Amir's CES 2015 High-end Audio Report and Picture Thread

[amirm]

As I said at the outset, re-connecting with Bob Stuart was one of the highlights of the show for me. But first, listened to some MQA content. The decoding was in the speaker. The DSP firmware was updated to decode the stream. Sample rates varied from 88 Khz to 192 Khz.

The box next to the touch panel (Sooloos?) read the bits and sent the stream to the speaker DSP to decode:

Selection of music in MQA:

It all sounded great. No chance of course to compare it to anything else.

What a relief it was to hear that they were not trying to get into music distribution themselves.

Bob said his latest AES paper on audibility of resampling down 192 Khz music is going into the AES Journal with much more detail. Can't wait.

 

[amirm]

Dali, Muzik, The Sound Organisation

The look and UI reminds of Windows 8:

 

[amirm]

Zanden and DIASOUL

I bet the dude on the left didn't know his picture was getting taken and put on the Internet for all to see :

Now this is some industrial design!

 

[amirm]

Naim's own booth:

The black monster lives!

 

[amirm]

Nola Speakers:

 

[amirm]

Sony:

This brings me back to 1970s amplifiers with that row of TO-3 power transistors. For those who don't know them, they are the flat, big metal transistors. They cost a ton more than the black vertical configs so they have fallen out of favor. They dissipate heat better though:

Happy, happy, happy!

Don't know about you all but I am not too impressed with this internal structure. Such thin members do add strength but don't seem beefy enough to me:

 

[amirm]

What is the vent on top???

 

[amirm]

Martin Logan:

These were some imposing speakers:

 

[amirm]

Vienna Acoustics et al.

I thought this was a miniature reel to reel at first, only to find out it is just a cooling structure!

Had cool adjustable impedance control knobs.

What they were playing:

 

[amirm]

OK that is it guys! Canon had a deal to clean your camera and lens for free which I jumped at. Sadly it took nearly half a days so I did not get a chance to see one of the floors at the high-end show. Hopefully you enjoyed the parts that I did see.

Thread is now open for comments.

 

[garylkoh]

Nor the 300-wing on the 30th where we were at

 

[Sharp 1080]

Amir, no Pocket Rocket bulb syringe and bottle of Eclipse cleaner? I do admit using the Canon service center in the past when it was still free. My EOS 1D MKIIN is a dinosaur now. Thanks for posting.

 

[amirm]

Nor the 300-wing on the 30th where we were at

I am very sorry Gary. I could swear I went to the 30th floor and didn't see you. Nor did I think you would be there which was my bad .

 

[ack]

Thanks for the CES coverage Amir! Loved your comments re: that stupid Synergistic Atmosphere device, and especially how they described it to you. Of course 8Hz is not RF, that tells us how much they know about technology.

 

[amirm]

Amir, no Pocket Rocket bulb syringe and bottle of Eclipse cleaner? I do admit using the Canon service center in the past when it was still free. My EOS 1D MKIIN is a dinosaur now. Thanks for posting.

No, I got a full kit to clean the sensor with the nice magnifier glass and such. I looked in there and was horrified how dirty it was. Got the cleaning solution and the applicator and wiped the sensor. I then looked again with the lighted magnifier and was horrified at what I had done!!! It looked much worse. So I stopped.

I will post pictures later (took them with my other camera that is not with me) but the poor technician must have tried to clean it 10 times. Said that it was really messed up but that he managed to get it all clean. Had an interesting applicator that he would clean with these green sheets and then like a stamp, push it on this sticky clear sheet. Then he would push it hard on the sensor to grab all the dirt and such. For cleaning he just used isopropyl alcohol from what I could tell.

 

[Steve Williams]

Nicely done Amir

Thanks again for doing all that. I know what it's like lugging a camera with you from room to room.

 

[LenWhite]

Thank you Amir. I enjoyed the pictures and your comments.

 

[DonH50]

Thanks Amir!

I bet Gary (or someone) has some pix he could post if you don't mind sharing your thread...

 

[amirm]

That would be great Don. Let's have others post away.

 

[rockitman]

These are not the Verity Monsalvat statement speakers that were supposed to be at CES. They appear to be the Lohengrin IIS. What am I missing here ?