany, at the Kempinski Hotel. The hulking black class-A amps of Gryphon were new and fascinating to me. Over the ensuing years, I spent time with Flemming at shows and corresponded with him over e-mail. I came to know him as a kind, caring man with a great passion for music and music reproduction. During the past 20 years, I’ve reviewed many Gryphon products and grown a tremendous admiration for the brand in general -- but there was no separating Gryphon and its products from Flemming Rasmussen. He was -- is -- the heart and soul of Gryphon.

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High End 2018: Roger's Field of Streams -- Simaudio and Ayre Acoustics

Some of my SoundStage! colleagues give me a bit of a hard time because I don’t stream music. Maybe this will be the year that I finally break down and subscribe to a streaming service -- or maybe not. But at this year’s High End 2018 show in Munich, I saw a couple of high-end streaming devices that just might make me change my mind.

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High End 2018: Product Coverage Gallery 2

Companies featured in gallery below: SGR Audio, Paradigm, Estelon, Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems, Bassocontinuo, Ayre Acoustics, EAR, YBA, Aurender, AudioSolutions, Cocktail Audio, Cayin, Cambridge Audio, Cary Audio, SME, Clearaudio

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High End 2018: Product Coverage Gallery 1

Companies featured in gallery below: Raidho, Scansonic, Crystal Cable, Vitus Audio, Luxman, Von Schweikert Audio, EgglestonWorks, TriangleArt, dCS, Thrax, Sonus Faber, Auralic, Vivid Audio, Lumin, Furutech

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