Los Angeles Audio Show 2017 Report
LAAS 2017 Show Report Part 1
Portable Audio with DAPs, headphones, IEMs, Magic Bus and more!
LAAS 2017 High-End Audio Show Report

  Peter from The Cable Company was at LAAS 2017 showcasing a pair of vinyl LP cleaners. Audio Desk Systeme record cleaner is available in grey, white, red, and black and it takes approximately five minutes to clean the typical 12" vinyl LP. Internally, the unit has a 4.5 liter water capacity and cleaning concentrate of 20 ml. This precision Germany made unit has received much praise over the years, too. If you don't have a vinyl LP cleaner, you really need one to hear everything your vinyl has deep within it's grooves. Check it out at The Cable Company's website to learn more.

Sonoma M1 system ($4995 with headphones included) has been carefully optimized for today's Hi-Resolution Audio formats. The company has analyzed virtually every aspect of their system so it may deliver truly unparalleled levels of performance and sound quality. Keep in mind this is the world's first headphone to use a High-Precision Electrostatic Laminate Transducer (HPEL) developed by Warwick Audio Technologies Ltd. Sonoma's M1 system sounded great to my ears.

Helping music lovers to expand their knowledge of Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Music, The DEG's Marc Finer was at LAAS 2017 chatting with my wife/Muse Heather. We discussed the incredible progress The DEG has made over the past handful of years and how they are working with major record labels, hardware manufacturers, and even Grammy-earning recording engineers to ensure Hi-Res Audio delivers next-gen sound quality worldwide. You can keep up-to-date with the latest developments on their Stream The Studio website.

MrSpeakers brought to LAAS 2017 their Ether Electrostatic in preproduction form (~$3000). It weighs 335 grams, comes with a very nice cable that is round, non microphonic and thank goodness it is very flexible too. Gone are the days of unyieldingly stiff headphone cables that are simply too rigid to be comfortable (yea!). Also of note is that the stereo headphone cable is detachable, so you can easily make cable swaps to your heart's desire. While it was a prototype, the sound is, as you'd expect, of top-shelf and makes me very much look forward to the production unit in a few months (perhaps at RMAF?).

MrSpeakers was taking advantage of vacuum tube amplification with the Blue Hawaii Special Edition ($5799 on up). Blue Hawaii SE is the flagship HeadAmp product, and based on over a decade's experience building electrostatic headphone amplifiers. No expense was spared in the design and build of the Blue Hawaii SE, and every amplifier is tested extensively throughout the build process, as well as before, and after an extensive burn-in process to ensure the best possible performance. 

Again, this headphone system sounded amazeballs! Loved it!

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