Apologies if these were covered but reading a UK publication a few products stood out that seems to have been missed and IMO have the potential of being an impact in audio.
The two primary products that stood out being missed is the Micromega AS400 and the Classe CP-800.
Why IMO are these important;
The Micromega AS400 is a Class D integrated amp, but its key story is that it has Apple Airstream imbedded.
For most audiophiles this may be a none story, but consider the younger generation that needs to be encouraged to use higher fidelity.
This product is probably the 1st in the high end that is serious about providing a solution around what the Apple generation want, simple no extra boxes plug in and play with their ipod/iphone/etc.
It is slightly cheaper than Audio Research DSi200, and has slightly more power at 400watts into 8ohms using the good Hypex Class D technology while also providing the simplest way to stream Apple technology while keeping mobility of the Apple device.
The Classe CP-800 is to me a great move by Classe;
A model to replace their top of the range preamp but is much cheaper, while also combining both digital and analogue so you can directly feed PCM into the CP-800 or bypass the digital circuits and maintain a pure analogue (ideal for LPs) system.
This is critical in that they are providing a reference preamp that is not only cheaper than its previous model but also acknowledges these days listeners also need digital orientated preamp as well - it has an isolated asynchronous USB interface amongst the usual.
So this can do away with external DACs with its own support for PCM from transports and PCs-laptops, and also enables to bypass the digital circuitry when its critical to keep analogue setup such as say LPs.
The last is more of an interest story and I am really not sure how it is going to affect the market but it is a story I thought would had been covered.
That is Sony unvieling their reference speaker that is I think around $30k-ish.
A lot of money and maybe they see it as a cash cow, or is this a serious attempt to enter into the industy against TAD.
I appreciate there are many stories at CES, but noticed these may had been missed, please note I am more summarising these products so worth doing a search on them if interested.
Thanks
Orb
The two primary products that stood out being missed is the Micromega AS400 and the Classe CP-800.
Why IMO are these important;
The Micromega AS400 is a Class D integrated amp, but its key story is that it has Apple Airstream imbedded.
For most audiophiles this may be a none story, but consider the younger generation that needs to be encouraged to use higher fidelity.
This product is probably the 1st in the high end that is serious about providing a solution around what the Apple generation want, simple no extra boxes plug in and play with their ipod/iphone/etc.
It is slightly cheaper than Audio Research DSi200, and has slightly more power at 400watts into 8ohms using the good Hypex Class D technology while also providing the simplest way to stream Apple technology while keeping mobility of the Apple device.
The Classe CP-800 is to me a great move by Classe;
A model to replace their top of the range preamp but is much cheaper, while also combining both digital and analogue so you can directly feed PCM into the CP-800 or bypass the digital circuits and maintain a pure analogue (ideal for LPs) system.
This is critical in that they are providing a reference preamp that is not only cheaper than its previous model but also acknowledges these days listeners also need digital orientated preamp as well - it has an isolated asynchronous USB interface amongst the usual.
So this can do away with external DACs with its own support for PCM from transports and PCs-laptops, and also enables to bypass the digital circuitry when its critical to keep analogue setup such as say LPs.
The last is more of an interest story and I am really not sure how it is going to affect the market but it is a story I thought would had been covered.
That is Sony unvieling their reference speaker that is I think around $30k-ish.
A lot of money and maybe they see it as a cash cow, or is this a serious attempt to enter into the industy against TAD.
I appreciate there are many stories at CES, but noticed these may had been missed, please note I am more summarising these products so worth doing a search on them if interested.
Thanks
Orb