CEDIA 2002
Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association

Saturday

 

  Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) loudspeakers has just introduced their ASW-CDM ($1,600) "ultra-high-output" 12-inch driver equipped subwoofer that includes a 1000-watt amplifier. While being fairly compact at 15 x 15 x 20 inches, useful acoustic output goes down to 15Hz due to the ultra-long-throw 12-inch driver. The driver's diaphragm is composed of reinforced woven Kevlar material. The resin-impregnated fibers achieve added stiffness while a "mushroom-ring" bonded assembly of the cone, carbon-fiber voice-coil bobbin, and reinforced dustcap further extend the performance of the driver. The active amplification also includes an adjustable second-order low-pass filter that can be turned off if desired for added flexibility. Third-order fixed high-pass filtering is employed on the line-level "return" outputs for those who use the ASW-CDM in a two-channel sat/sub setup. The cabinet is made from top-grade, hand-finished real wood veneers that are available in Black Ash, Cherrywood, and red-stained Cherrywood.

 

German company Elac were featuring their 1 Series, 2 Series and 3 Series loudspeakers at the CEDIA show. Distributed in the U.S. by Trian Electronics, Elac's 1 Series has many different models including their model 101 two-way bookshelf loudspeaker ($439 per pair) with 24mm aluminum-coated ring-dome tweeter and 140mm anodized aluminum diaphragm with a heavy-duty rubber surround midrange/woofer. Frequency response is from 48Hz to 22kHz with a sensitivity of 85dB/W/m and the peak power handling of 55 watts. Moving up their line, the 2 Series, the ELAC 207 floorstander ($759 each, pictured above) features a 25 KST III dome tweeter and two 150mm proprietary aluminum sandwich design woofers for extended bass. Frequency response is from 36Hz to 25kHz. Their top-line 3 Series features enclosures constructed of extruded aluminum and all models include metal grills to offer a very high-tech look. Their CL 330 JET loudspeaker ($3,299 per pair) has Elac's custom ribbon tweeter and two 180mm proprietary aluminum sandwich design woofers. Frequency response is from 40Hz to 35kHz and the peak power handling is 120 watts.

 

Danish manufacturer Thule Audio had their new Space Series on display that incorporates "an intelligent control circuit with a proprietary IC" so their amplifier designs "avoids the intermittent switching of the output transistors in typical designs". This is said to keep the bias voltage to the output stage constant to make a "Virtual Class A" design, yet without the high energy demands and accompanying heat problems. The end result is a highly efficiency design that is claimed to produce 60% less heat than conventional "Class AB" amplifiers. Their PA350B power amplifier ($4,195) produces 160 watts to all five channels, or 500 watts when used in stereo only mode. Optional plug-in cards are available to increase the channel from five to seven. Thule Audio's PR250B pre-amplifier/processor ($2595) offers all the usual surround sound processing plus a "Pure Audio" mode where audio signals bypass the 24-bit/96kHz Burr Brown DACs. The PR250B may be upgraded to Thule Audio's new PR350B if more processing is desired. Rounding out this system, their DVD250B DVD player ($2,495) features 10-bit video D/A converters, plus a video output circuit of 70MHz bandwidth for very low distortion and high phase integrity. In addition, the video circuit can output RGB and YCrCb video signals simultaneously. When used as a CD player, the unit features a RAM buffer of approximately one second of music. This is claimed by Thule Audio to effectively cancel any time error (jitter).

 

Simaudio Ltd.'s new MOON Orion DVD transport/player offers more features than you can shake a stick at (and i can shake a mean stick :-) ). Based on their MOON Stellar, the Orion can be employed as an all-in-one solution or with outboard digital processors. An optional Videon Stingray line-doubler circuit using Faroudja's DCD (Diagonal Correlation Deinterlacing) technology is available to enhance video performance. Also available is an optional BurrBrown PCM1730E 24-bit/192-kHz DAC's with 8X oversampling. A plethora of connection capabilities include digital S/PDIF, RCA, and TosLink for audio. Composite RCA, Component RCA, S-Video, Progressive BNC & RGB (DB15) and 21-pin SCART for video. The MOON Orion can play DVD-Video, audio CD Audio, VCD, CD-R and CD-RW media formats. Pricing is as follows: Transport only $2,995, with analog audio outputs $3,295, with Videon Stringray line-doubler $4,495, or a fully equipped unit $4,795.

 

 

Triad Speakers has just released their InRoom Gold Monitor and Silver MiniMonitors. The InRoom Gold Monitor employs a Seas tweeter and two 7-inch Scan-Speak midrange/woofer drivers while the cabinetry can be ordered in a variety of real wood veneer finishes. Custom paint matched finishes or custom veneers are also available. The Silver MiniMonitors ($1,200 each) include a 1-inch soft-dome tweeter and 5.25-inch Scan-Speak midrange/woofer driver and comes in an attractive black pebblestone finish cabinet and in a vast selection of custom paint and real wood veneer options. All Triad loudspeakers have a limited 10-year warranty.

 

Bryston's new SP 1.7 A/V processor/pre-amplifier ($4,295) provides high-end sound quality with ease of use with a vast amount of features. While many of the functions are automatic, the controls are well-labeled from the front panel's LCD and LED displays. The SP 1.7 automatically detects the digital input signal, then routes the signal through the DSP module and makes the appropriate adjusts in choosing the operation mode (Dolby Digital, dts, THX, etc). Decoding includes 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 channel modes while a Mono and Stereo Down-mixing and Bass Management modes also also provided for. A choice of 13 sources, with digital inputs (4 coaxial, 2 TosLink, and AES/EBU) are accommodated. Built-in processing is via 24-bit/96kHz DACs. Those who desire analog purity, the digital circuitry can be bypassed to provide a totally discrete analog signal path including analog volume adjustments. DSP music modes include Stereo, Natural, Club, Stadium, Hall, Theatre, Church, and Party. Keeping a keen ear on sound quality, 1% metal-film resistors, polystyrene capacitors, hand-matched transistors, and gold-plated RCA and XLR connectors are an example of the high-end parts within the Bryston SP 1.7 design. The SP 1.7 has a plug-in ROM chip to allow for ease of upgrading including support for future formats or digital processing technologies as the existing DAC chips can run at sample rates up to 192kHz.

 

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complete listing of show exhibitors.

 

Click here to see our previous year's show report.