Rather than start a new post, I'd simply like to comment on a few of the speaker systems I heard at CES over the past 2 days.
First, and I might as well get this out of the way, the "best" speaker I heard was the $5500 Magneplanar 3.7s. They were simply stunning. Now, Wendell Diller pulled a few tricks out of his hat in choosing to demo them using Maggie 1.7s as rear channels as well as a Maggie Center channel on his multichannel source material, but that did not detract from what were all heard on the 3.7s. In fact, Wendell specifically played 2 channel material only on the 3.7s as well for completeness sake. The sound was superb. The usual accolades are appropriate; detailed, great imaging, excellent frequency response, low distortion etc. But for me, it was something that is often not mentioned, and that is their vibrancy. They had life. This was totally the opposite of what we heard at the 667K demo at the Lamm room, which was a very expensive lifeless system. Wendell played the old war horse, 1812 overture and I nearly stained the seat looking for a subwoofer that wasn't there when those cannon shots were launched. Emotionally involving on every level. And, get this, although he was of course using Bryston 28s to drive the planars, he was using (I think) some ordinary Lexicon preamp and an inexpensive CD player for the front end, thus making me wonder why we have all been so successfully brain-washed to believe that it takes mega-expensive front ends to have a good sounding system.
Next up, I really enjoyed hearing the big TAD Reference speakers at the VTL room. I had not previously heard Andrew Jones' masterpiece speaker previously, but this set up was a jaw-dropper. I am certain the outstanding VTL electronics contributed significantly to the outstanding sound (7.5III preamp; 450 III amp), but the TADs are a masterpiece in their overall tonal balance top to bottom. Bea Lam pulled out Shastakovich's Symphony #8 performed live by the LSO, and the few of us that were in the room after hours sat in silence as the beautiful sound washed over us. As a complete "I am in the symphony hall" experience the TAD/VTL demo had the edge over the Magenplanar 3.7 demo, but then again, let's return to the over-riding theme of this years CES; namely, value. Or put another way, today's modest cost high performance products are rapidly making the cost-no-object expensive equipment of yesteryear tougher and tougher to justify. Maggie 3.7s @$5500 vs TAD Reference @70K is case in point.
One or two more speaker surprises. I heard some Avalon Transcendent's that I thought sounded particularly good (about 15K?). I also mentioned the drop dead KEF 5.1 system for 2K retail that knocked me out. And finally, a new 3 section Focal monitor on stands for 27K a pair were outstanding. I can imagine that using them full range and augmenting them with a JL Audio Sub woofer would be very impressive indeed, especially as a direct competitor to the Wilson Sashas.
Finally, one non-speaker comment: The software program Amarra was ubiquitous at the show. Meant to enhance the server-based output side of any iTunes library, I was ready to buy it until I heard that iTunes 11 will be announced shortly and that iTunes 11 will be hi-rez compatible. I'll probably take a wait and see approach on Amarra as a result of the impending iTunes 11 announcement.
