CES 2011 Page 5

Myles Astor, waiting patiently while Carol checks her phone at T.H.E. Show.

The Blue Light Audio room was packed to the rafters every time we went in. Andreas Koch of Playback Designs.

In the Blue Light room... the new USB interface... that yes will pass any bit/sample rate from zero to that of DSD. This is the connection end for the Playback player or DAC.

The USB side of the interface.... gee, guess 24/192 is dated. of course this is only available or compatible with their player and DAC.

The Blue Light room featured the Wave Kinetics NVS Reference turntable. The new PD player is sitting below... USB interface allowing for DSD.

Kevin Malmgren of Evolution Acoustics.

Jonathan Tinn, happy as always. Myles and Christine Han... taking it all in!

Outstanding new loudspeakers from Evolution Acoustics, the MMMicroOne will retail for $2000 a pair. These sound amazing! Now we are talking about reaching out to those who love music but are short on cash... these truly set a benchmark for what you can get for relatively so little money. Same fit-in-finish of the line, same design (cabinet, drivers, etc.)... yeah baby.

From Blue Light, the Evolution Acoustics loudspeakers with darTZeel amplifier, $25,000 and preamplifier, $30,000. Also the Playback Designs MPS-3 CD player, $8500. This was one of the best sounds of the show, simply amazing!

Scott Warren, a fellow audioevo guy, with friend Bill Gainer.

Fritz Speakers. Great products and all quite affordable... this is killer.

Fritz Speakers with ModWright and WyWires.

Fritz of Fritz Speakers.

The Fritz Speakers system and Mod Wright electronics sounded great!

Steve Norber of Edge Electronics. Yeah... messed up my shoulder and not so happy about it.

Edge Electronics used and HRT Music Streamer Pro USB DAC. Yes... computer-based.

Edge Electronics, NL 10.2 amplifier, $17,388. G 2 preamplifier, $5898. ACF-2 power conditioner, $3578. Acoustic Zen Crescendo loudspeakers, $16,000 a pair.

Cable Research Lab and their new statement connectors. Nice.

Sonist, Cable Research Lab, deHavilland.

Another view of the Sonist, Cable Research Lab, and deHavilland room.

Cayin Audio, C-3.2T.

The front-side of the Cayin C-3.2T.

Products from Cayin, Zhuhai Spark Electronic Equipment.

Valvet in the highend-electronics room.

highend-electronics featured two different systems. Both used a Sony XA9000ES transport, Audio Synthesis DAX Discrete DAC, the Valvet Soulshine preamplifier, and Consensus Audio Conspiracy loudspeakers.  System 1 included the KR Audio Kronzilla DX MKII, and system 2 included Valvet A3.5 monoblock amplifiers.

Jaton Corp CD player featuring all Mundorf capacitors.

Jaton Corporation.

ESS Labs, Channel Island Audio, and Karlton Audio Products. And yes... computer-based!

ESS Labs and CIAudio.

Reference 3A and Antique Sound Labs.

Raven loudspeakers in the Clarity Cables room. Lots and lots of layers....

Clarity Cables system with darTZeel, Playback Designs, Dr. Feickert Analogue, Orca Design, and AMI HiFi.

Teresonic, Audlav, Cary Audio, and Clear Audio.

Centrance mini system. Nice stuff... affordability is king.

DACmini from Centrance.... another all-in-one integrated, headphone amplifier, and USB 24/96 DAC for around $1500.

As always, at T.H.E. show there's a lot of software to look at.

Software and accessories at T.H.E. Show.

Always good to catch up with Greg Weaver.

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