|
CES '05
Finally, the
wintry month of January has arrived. Actually
it’s one of my favorite months. First of all
it’s a new year and my favorite Consumer
Electronics Show takes place in Las Vegas.
However, this year’s CES 2005 was a lot
different than previous shows, usually held
under the warm desert sun. First, it rained
and then, worse, it snowed! Actually as
with every CES, I was so pumped up that this
year’s bad weather didn’t bother me much.
It’s a CES, who cares! I’m like a little kid
in a candy store and I get to see my
audiophile buddies and lots of new toys; who
could ask for more? Above is our annual ST family photo:
Dave Thomas is far left and Mike Wright,
Clement Perry, yours truly are to his right. I
Must admit that, some warm desert sun wouldn’t
have hurt. That said I don't think for a
moment that our spirits were dampened or, for
that matter, the sound of the music. Isn't
that what this is all about?
Reimyo
As luck would have it, the Reimyo room
provided quite memorable musical experiences.
And this wasn't by mere coincidence; Mr. Kazuo Kuichi
has a lot to do
with the mastering of XRCDs. And very rarely,
if ever, does the opportunity arise that one
can hear a designers true intent from the
recording studio to the actual playback. This
was a rare occasion indeed. The sound,
considering the size of this small room, was
just remarkable . First surprise for me was
how open the music was. There was simply no
restriction in bandwidth, dynamics both micro
and macro. Again, the music seemed to emanate
from beyond the physical location of the
loudspeakers. The overall sonic impression
bore a very pure un-edgy sound to it. Its
organic and palpable midrange kept me in the
room much longer than I had any business to
considering my time constraints.
The Reimyo
CDP-777 is a CD player (above left) is as
attractive in looks as it is in sound (review
in works). At $ 14,000, it's built like a
Sherman tank, and sports upsampling capability
from the standard Red Book (14/44) up to
24/176.4 kHz. The also attractive Reimyo
PAT-777 300B tube stereo amplifier ($ 22,000
above right) was paired with the Bravo two-way
monitors ($3,900) and the B-Bass Sub ($3,900)
and the Reimyo CAT-777 preamp ($14,000), and
ALS-777 AC power stabilizer ($3,800). All
cabling and tuning devices were from Harmonix
and completed the set-up.
Rethm/Stealth Audio/Art Audio
Designer Jacob
George’s Rethm room was another truly
outstanding room. The Second Rethm ($7,500)
single Lowther DX4 driver crossover-free
loudspeakers produced shockingly pure sound
they were driven by an Art Audio PX 25
amplifier ($6,500) single-ended triode, Gill
Audio Electronics (Elise DAC and
Alana-preamp); all cabling was from none other
than Serguei Timachev's Stealth Audio Cables
(below with a cache of new cables).
I don't know if
you're aware but Serguei is the type of
gentleman that always seems upbeat, positive
and, how do I say it, intriguing. He stopped
Perry and I dead in our tracks and took us,
literally by the hand, certain we didn't miss
the sound of the Rethm room using his cables.
It wasn't 20 minutes earlier that we ran into
the very same situation with a different cable
manufacturer who dragged us to a room to hear
his featured cables. The sound was quite
disappointing so you can imagine the looks on
our faces when Serguei began talking.
Begrudgingly we gave in. Almost immediately,
the Rethm sound caught and captivated both
Perry and I. The purity of this
crossover-less design coupled with the musical
experience, for example, when listening to
Grieg’s Peer gynt’s Solveig’s and Elly
Ameling’s voice, was superbly rendered and in
a word "seductive." I felt as though she was
in the room. The Rethm loudspeaker is
amazingly organic, with a completely
non-electronic [read: very high purity
quotient] sonic character.
Jadis/Pierre Gabriel Loudspeakers and Silver
Cables
Pierre Gabriel Acoustics of Canada was
recently named U.S. distributor for Jadis, put
on a wonderful sounding room and demo. The
sound was holographic and three dimensional
and persisted with a luscious midrange as one
would expect from all these tubes. All
components were Jadis tube electronics; the
stunning Jadis JA200, 4 chasis monoblock
amplifier ($30K) paired with the Pierre
Gabriel Grand Master ($50K) two way
floorstanding loudspeakers boasting a 95 dB
sensitivity along with the exotic
looking JD-1 Pro transport ($25K) paired with
JS-1 DAC (15K) and JPS2 ($13K) preamplifier.
These speakers, which weigh 1,000lbs a pair,
employ a ribbon tweeter, are truly handcrafted
in the best sense of the word. Every component
is Rolls-Royce quality, custom made from start
to finish. All cabling was from Pierre Gabriel
Handcrafted Signature Silver cables (RCA
Interconnect $3,500/MT and Speaker cables
($15,000/2.5MT). Now I'm not going to bash
these guys because based on what I heard and
saw with my own eyes was breathtakingly well
done. What I don't understand however is how
other show rooms presented lesser designed
products that were actually more expensive
than these loudspeakers. Talk about sticker
shock!
Next
|
