The dreaded taxi line at McCarran International Airport served as an omen for this year's Consumer Electronics Show. I estimated it was only 600 people long (not the usual 1200), told me things were going to quite different this year in Lost Wages, Nevada. Of course, I was very relieved because I got in and out quicker than ever before. However, this taxi line shortage also told me all I needed to know about what to expect during the rest of my stay on this four-day excursion. My taxi driver must have been a distant cousin to Nostradamus as he predicted nothing but apocalyptic doom for world and Sin City in particular (I wondered whether he watched the End of Days series on the History Channel). After hearing about a half-dozen of his predictions, I couldn't get to my hotel fast enough!

This year's Consumer Electronics Show left me with a mixed bag of feelings. Despite the reports of an ever failing economy and the fact that 2.6 million Americans received pink slips last year - 500k in December alone and the most since World War II - high-end manufacturers offered a counter attack by collectively introducing more expensive products than ever before.

"Out of Touch" could be the operative phrase here.

A well-noted reviewer from a top print journal told me to go and hear a particular loudspeaker. So I go to the room and hear for myself this impressive sounding and attractive looking product. In no time it seems, a gentleman introduces himself as the designer behind the product. He goes on to tell all about the design, type of enclosure and crossover chosen. Lastly, he reveals the price of this very small three-way transducer...$60K. All I could muster was a resounding Wow! This is only one example but there were about a dozen rooms that showed off remarkably expensive electronics, cables or loudspeakers. Sometimes all in the same setup!

My mixed emotions stem, in part, from my choice for best sounding room (Perfect 8/Bridge Audio Labs/Zanden Audio) was also, and unfortunately, probably the most outrageously expensive ($500k). Call it guilty pleasure, but this was also the same setup that got my vote last year as well. I referred to this setup last year as "pushing most of my audiophile buttons." More disturbing is, this system is close in price proximity to my own but at least my loudspeakers are big enough to bury me in ('cause I think these are the last loudspeakers I'll ever own) but also cost only one- third the Perfect 8s ridiculous $300k asking price. So in essence, what I'm bothered by is the reality of: state of the art doesn't come cheap. When set up properly you can hear it almost instantly. Whenever I hear it, that's it, I'm done. Cancel Christmas. Problem is, a lot of manufacturers think they've created it too but miss the mark. And by a wide margin I might add. Worse, they can't hear it and don't want you telling them the truth either. They don't mind however telling you how tough it was making this or that component and why its $100k price tag was  "tough to keep down!"

Yeah, OK.

Attendance was so light, forget a potential purchaser, who would even get the chance to see all this new and expensive stuff?

A huge disappointment was witnessing the Alexis Park turn into a cemetery! I felt really bad for all those who bought rooms there because the place was a virtual ghost town compared to the Venetian, not to mention the Alexis Park's glory years.

Unfortunately, the momentum has shifted and the place to be - where all the action and drama unfolds - is over at the dreaded Venetian Hotel. Who cares about hellishly long waits for elevators, or  30-minute plus taxi lines versus open-air walkways, nice sounding setups, free lunches (on a sunny lawn no less). Appears all that less stressful living is overrated anyway! To be honest, I've come to rather enjoy half-naked porn stars waltzing through the casinos forcing my eyes to uncontrollably gaze their way (the Adult XXX Video Awards are held in the Venetian during CES each year). Looks as if the same powers-that-be, the very same people perhaps who elected Bush into two terms, won out in 'Vegas too. I'm certain, stress, stress and more stress is exactly what the family cardiologist ordered. 

The weather during my 4-day stay was beautiful with plenty of sun. Temperatures averaged a balmy 70 degrees during the day and dipped into the mid to low 40s in the late evenings. As you might suspected, this served as a healthy reprieve from the frigid arctic temperatures the East coast has been recently hit with.

So it's on to this year's show report. Hope you enjoy the photos...

Genesis Audio's Gary Koh and his VP of Sales Walter Quan (right). I've known Quan before he landed the position with Genesis and knows he's quite a talented pool player. I think, if given the chance, he could make Paul Newman proud. Quan visited my place after a mutual friend told him I had a  pretty decent game. Long story short, for a small wager ($100), Quan made two shots back to back, that had to be the most difficult I'd ever seen made one after the other. This, after telling me "oh, I'm not that good and haven't played in a while." The man hustled me in my own house, on my own Brunswick Gold Crown table and with my own pool stick! Needless to say, we can shoot but it won't be for a small friendly wager anymore. You can bet on that!  

Speaking of affordable and reference caliber sounding setups, the Genesis room produced one hell of a sound. This room featured the new Genesis 7.1f loudspeaker ($7,995 equipped with a mega-watt self-powered sub), the two-chassis'd 360 watt Statement mono amplifiers ($22k), and Steve McCormack VRE preamplifier ($10k). CD playback was by way of Esoteric while equipment rack was by Genesis.