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ISSUE
23
january/february
CES 2006 - Part 1
by
Dave and Carol Clark
In the Aydn room was the Artemis Labs SD1 making good sounds with the Triangle loudspeakers. Same set-up as RMAF, same results―good music.
Galiber Design Stelvio turntable with Schroder Reference tonearm and ZYX Universe cartridge in the Ayden room. Off to the right are the Artemis LA-1 preamplifier and PL-1 phono stage.
Sean Ta of Ayden―a really nice guy to hang around with at CES! Beer too! Sean and I are competing for longest goatee!
Murata ES-103A super-tweeter. Can you hear me now?
Carol Clark and Mr. Mura of AirTight. Mr. Mura is with a doubt one of they nicest and most honorable gentlemen in ALL of audio! Plus his gear is simply to die for!
Cary Audio showed their new SLP-05 'balanced" preamplifier with outboard power supply ($7500). Very slick! Coming in soon for a review too!
Cary Audio CAD 500 MB amplifiers and CAD 211M with Dynaudio loudspeakers.
Music Hall featured a new Shanling A500 amplifier and CD500 CD player. As usual, very Shanling in looks ...translates to ... very cool! No prices as of CES.
Bryan Gladstone, James Henriot of Whest Audio Ltd, and Carol Clark. One of the cooler guys around! Very British and all...
Lila Ritsema, David Robinson, Greg Weaver, and Carol Clark taking another break!
In the DH Labs Silversonic room was a Prima Luna Prologue two mated with the Audio Concepts (ACI) Sapphire XL loudspeakers ($1600 a pair), and the AH Tjoeb CD player. This room made way more musical sound than it had any right to, considering the size and cost of the system (well under $5k). Very, very cool stuff and a must hear for anyone short on cash, yet big on needs.
In the Divergent Technology/Reference 3A/Antique Sound Labs room were the new Reference 3A Veena loudspeakers. Based on my experiences with the other 3A loudspeakers, these should be killer.
The new Antique Sound Labs Flora EX DT transformer based preamplifier ($2995).
The new Antique Sound Labs TX2 DT passive preamplifier ($1200).
Chang Lightspeed Powerline Filters CLS Reference Analog ($1650), CLS Reference amplifier ($2200), CLS Reference MK2 ($2800).
Michael Chang, that is Mr. Chang to you!
King Sound King electrostatic loudspeakers ($600 a pair). Very nice stuff. Sounded very nice too!
Jolida Musical Envoy amplifier featured in the King Sound room ($9500 a pair).
Avatar Acoustics showed off the stunningly robotic-like Ascendo System M loudspeakers ($36,000 with stand).
Avatar Acoustics paired with the folks of Luminance who demoed the new monoblock amplifiers (200w into 8 ohms, $20,000 pair). These are the stereo versions of the KST-150 stereo amplifier turned into mega-monoblocks, which are then are Frankenstienized by the crazy modders of Great Northern Sound! Seriously, these are a highly modified version of the stereo amplifier, by Great Northern Sound. All cabling by Virtual Dynamics
Avatar Acoustics used the smaller Ascendo System E speakers ($12,500) with a Karan preamplifier ($12,995) and the Luminance KST-150 stereo amplifier ($3000). All cabling by Virtual Dynamics. I really liked this room and would love to hear this amplifier here...
Luminance KST-150 with Virtual Dynamics Master Dynamic cables.
Avatar Acoustics presented the Acoustic Systems Gold Resonator $900. Very cool resonators that can really change the sonics this way and that. They did a demo and the differences were not subtle. A review is in the works!
Frank Tchang from Acoustic Systems.
In the Channel Islands/Modwright room was the SWL 9.0 SE tube linestage ($2200) with Penaudio Serenade loudspeakers ($9000). Pretty much what we heard at RMAF ...sounded very good.
Denon player by Modwright ($3995), Channel Islands Audio D-200 monoblock amplifiers ($2299 pair). Dusty makes some very cool stuff indeed! Dan too! And they are nice people to boot!
And another World Power Wing from World Power (audioexcellence az). This time in the Channel Islands/Modwright room.