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2004 CES
Show Report: Part 4
Mike Wright
Lots of good music was heard coming from the
47 Laboratory room. 47 Lab’s U.S.
Distributor Yoshi Segoshi, or “Yoshi-san” as
he was respectfully referred to by one of our
associates, really had the room set up nicely.
We enjoyed music through a system featuring
the engaging and tall Cain & Cain Studio
BEN-ES speakers, RS Laboratory RS-AI
Tonearm ($980) on a Rega Planar 9
for vinyl and the 47 Labs PiTracer CD
transport ($25,000) and Progression DAC
($2,700) for digital. Amplification was via
47 Lab’s Gaincard ($1,500) and Input
Chooser ($750). Each piece was bolstered
by its own massive external power supply. 47
Labs pieces are relatively diminutive in size
but this belies the musicality and power that
the system generates.
Back to that RS Labs tonearm for a moment. I
have heard early versions of the Rega Planar 9
turntable on numerous occasions and have never
been overly impressed by it. But with the RS
Labs tonearm, and a Miyabi cartridge,
the Planar 9 rendered a performance that was
far more musical than it had been with any of
the early Rega arms. I have yet to hear the P9
with the new RB1000 tonearm but have been told
that it is a big improvement. Anyone with a P9
would do well to look into the RS Labs tonearm.
The combination is excellent.
Best At Show
For me, one of the “best sounds” I
heard at the show came from the Usher Audio
room. Stan Tracht and his brother Carter were
very accommodating and put up with all of my
speaker-changing and music selection requests.
The system featured an Usher CD-100 CD
player splitting duty with an Esoteric DV50
SACD player ($5,500) as the source
components. The rest of the system was the
sleek and stylish new CP-6311 loudspeakers
($2,100) driven by the P-307
($1,980) preamp and R-1.5 ($2,200) 160
watt Class A amplifier. Selection after
selection was presented with openness,
musicality, and—a rarity at shows like
this—musical involvement. Hearing tracks that
I was intimately familiar with produced the
spine tingling effects I had come to know when
listening to them at home and made the
experience that much more enjoyable. The 6311
is part of the new “6 Series” of loudspeakers
from this Taiwanese speaker giant. What’s more
exciting is that the 6311 is the smallest in
the series, which also includes the CP-6371
($2,900) and CP-6381 ($3,400). The
cabinets come finished in a gorgeous
high-gloss black, white, or silver, and
feature elegantly sculpted wood accents.
Another one of my “best sounds at the show”
was to be found in the Bertr and
Audio room. Jay Bertrand played music
through the wonderful Dali Megaline
speakers ($40,000), driven by the exotic
looking Ming Da MC300B-845 tube monoblock
amplifiers ($12,500) and The Messenger
preamplifier. The source was a Xindak
SCD-2 tubed SACD player ($1,895) and a
Zanden Model 5000 Mk III DAC.
Connecting the setup were the Xindak Gold
speaker cables ($1,850/meter pair) and
interconnects ($1,450/meter pair). For smooth
presentation and large-scale dynamics, this
was the place to be.
Also falling in the category of “best
sounds at the show” were the two systems
run in the Acoustic Dreams room. The
main system featured the Lumenwhite
Whitelight ($40,000) and Ayon Audio
52-B Reference amplifiers. A digital front
end from dCS and the VYGER Indian
Signature turntable handled the analog.
The smaller system was Ayon’s Dragon S
speakers ($19,225) driven by an Ayon
Sunrise integrated amplifier ($6,900).
A george mark audio technologies CD player
(price unknown) and DAC/preamp
($5,900) completed this system. All equipment
sat on Acoustic Dreams’ own gorgeous
custom-built equipment racks. As a bonus,
Acoustic System’s Frank Tchang
stopped by to demonstrate his Resonators:
tiny metal bowls that sit atop little wood
blocks. When positioned correctly they can
have an interesting effect on the music’s
sound. I had previously heard the main set-up
(sans resonators) at a Chicago Audiophile
Society meeting last year and it sounded as
stunningly good then as it did here.
Best Sound at Show!
My favorite sound at the show came from the
Ascendo Audio room. Clement Perry has
written at length about the virtues of this
German loudspeaker company and now I know why.
The System Z-F3 is outfitted with an 8”
midrange/woofer and a ribbon tweeter that
simply dazzles. I asked designer Jurgen
Scheuring (above) to play Can’t Help Lovin’
That Man from the Ray Brown Trio’s “Live At
The Loa.” This was as close as I’ve come
to calling something “sonically holographic.”
Airy, spacious, and detailed were just a few
of the words that popped into my head while
listening.
 But continued listening told me that some of
the credit for this glorious sound had to be
given to the electronics from a relative
newcomer to the U.S., Phonosophie. The
system comprised of Phonosophie’s Impuls 2
CD player, BI-Control 2 preamplifier,
BI-Amp 1-2 integrated amp and a pair of
Spike power amplifiers with Power
Control 3 power supplies. Something
special was definitely going on here. To put
it plainly: it made music from every CD sound
as though the performance was somehow inside
the listening room. Equally delightful was
getting to know the man behind these splendid
electronics, Ingo Hansen. One look at the
Phonosophie gear and you’ll swear it’s a close
relative of the great Naim Audio gear.
Another interesting tidbit is that Linn’s
Lingo power supply was named after Hansen.
Lingo for Ingo.
More Good Stuff
There were many other fine and notable systems
that deserve to be called out. These were
rooms that had smaller, simpler set-ups
compared to most of those that I’ve mentioned
so far, but which I felt were still very
musical and thoroughly enjoyable. The
Escalante Design room
(photo right show's Budge posing with ST's
fearless leader, CP), featured Tierry
Budge’s newest speaker design called the
Pinyon, which has a musical and
engaging sound that will be well worth seeking
out. In the Audio Oasis room, George
Tordai’s Audio Zone AMP-1 was being
fed by a Copland CD player and driving
the highly musical Reference 3A
speakers. Credit also had to be given to the
Dynamic Design cables, which George
said were dynamic and neutral enough to allow
his amp to really show its strengths. These
excellent cables are marketed by my fellow
Chicago-area audiophile, Don Smith, and serve
as a reference in my system. The Zingali
Loudspeaker room featured a host of
stunning Italian-made speakers, but the ones
that caught my attention were the small
Cinema M monitors paired with their OSC
206 subwoofer. A Viva Audio integrated amp
and the Lector CD player drove them to
astonishingly clear musical levels with
surprising bass control.
The Usual
Suspects
There were other rooms that I felt sounded
good but which I won’t go into with great
detail, mostly because they seem to always
have a nice sound and also because I want to
make sure some of the rooms that wouldn’t
normally get mentioned, got some press. The
Halcro, Jeff Rowland Design Group,
Edge Electronics, Gryphon, and
Joule Electra rooms all produced great
sounds as they typically do. Burmester also
had an exceptional sounding room and the
equipment, as always, was an attention
grabber. We were grooving along, until they
went multi-channel and started playing music
through a center channel that did not seem to
image very well. Nothing’s more annoying than
knee-level vocals.
Multi-channel Madness
To borrow a phrase from my brother’s hero,
Dennis Miller, “Now I don’t want to get off on
a rant here,” but the center channels used in
some of the rooms were just not necessary. Not
just in the Burmester room; in most rooms
where they attempted to demonstrate
multi-channel sound, the music sounded better
in a two-channel setup. When some rooms played
music from a small ensemble or trio, with the
center channel in place, it seemed as if part
of the stage had been removed and was instead
replaced with something even more artificial.
The transition is rarely seamless. Some rooms
also tried to play bass-heavy synthesized rap
music (sans vulgarity) and the problem was
even more glaring. I just feel that if you
have speakers capable of good imaging, you
simply don’t need a center channel, especially
in a normal-sized room. I do feel center
channels work fine for movies, but for music
it’s just a further step away from reality and
not closer to it. Of course that’s just my
opinion, I could be wrong.
Last But Not Least
In the Von Schweikert/VAC/Oracle room,
the towering new VR-11 loudspeakers
($125,000) were being demonstrated and my
feelings on the sound were sort of a mixed
bag. Twice I heard music in that room that
just wasn’t quite right. But after a third
listen, adjustments were made and the
speaker’s sound improved dramatically. I’m not
sure what the problem was early on, but during
one demo someone did suggest a bass level
adjustment. I’m not sure if that is what did
the trick, but once this system was dialed-in,
the sound was phenomenal: huge stage
presentation, explosive dynamics, and spot-on
imaging. The featured system in the room was
the Oracle CD-1000 transport ($7,500)
and DAC 1000 ($7,500) along with the
Valve Amplification Company Renaissance preamp
and VAC Phi 220 monoblock amplifiers.
Not only were these pieces absolutely gorgeous
to behold, but they sounded wonderful as well.
The VAC electronics in particular sounded much
better than when I last listened to them, and
they were fine sounding even then. They were
powerful and detailed, with fast transient
response and tight, extended bass. Kudos to
Kevin Hayes.
All in all, it was a gratifying experience and
I’m already making plans for next year’s show.
I was not able to make it to all of the rooms
and if I missed anyone, hopefully I’ll get you
the next time.
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