After yet another night of almost no sleep (c'mon, I was in Las Vegas fer Pete's sake), I caught a beautiful Las Vegas sunrise just over McCarran Airport, right outside my hotel window. After yet another nice hearty breakfast - I like breakfast - I was off for some serious listening.

Sunrise on CES: a view from my room in the San Remo, overlooking McCarran Airport

One of the most impressive sounding new product introductions this year was the Euphonia loudspeaker lineup from Denmark's Dali. Their room in the San Remo was too small and had too many pairs of static speakers on display to have sounded so good. Even so, they offered a huge slice of their special of charm making me curious as to just how good they may be in a friendlier environment.

The Dali Euphonia line was one of the year's most pleasant surprises, even in a room that had no right to sound so good

Two models were highlighted for this event, the $7,755 MS4 (beside the equipment rack in the photo below) in a beautiful alpi wood finish, and the towering $35,000 Dali Megaline in the same finish. Power for the speakers was alternately the Orpheus 40 Wpc stereo amplifier or a pair of Audio Research VT100's run mono. The AR CD3 ($5000) provided source material and the AR LS25MKII line stage ($5500) handed off to the amplifiers. Wasatch Cable Works cables were used throughout.

The MS4's foundation is created by two 6-inch mid/bass drivers fabricated from a wood fiber, each housed in a separate bass reflex chamber. The Euphonia tweeter module is a combination of a 1-inch soft dome and a Dali-developed 10 x 55 mm ribbon mounted directly above it in the same housing.

The Euphonia Megaline was originally conceived as a project to provide a broad based education for the Dali team of engineers. It incorporates 24 of their custom 6-inch wood fiber mid/woofers and 6 of the ribbons in a line source, uses a separated active crossover, is seven and a half feet tall and weighs in at a whopping 500 pounds a pair!

Characterized by seemingly blinding transients, remarkable low bass support (especially for the room size and setup) and a superbly detailed yet musical presentation, these guys deserve your attention. Their performance in this room was not only a surprise, but also a very musical and enjoyable one. I actually went back Monday morning before my flight home to log a little serious listening with no interruptions.

As always, it was fun to stop in the TG Audio/CTC Builders (John Curl, Carl Thompson and Bob Crump) room and chat with Bob Crump. Not only does Bob typically play real music (as opposed to the sterile, antiseptic "audiophile" only tracks heard in so many other places) in his room, but he also has fun. This year the system was built around the new Parasound Halo JC-1 amplifiers ($6,000). Bob was using the CTC Blowtorch preamplifier ($12,500), his TG Digital System prototypes ($12,000) for source material and TG wiring throughout. The speakers were the very open, relaxed and luminous, six and a half foot tall, SoundLab Millennium-1's ($16,240).

Bob Crump, the last C in CTC, stands at the front of what can only be described as one of the years best sounding rooms

What a room! Delicious and enveloping are the only words to use. The sound was liquid and dynamic, relaxed and detailed, smooth yet driving. Damn fine sound all around. I am going to pursue things with Bob to see if we can't get a closer look at these electronics and cables.

On my way out of the room, Bob shared the secret of how he had been able to develop such remarkably good sound in this hotel room (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). He informed me that it was all done with the liberal application of EKO Aceite de Culebra (snake oil) and not smoke and mirrors as we had long believed. He even gave me a bottle of the stuff to take home with me so that I might be able to transport some of this magic to my own system! Thanks Bob. ;-D

Acoustic Dreams, of Fairfield, IL, the exclusive US distributors of Lumen White, Ayon and the V.Y.G.E.R. turntables, were hosts to another room that consistently left me with goose bumps. Their room this year was even more enthralling than it has been in the past.

The most dynamic sounding turntable I can recall hearing, the $36,000 V.Y.G.E.R. Indian Signature Turntable, is also one of the most striking analog transcriptors you will ever see.

The sonically stunning and visually arresting V.Y.G.E.R. Indian Signature Turntable

Amplification in this room was provided by the Ayon Audio 52-B Reference Amplifiers, which are 55-watt amps based on the 300B and priced at $24,500 a pair. Loudspeakers were the $40,000 Lumen White Whitelight Reference, which use a 1-inch inverted dome ceramic tweeter, a 3.5-inch inverted dome ceramic midrange and three 7-inch ceramic woofers in a proprietary "jetvalve" vented enclosure and boast only 7 crossover components. Acoustic Dreams fabricates both the equipment stands ($6,000) and the Dead Ball Isolation devices (set of 3/$190) that were used to display the entire system.

In the running for best sound of the show, the Acoustic Dreams room was an absolute delight

This room was well set up and achieved a wonderful balance between the so-called hi-fi attributes (detail, transparency, resolution) and musical communication. Luxuriously rich and liquid, delicate tonal development, macrodynamic attack approaching the live event and a coherent voice set this room apart from much of this years competition. What was truly astounding to me during one of my three trips back to this room to just listen was a demonstration by Bruce Featherling.

While listening, I was completely taken by how dynamic the system seemed. This was striking to me as many digiphobes who choose to pooh-pooh vinyl point to the specs to show how digital is so much more dynamic than records. Yeah, right! Maybe on paper, but certainly not it the real world. At one point, as we were discussing the minutiae of the system, I mentioned to Bruce that it seemed somewhat loud. He smiled, grabbed an SPL meter and showed me that the room never hit peaks over 80 dB! Now that is a good sign. This room was clean, fast, warm and harmonically rich.

The sound in the Margules Audio room was welcoming as it spilled out into the courtyard. I wandered in to find Julian Margules smiling. I found myself smiling too very soon after sitting down. This year he was showing two systems, but his main system is what caught my attention with its purity and enchanting tone.

His $5,900 per pair Orpheus loudspeaker was both beautiful and eye-catching without being overly dominant. His active Servo Bias amps, the $3,280 U280 SC, which will run in either ultraliner or triode mode at the flip of a switch, allow the versatility of using 6550s, KT88s, KT99s or KT100s without modification or adjustments, and can be run in stereo or mono configuration. The $2,590 SF220r remote control preamp, his flagship tube line stage, filled out the electronics in the main system. The descriptive adjectives natural and relaxed best sum up the sound of this system from south of the border. Julian is one exhibitor who, year after year, always has an inviting, musical room.

Julian Margules, designer for the Mexican based audio firm, stands behind one of his Orpheus loudspeakers

This year, Julian was also introducing the $980 MB-1 speakers¹ and his unique and sleek looking 75 Wpc, $1,900 HD-1, a hybrid integrated amp, with 12AU7's in the preamp section and a solid state output section. Though I didn't listen long, what I heard made me believe he has developed a sweet little combo.

As always, he was using his famous $189 ADE-24 "black box." It goes between the analog out of your favorite digital source (DVD, CD, DAT, DAC) and your preamp and is said to enhance detail, restore air, reduce edginess and harshness, improve imaging and increase dynamic range. I know several people who swear by it, and Julian has promised to send one to me to evaluate. I'm also hoping that I get a chance to audition his U280SC as well. We had made plans to do so right before 9/11, but for obvious reasons, that plan fell by the wayside.

Talk about impact! The EAR room was home to what was easily one of the most effortless and dynamic sounding systems I ran across this year. I was standing outside the room waiting for a colleague to join me when I heard a Flamingo dancer go into his routine in the room at the top of the stairs. Well, as I got closer and finally entered the room, I discovered that it was a magical system creating those sounds, and not a gifted Spanish dancer. The room had unintentionally passed the LIAR test - Listening In Another Room.

It was so real and vigorous sounding that it physically startled Dan Meinwald, who had entered from another adjoining room during a bit of a lull in the recorded performance. He literally had a "Fight or Flight" start when the dancer resumed his ferocious stomping and stamping on an obviously wooden dance floor. Man, what didn't this system do right?

The 'table was the ($18,000) air bearing, Townshend Rock Reference Master with a $3,000 Helius Omega tonearm fitted with a van den Hul Colibri. This arm features a completely new bearing layout, allowing energy to pass from the arm tube directly to the armboard for dissipation. Damping is achieved via a paddle mounted at the headshell that traces through a fluid filled, retractable trough that swings in over the record after it is placed on the spindle!

The phono section was Tim de Paravicini's new solid-state $3,600 EAR 324 (which I am listening to as I type) that was developed from the work done creating the transformer coupled EAR 312 preamp. Amplification was via the $35,000 pair of simply extraordinary-looking and resolute Paravicini (EAR) M100's, 100 watt, single-ended solid-state monoblocks, also new from the mind and hand of Tim. I know what you are thinking, was all this solid-state stuff really from tube guy Tim de Paravicini of EAR? Yes, you read right. And I have to tell you, this gear is simply astonishing.

The EAR room, featuring all solid-state electronics from EAR designer Tim de Paravicini, was another magical room

Finally, as if that weren't enough, the Martin Design Coltrane speaker coupled the rich and authoritative current to the air. These $40,000 a pair speakers feature a 1 piece carbon-fiber cabinet, a diamond tweeter and ceramic mids and woofers from Accuton.

I cannot tell you how utterly this system managed to stir me with its ability to recreate dynamic contrasts that approached real world events and microdynamic shadings as articulate as the lead instrument or voice when recorded as such. Punch and impact? Oh yeah. What about harmonic color? In Technicolor! Focus? You bet. Coherence? In spades. Body? Like the musicians and instruments were in the room. Get the picture? This was one mighty fine sounding system, virtual show-goers. Keep and eye out for the full review of the EAR 324 sometime soon.

The deHavilland room, which I have come to know will always be a treat, had also stepped it up a notch this year with the introduction of their new Aires 845-G monoblocks at $6,000 a pair. Kara Chaffee's new 30-Watt amplifier is a single-ended, zero-negative-feedback design based on the 845 output tube, and uses the 6SN7 GTA/B pre-driver and 6AU5 driver. Weighing in at 60 pounds apiece, they were the heart of a lush and seductive music system.

The sexy new Aries 845-G monoblocks with the optional triangular tube cages

The $4,000 Sony SACD77ES was the source feeding the ($3000) deHavilland UltraVerve preamplifier. Speakers were the very open and extraordinarily detailed Alon Lotus Elite Signatures ($8,000), with all cabling provided by George Cardas.

George Kielczynski and Kara managed to pull it off yet again, putting together a room that, once a source was playing, made if very hard to leave. I spent close to an hour there, listening to various selections and soaking in the rich timbres, realistic soundstaging and palpable images. Though low powered by comparison to many other systems I am used to listening to, there was never a hint of strain or limitation to this highly tuneful system, placing it too in contention for the honors of being referred to as the best sounding room at the show.

Set up diagonally to make the best of this smallish space, the new deHavilland 845-G monoblocks sang like sirens

One of the most fascinating rooms at T.H.E. Show, without question, was the Damoka room, where David Karmeli had assembled one of, if not the, most lifelike sounding rooms I've ever heard under any conditions.

Using a pair of Siemens Bionor Loudspeakers, with a born on-date of January 1960, these enormous classic horns were celebrating their 43rd birthday! Given their age, there is no way to place a price on these six-foot tall, eight-foot wide antiques. Sources in the room were the $9,800 Weiss Medea D/A Converter or the $45,000 The American Sound Turntable with multiple SME 3012R tonearms and various carts. The phono stage was Vladimir "changed his last name to Lamm" Shushurin's $6,900 Lamm LP2 connected the $12,900 Lamm L2 Reference Line Stage which in turn fed a pair of the $29,900 ML2 SET Monoblocks. Connectivity throughout was provided by the new Stereovox Analog cabling, roughly $30,000 worth.

Here we see David Karmeli in front of the 43-year-old, 6' tall by 8' wide Siemens Bionor Loudspeakers

These super-sized historic horns are without question the least aggressive and most coherent horn speakers I've ever run across. Though most horns may offer lifelike dynamics, many other negative attributes, such as their general aggressiveness and discontinuous and nonlinear frequency balance, have conspired to keep me from ever finding a horn that I felt was truly an all-encompassing speaker. Well, it seems all I needed was a time machine, because these relics were the real deal. While one would expect quite a bit from gear with this kind of sticker price, that alone is never a guarantee of such solid, all-inclusive and integrated performance. This system may possibly be the most lifelike sounding electro-mechanical sound reproduction system I've ever heard!

The hard part was getting a seat in this room. Once someone sat down in the dozen or 14 odd chairs at the south end of the room, they tended to stay. I noticed that both Clark Johnsen (author of The Wood Effect) and recording engineer Stan Ricker were among the many who were slow to give up their seats in that room. I know I went back Monday morning, after CES had closed down but Mike's T.H.E. Show was still going, to get some quality time in front of this rig.

On a musical note, it was in this room that I was introduced to a recording from one of the most accomplished soloists on the doublebass, equally matched by its sonic splendor. The lyrical prowess Gary Karr displays over his 1611 Amati doublebass on The Spirit of Koussevitzky [VQR Digital VQR 2031] is unparalleled in my years of listening. The proficiency of this artist, and the emotion he wrings from this period instrument, approach genius, while the sonics are nothing short of superb. Track 12, Reinhold Gliére's "Prelude, Op. 32, No. 1," really highlights the tonal weight and full, aged body the instrument. This is a spectacular recording, and this system really allowed it to be recognized as such!

One of the most moving musical experiences I've ever had, and not just at a show, came in the Cain & Cain/electron luv/Pranawire room hosted by Alan Kafton’s Audio Excellence AZ. A ModWright signature Philips SACD 1000 ($1250) handed off to the new electron luv passive transformer-based attenuator (no price given), which then passed the signal to the $35,000 pair of electron luv 75 TL Monobloc amplifiers which were in turn driving the new $4,750, 97 dB efficient Cain & Cain Single Horn BEN with super tweeter. The most unique cables I've come across in some time, the Pranawire Nataraja series pure silver ribbon interconnects ($3,450/2 meter) and speaker cables ($3,450/2 meter) were a big part of this remarkably musical, though not flawless, system. Power cables were the Sahuaro Audio Supreme ($2500), except for the captured cables of the electron luv amps, and two Sahuaro Audio Pre-Thrilla power cables ($500-$2,500, depending on length) were used to connect the also new World Power Power Wing ($2,000) conditioners to the wall. The synergy was extraordinary.

Looking as much like a MOMA exhibit as an electro-mechanical reproduction system, in some ways, this was one of the most remarkable sounding systems I've ever spent time with

Housed in an art-deco chassis made of handcrafted stainless steel and copper, the 8-watt electron luv 75 TL uses mercury-vapor quad-mono power supplies and directly heated triode tubes. The eerie blue glow of the Western Electric 354 and 872 mercury vapor rectifiers, the subtle contrasts of the steel and copper and the highly polished, sculpted chassis make for one of the most visually commanding amplifiers ever witnessed by this 30 year veteran. Oh, and they sounded pretty damn good too!

Fusing visual art with sound aesthetics, the electron luv 75 TL Monoblock defies the typical amplifier's prefabricated wiring and rectangular construction

Joe Cohen, owner and designer of the Pranawire products, and I spent a great deal of time listening late Sunday afternoon and early evening. I imposed upon Joe's good nature by asking him play any number of tracks from my library, including the entire Presto from the Solti/CSO Beethoven's 9th Symphony [London 430-438-2]. This system simply nailed the body of and air around instruments and beautifully revealed the harmonic balance throughout the crucial midrange. With Stephen Still's guitar on "Treetop Flyer," the body of instrument, the rise of the pluck of the strings and the palpability of his voice, were completely riveting. During the entire 25 minutes of the 4th movement from Beethoven's Ninth, Joe, myself and one other show-goer sat rapt in our seats, with only an occasional glance of awe shared with the others. The string section, the horns and the vocalists came to life in that small hotel room for that briefest of moments. It was one of the most enchanting musical experiences it has ever been my pleasure to witness.

Joe described it best in an email to me some days later. "I think what we live for as audiophiles are those moments when everything comes together and all thoughts of equipment are gone - when we are incapable of judging, because we are staring into the mind of the composer, who was staring into the mind of God."

The significance of the experiences I describe from the last two rooms has given me much to rethink. While the electron luv/Cain & Cain/PranaWire room would have benefited greatly from greater clarity and detail in the highs and much more bass support, and the Siemens/Lamm room tended to create a slightly larger than lifelike soundstage, those experiences represent the first times in over 3 decades of listening to music through these silly toys that I ever had such revelatory experiences with tube driven horn loaded drivers.

So, which system at this years CES/T.H.E. Show was the best? You'll have to decide for yourself, as I simply cannot. The abundance of good sound at this year's Thriller in the Desert prevents me from leaving out or slighting any of the systems mentioned above by arbitrarily choosing one of the others as best. No, they all deserve the nomination, and depending on your own hot buttons or biases, I'll let you decide for yourself which room would have been your favorite.

I believe that 2003 is going to be a very good year for the music lover/audiophile, and this past CES, even given the current state of the economy and slump in the high-end market, was by far the most musically satisfying show I have ever attended. The state of the state-of-the-art is now staggering, and the inevitable trickle-down has been widespread. It is possible today, on even the most meager of budgets, to attain a level of sound quality that was unavailable at any price when I was starting in this industry back in the late 1960's. Thanks to all the manufacturers and dedicated representatives and dealers who have made such a stirring contribution to our industry.

¹ Man did I hear a bunch of new, sub $1000 a pair speakers this year that all sounded remarkable, namely the VSA VR-1, the Usher X719 and the Margules MB-1. I'm going to try to do a round up with those very three speakers.