Home  Hi-Fi Audio Reviews  |  Audiophile Shows  |  Partner Mags  Music News       

  High-End High-Performance Audiophile Review Magazine & Hi-Fi Audio Equipment Reviews

  High-Performance Audio Reviews
  Music News, Show Reports, And More!

  Celebrating 29 Years Of Service To Music Lovers

 

 

Las Vegas 2001

CES

T.H.E. SHOW

  Wow, it is Monday already? Seems like only yesterday we were finishing off our pre-show report. Today we have some really special goodies for you to see. And they are...

 

McIntosh MC2102

Having a Big Mac attack for tubes? Look no further than the McIntosh MC2102 tubed stereo amplifier for 100 wpc. of glorious tube sound from eight KT88 output tubes. The classic centrally-mounted Big Mc meters with flanking knobs screams classic two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.

 

Quad II forty

Speaking of classic, virtually nothing from England is more classic than Quad. Their model II forty tube amplifiers uses two KT88 and a 5U4 driver to produce 40 wpc. Also seen here is their QC twenty four pre-amplifier. The whole package will set you back £4,000.

 

Manley Labs

Manley Labs were thoroughly covered in our pre-show report, though we felt you would like to see a "live" photo of the  Steelhead phono stage and Manley Wave DAC. Enjoy!

 

In the Manley Labs room were the wonderful Coincident Speaker Technology Total Eclipse ($7,999, leftmost loudspeaker) and Partial Eclipse ($2,999). The Total Eclipse is 94 dB/w/m sensitive and presents a mere 14 ohm load so tube heads will love it! Frequency response is 24Hz to 30kHz. The Partial Eclipse is 91dB/W/m sensitive with a flat 8 ohm load. Frequency is 30Hz to 22kHz. The tweeter and midrange drivers are completely sealed within their own compartment. The side-firing woofers help to reduce the front width of the cabinet to enhance the imaging capabilities.

 

Audes Poseidon

Audes had their Poseidon loudspeaker ($10,000) that employs the popular Seas Millennium tweeter. Meanwhile the other drivers are all custom made within their own factory. The internal hookup wire is the DH Labs Silver Sonic while the loudspeaker cable and interconnects were from Silversmith. Crossover components include Hovland and Musicap capacitors. Bring a powerful amplifier as the sensitivity is only 88 dB/W/m while it presents a 6 ohm resistance load.

 

The new company, Threshold Pro, is going to release this amplifier shortly that is along the lines of the old Threshold T300 amplifier and be priced at approximately $8,000. While the new Threshold will not honor the warranty older products, a representative did say that they might honor some warranty claims on a case by case basis. The only real connection between the old Threshold and the new one is that the new company paid a lot of money to buy out the old Threshold name and designs. Like many solid-state amplifiers, the output devices in the old models are no longer available (score one for forty year old tube amplifiers whose tubes are readably available today). Therefore if you own an old Threshold amplifier and the output devices fail, you may need to change them all the new, different devices that will surely change the performance of the amplifier (for better or worse).

 

JJ322

Looking drop dead gorgeous is the JJ Electronic 322 stereo amplifier. With two 300B tubes per channel operating in parallel, it produces 20 wpc. For those with only one source component, a front knob allows for volume adjustment. JJ Electronic also had their JJ828 stereo amplifier that uses the KT88 output tube.

 

Good ol' Nagra had their MPA amplifier ($12,000) and PL-L wireless remote controllable preamplifier ($6,800, seen above). We gave the world a first look at the PL-L in our Milan 2000 show report.

 

Going into my personal "is it real or just a fairy tale" is the Western Electric 91-C monoblock amplifier ($16,000/pr). i remember hearing about Western Electric making new tubes other than the 300B many years ago and so far no results. As for the 91-C, i am not holding my breath.

 

Genesis Technologies' new 450XS loudspeakers ($20,000) feature two G-929 woofers, an amazing all new 24" midrange ribbon and four Genesis G-SAT 1000 watt servo amplifiers. Frequency response is an amazing 18 Hz to 36 kHz (+-3dB). Each speaker weighs in at 200 lbs.

 

Roland Design Group Concerto

Roland Design Group's new Concerto ($4,000 or so) is an 80 wpc. solid-state integrated amplifier. This is basically a smaller version of their Concentra II 150 wpc. integrated amplifier at a more attractive price. 

 

Linn Komri

Linn's new Komri is their no-compromise flagship loudspeaker. The Komri is a five-way loudspeaker employing one very high frequency driver, one tweeter driver, a midrange driver, an upper bass driver and two long-throw active bass drivers. Each bass driver is coupled to independent power amplifiers that employ Servo Bass Management for clean, deep bass reproduction.

 

Alon's new Exotica Grand Reference System as in our pre-show report. They sounded incredible... even in the smallish room at CES. Smooth bass, extended highs and a lively midrange.

 

B-b-b-bad. Bad to the bone John Curl of CTC Builders.

 

Blue Room loudspeakers

Wickedly cool Blue Room loudspeakers ($449 on up) and their Minipod woofer (approximately $500) were among the coolest looking loudspeaker at the show.

 

EAR M100A

Friends, Romans and Countrymen, lend me your ear. The EAR M100A to be exact. As we have been so thorough in our pre-show report, it is hard to add to what we already said about the EAR M100A.

 

Tim de Paravicini
Tim de Paravicini, designer extraordinaire for EAR.

 

Basis Audio Vector

Basis Audio Vector tonearm ($2,000 or so) employs various levels of viscous dampening to achieve high-performance in vinyl playback. The Vector will fit into standard Basis arm boards such as those for the RB250, 300 and 900.

 

TLG Series 3

Possibly the funkiest horns at the show goes to the folks at TLG Acoustics. Their TLG Series 3 ($45,000) has the most unique bass horn mated with the more normal midrange, tweeter and supertweeter.

 

TLG Acoustcs Series 4

TLG Acoustic's more, um, normal Series 4 ($19,000) loudspeaker seems to a psudo D'Appolito design with a centrally located tweeter with top and bottom flanking midrange drivers. A side-firing 18" subwoofer provides lower frequency support.

 

Cardas CPBP

The new Cardas loudspeaker terminal CPBP (Cardas Patented Binding Post) was seen on quite a few new amplifier at the show. It will securely hold loudspeaker spade lugs by turning the large knob. No tools needed to tighten and loosen your cables. 

 

Robert Harley
Technical guru Robert Harley.

 

Click here to see a complete listing of
specialty high-end audio show exhibitors.

 

Click here to see last year's show coverage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     
 

Quick Links


Premium Audio Review Magazine
High-End Audiophile Equipment Reviews

 

Equipment Review Archives
Turntables, Cartridges, Etc
Digital Source
Do It Yourself (DIY)
Preamplifiers
Amplifiers
Cables, Wires, Etc
Loudspeakers/ Monitors
Headphones, IEMs, Tweaks, Etc
Superior Audio Gear Reviews

 

 


Show Reports
HIGH END Munich 2024
AXPONA 2024 Show Report
Montreal Audiofest 2024 Report

Southwest Audio Fest 2024
Florida Intl. Audio Expo 2024
Capital Audiofest 2023 Report
Toronto Audiofest 2023 Report
UK Audio Show 2023 Report
Pacific Audio Fest 2023 Report
T.H.E. Show 2023 Report
Australian Hi-Fi Show 2023 Report
...More Show Reports

 

Videos
Our Featured Videos

 


Industry & Music News

High-Performance Audio & Music News

 

Partner Print Magazines
audioXpress
Australian Hi-Fi Magazine
hi-fi+ Magazine
Sound Practices
VALVE Magazine

 

For The Press & Industry
About Us
Press Releases
Official Site Graphics

 

 

 

     

Home   |   Hi-Fi Audio Reviews   |   News   |   Press Releases   |   About Us   |   Contact Us

 

All contents copyright©  1995 - 2024  Enjoy the Music.com®
May not be copied or reproduced without permission.  All rights reserved.