CES 2011 picture thread

[amirm]

Here is my picture diary of CES:

NAD:

Had a good chat with them on the design of their amp. It uses dual feedback: before and after the output filter. I thought I had read the latter was a bad idea but they said it was the opposite.

VTL with TAD speakers:

EAR with modded Technics deck ($$$):

Talon speakers at Rives Audio. Some of the best sounds I heard at CES. These tube amps have surprising amount of power. A treated room helped elevate the performance here:

Lots of shiny tubes there . No wonder it puts out fair bit of power:

Wisdom prototype (hand built):

Back view of TAD speakers. OK shoot me. I am an engineer and care about the the business end of these things

And Electronics with iTunes playing 176 Khz tracks!

More under the hood:

Listening area:

 

[amirm]

Egglestonworks speakers:

Nola:

And Audio Research amplification driving them:

And the "black" box behind the speakers:

And the business end:

Nice deck driving it:

Close up:

Don't recall the name of the company behind these speakers and frankly, don't care to. I asked them about the construction of the speakers and whether it was a layered process. The British person there said yes and that it was similar to fiberglass. Being familiar with boat production, I asked him if it was done using a mold and then sprayed on layer by layer. He gave me a dirty look and said: "I am not sure I want to tell you our secrets because people copy them." I smiled and said I was not in their industry but I am fine with him not sharing it. I listened for a bit and as I left I said thank you and he wouldn't even look up to acknowledge me!

Edit: thanks to Robert for identifying these as Morel's Fat Ladies.

Someone identify this turntable for me

Danish Bergman turntable:

 

[amirm]

Tube amps don't get prettier than this! EINSTEIN audio:

And these are the beautiful horns (Violoncello) they were driving. I sat int he love seat but quickly realized I was sitting too low. I asked the designer and he said that was the case and that the cheap seats were better. Indeed they were and far better!

Whole ensemble again:

 

[amirm]

We had a whole thread on the Lamm so here are just the pictures:

How about an artistic shot!

Digital source: (didn't hear it while I was there)

Enough turntable to impress even a non-turntable guy! Da Vinci Audio Labs table:

More Lamm next door with Lohengrin speakers:

Not so good close up:

back of the speakers:

The wiring mess we talked about elsewhere:

Seating area:

Turntable porn

And rest of the rack:

 

[amirm]

Tidal speakers. Very nicely done. Top-5 sound at CES:

This thing can be configured infinite ways:

Japanese gear (BAlabo) driving it:

Some of the room treatment:

Mark Levinson and Revel speakers: some of the cleanest bass I heard at CES:

And source electronics:

 

[amirm]

Meridian. They were using the Sooloos system as the source. There is something neat about a single cat-5 (?) cable feeding a speaker after seen all the large snake cables powering the rest.

Magico Q3. For a high-end company, I found them very approachable. They spent quite a bit of time explaining their speakers including the design of the super stiff cone in their woofers.

MIT Oracle Matrix HD 120 cables feeding them (#22,000 for 8ft pair):

"Fractional Articulation Technology????"

Here is a close up of the cones. I asked him why it was beneficial to have such a sharp point in the middle. Per above, he said it was part of their construction to be super stiff:

Beautiful Nagra T tape deck allowed my first opportunity to hear Tape Project tapes. Quite lovely and dynamic!

How they looked overall:

Room treatment. Sparse as it was, with one exception, the best rooms I heard had room treatment:

The Pacific Microsonics HDCD ADC/DAC brought back memories. When we (Microsoft) acquired them, we gave away the hardware side to Euphonics and hence their logo on this box:

And Soulution electronics in the middle:

Internal structure and bracing with hundreds of hex screws:

Smaller babies:

 

[amirm]

D'Agostino's new amps:

The whole ensemble with Wilson Sasha:

DCS Poccini CD player:

Venture speakers:

Another tangle of wires:

Avalon's Transcendent speaker. This was a weird room with diffusers all over the space and the odd looking Polifemo resonator:

Here is the Polifemo picture: http://www.acusticaapplicata.com/polifemo.php?lang=eng

The Japanese Edge amplification:

 

[amirm]

Amara was rather popular with Mac sources:

Transparent Audio Power Isolation MM2:

EMM Labs with Sony's new speakers:

More TAD pictures:

Totem speakers. I post my observation in the other thread. Net, net, these are very nice sounding speakers with woofers that are driven direct with no crossover. Unfortunately brand awareness seems low outside of integration industry. Vince was charming yet again, talking with passion and showing the flexibility of the speakers:

Smaller units that had the same nice tonal quality:

 

[amirm]

Ayre gear with Bauer dps table:

Blocks under these was amusing:

How much it will cost you:

Compact and cute inside:

Boulder monsters we talked about elsewhere:

Networked DAC in addition to being a transport. Price is sky high though and some argue as soon as you have a network connection inside, audio quality might drop:

The whole thing including the much smaller mono blocks:

Vienna Acoustics The Kiss. I don't get the idea of cantilevering speakers on a thin member. Recipe for resonances and interferences at higher frequencies it seems:

The seating and sources:

 

[cjfrbw]

Great pictures, Amir.

 

[amirm]

Thanks. I hate taking pictures indoor with flash in such settings. Given how dim these rooms were, it was very challenging to take decent pictures with a point and shoot camera. Thankfully I had image stabilization so with steady hand, the pictures aren't too bad, given the fact that many where shot at 1/8 second or even slower!

I have 30% more coming .

 

[Steve Williams]

very good pix

was Dan there demoing his new amps

 

[amirm]

very good pix

was Dan there demoing his new amps

He was but was talking to someone else so I didn't get to talk to him.

BTW, I have updated the earlier posts that were reserved with pictures so go and visit the first page again to see them all .

 

[Steve Williams]

I did and all excellent

 

[amirm]

Anyone can name the turntables for me so that I can update the post? Thanks in advance .

 

[jadis]

great pics, amirm. it's like being there.

 

[c1ferrari]

Gotta love those big tits machines, as Ken Kessler heard them being called ...

Frank

Um...which ones would those be?

 

[DaveyF]

Amir, superb pics...Many, Many Thanks.. I really like the rear views of components, tells me a little of the construction, which I find very interesting
BTW,one of the tables is the Da Vinci Audio Lab table..."Enough turntable to impress even a non-turntable guy!"

The table at the Ayre suite is the Bauer dps table.
Great job

 

[amirm]

Thanks for the kind words and identifying the tables. I made the corrections.

I was amazed no one chased me out when I walked into an area with $200K+ worth of tube amps glowing!!! Everyone let me crawl around them to take pictures although showing how careful I was probably helped.

 

[fas42]

Um...which ones would those be?

In the first post, the modded Technics. As Ken noted, not only could you, perhaps, discern a resemblence to the female form, but they oozed sex appeal. Enter a audiophile's den with the system working, and what will virtually everyone's eyes be drawn to straight away, if not to a beast like that! CD players have zero visual appeal, and TT's barely any more ...

Frank