This is how you do low costs systems right. Andrew Jones broke up with Pioneer and teamed up with German ELAC company to do the same wonderful work he did at Pioneer for them. Except that he is taking it to the next level. If you never heard his $200 Pioneer speakers, you don't know what you are missing. Here we were listening to loudspeakers that retailed for just $279. Yes, you heard that right. Tower loudspeakers for just that much money each. Sure, they are manufactured in China but the fidelity was so good as to nicely fit in this show. You need a system for a young person, this is it:
His Music Server for the show:
You can see an old friend and colleague of mine from Pioneer who left that company after decades to follow Andrew. Well done Chris:
He explained that they were building a Linux based appliance that ran the full Roon server software. This means you have a turnkey Roon server instead of building your own PC. Great idea. Will ship around CES. I think he said the retail was around $1,000.
They are also building an integrated DAC, amp, DSP, Crossover and clever way to calibrate it all for the room using any smartphone! Since they know the response of the speaker, you put the phone in front of the loudspeaker for calibration, then put it where you sit and hit a button and the system auto calibrates. Combine this box with the speaker and you have one heck of a system for very little money. Can't wait to hear it at CES.
Here is Andrew with a shot of the $279 speakers:
The little black box on top is the embedded Roon server. If you have not heard of Roon, you need to give it a serious try. It is my new music server and I will post a detailed review later.
Current electronics used for the demo: