CES 2015 Preview Report -- Part 4

  GoldenEar's SuperSub XXL subwoofer will debut at CES 2015 along side their Triton Five Towers and full lineup of high-end audio speakers (Venetian suites 30-131 and 30-132). GoldenEar's Triton Tower series sets new standards for the company's high-end performance and value. The Triton One, Two and Three all incorporate built-in powered subwoofers, with the Seven as the first Triton Tower without a built-in powered subwoofer. The new Triton Five is a larger version of the Seven and produces greater dynamic range and deeper bass extension. In addition, several important refinements carried over from the Triton One development program result in even better imaging as well as a more sophisticated overall sonic presentation. The Five's unique cabinet shape is both acoustically purposeful as well as strikingly attractive. Its stylish rearward rake both aligns the driver array precisely to ear level at the listening position, as well as results in non-parallel front and rear baffles for better control of internal standing waves. In addition, the beautifully sculpted piano-gloss black base adds significantly to the Five’s dynamic stability. Like the Triton One, Two, and Seven, the Five combines a D'Appolito Array of two high-definition bass/midrange drivers, which surround a High Velocity Folded Ribbon (HVFR) diver. The HVFR tweeter functions by pressurizing the air, rather than pushing and pulling it, for much better impedance matching with the air. The spiderleg cast-basket 6" midrange/bass drivers are based on the 6" driver originally developed at the company's Arnprior engineering facility. The Five incorporates four side-mounted sub-bass radiators (two on each side, in an inertially-balanced configuration) that are located down near the floor for optimum coupling to the room. Goldenear's Triton Five measures 8.5" x 12.675 x 44.25 (WxDxH) and weighs 40 lbs. Frequency response is from 26 Hz to 35 kHz and it has a sensitivity of 90dB/W/m.

GoldenEar’s new SuperSub line up is a very special group of ultra-high-performance compact subwoofers which incorporate many recently developed unique and advanced technologies and components. The goal was to create beautifully styled, finely finished, reasonably sized subwoofers, that could generate very low frequency pressure waves of extremely high amplitude, while delivering accurate and precise low frequency performance that is both highly impactful and extremely musical. In order to achieve this, GoldenEar have incorporated a unique (patent-pending) 360 degree dual-plane inertially-balanced driver and sub-bass radiator topology, combined with a very advanced electronics package. The first of these new subwoofers, the SuperSub XXL ($1999), will debut at CES 2015. The enclosure of the XXL is constructed of very thick, high density medite, which is finished in high-gloss piano black lacquer. It is intricately and effectively braced in order to eliminate the possibility of resonances or the flexing of cabinet panels due to the tremendous internal pressure. There is a unique (patent pending) combination of two fully inertially-balanced 12" long-throw active drivers in the horizontal plane and two fully inertially-balanced 12.72"x 14.5" planar infrasonic radiators in the vertical plane. This force-canceling inertial balancing preserves and focuses all the energy produced by the transducers in order to effectively move the air in the room. Because there are two active drivers which are separated horizontally in space, as well as two passive radiators that are separated vertically, the driver-to-room coupling is distributed much more smoothly as the different driver locations couple to different room standing wave patterns plus it is mor eeffective with handling the room's eigenmodes. There is a 1600 Watt Class D digital amplifier, originally developed for GoldenEar's Triton One, which is controlled by a 56-bit DSP device with a 192kHz sample rate. This Programmable Logic State Machine has nearly instantaneous 278 ns update time to manage a myriad of functions including frequency response, soft clipping, DC offset control, output-stage saturation control, discrete multi-band limiting and phase-perfect equalization. The amplifier also utilizes many small, separate power supplies for each circuit section in order to provide isolation, so there is little opportunity for coupling through the power supplies. A fully balanced topology is used to minimize noise and distortion. Finally, advanced reconstruction filters are utilized in order to maximize damping factor. The company says, "Sonically, the result is rock-solid bass response that is both exceptionally fast and tuneful for music, and extraordinarily deep and powerful, in order to effortlessly reproduce the most extreme movie sound effects". RCA inputs are provided for both LFE connection, as well as low-level connection from a stereo source. There is a precision level control as well as a phase perfect low-pass control to enable seamless integration into any system. Dimensions are 18.875 x 15.75 x 15.25 (WxHxD) and the frequency response is from 10 Hz to 200 Hz. The low pass filter is @ 12dB per octave continuously variable from 40 Hz to 200 Hz.

 

High Resolution Technologies (HRT) will be at CES 2015 (Venetian auite 29-140) to introduce their nano series dSp and i-dSp for improved sound from mobile devices. The dSp and i-dSp are two accessories that provide improved headphone sound quality for smartphones, tablets, portable devices, notebooks and other computing platforms. The HRT dSp ($69.99) works with Android, OS X, Windows and other devices and the i-dSp ($69.99) works with Lightning connector-equipped Apple iOS products including the iPhone 5 and 6, iPod touch and current iPad models. Both ultra-compact, simple to use models incorporate proprietary digital Sound processing (DSP) and a high-performance headphone amplifier. They're designed for those who use their phones, tablets, laptops and other portable devices as their primary listening and viewing platforms and who seek the best-possible headphone experience for music, video and gaming.

 

Bryston (Venetian suite 29-308) will be showing their new optical transport and power supply combo, a new A-series subwoofer, a new smaller center channel speaker and a prototype of the new BDA-3 DAC featuring DSD and HDMI. The Bryston team will be on hand running demos and answering questions.

 

Thiel Audio (Venetian suites 30-123 and 30-125) will be demonstrating both two-channel and surround systems featuring the TM3 bookshelf, the TC1 center channel and TT1 floorstanding loudspeakers. THIEL staff on hand to answer any questions and provide a guided tour of all that's new.

 

Dirac Research (Venetian suite 31-201) will be showcasing and demonstrating new technologies at CES 2015. Dirac's digital solutions have brought refined audio performance to such respected brands as Datasat, BMW, Volvo and many others. Please stop by and audition Dirac technology.

 

Arcam Solo bar and Solo sub ($1500 and $800 respectively) are for those who want a single speaker for sound system, yet also enjoy deep bass. The Solo is a high quality compact sound unit with wireless Bluetooth capability. Users can stream from any Bluetooth device to the Solo Bar or stream to Bluetooth headphones for private listening. Is also has 4>1 4K HDMI switching, integrated auto setup and equalization. Arcam built the Solo Bar to produce accurate, articulate sound quality for music, movies, plus deliver immersive game sound for X-BOX, PS4 etc. It has HD audio decoding for Dolby True-HD, DTS-HD, etc and four HDMI inputs with 4K video passthrough and CEC, one HDMI output/return with ARC, S/PDIF coax and TosLink optical digital inputs. There is a 3.5mm analog input and Bluetooth input with aptX streaming technology. Integrated auto setup includes equalization aided by a an included calibration microphone. A 100 Watt amplifier powers all six of the drivers. Arcam provides a free Solo iOS & Android control APP. The matching Solo Sub has a 300 Watt amplifier coupled to a downward-firing 10" woofer to produce deep bass. Arcam's Solo sub can be connected wirelessly or wired to the Solo bar. Arcam's Solo sub may also can be used in association with more complex AV systems, for example Arcam's AVR450 & AVR750 AV receivers.

 

Furutech's Alpha Design Labs (ADL) wil be at CES 2015 (Venetian suite 30-112) with their portable and desktop audio components plus a wide range of portable audio accessories. ADL Stratos stereo USB DAC / ADC recording interface ($779) handles both DSD and 32-bit/192kHz plus has a high quality phonostage too!

ADL Stratos
DSD (2.8M/5.6M) USB DAC
32-bit/192kHz USB DAC and ADC
Powerful Headphone Amplifier (16 to 600 Ohm) 
High-performance MM/MC Phono stage
Controller supports ASIO and Asynchronous mode 
S/PDIF Optical Input and Output (24-bit/192kHz maximum)
Records from Analog Sources to PC or MAC hard drive at 24-bit/192kHz maximum)

ADL GT40α ($529, pictured above) is a 24-bit/192kHz USB DAC/ADC with phonostage.

ADL H128 headphones ($458) features specially-designed Alpha Triform earcups. The ADL H128 is balanced in a completely audiophile way and is said to produce "rich tonal colors and textures with intimate and close harmonic interplay, with a sense of space and quiet backgrounds". ADL wanted to retain their H118's smooth, well-balanced sound yet desired to improve dynamics and recreate the same "punch" heard during live performances.

 

---> CES 2105 Preview Part 5.