CES 2006 & T.H.E. Show Pre-Event Report
     

 

  Ars Aures, earning an Enjoy the Music.com^® Blue Note Award for their MIDI Sensorial as reviewed here, will have their MI floorstanding loudspeaker ($9,600) as part of the company's Musical Note family. This bass reflex design is a full range, 45Hz to 30Khz design with a 1-inch Revelator tweeter and a pair of Focal 5-inch midrange/woofer drivers. Nominal impedance is 4 Ohm with a sensitivity of 89dB/W/m. Cabinet finishes include HDF high gloss, solid wood, and wood painted. Dimensions are 39 x9 x11 (HxWxD in inches) and each loudspeaker weighs 77 lbs.

 

  Audio Aero's room will have the company's Prestige CD/SACD player/preamplifier ($12,990) with 24-bit/192kHz re-sampling with DSD to PCM bridge and integrated tube preamplifier, Prestige 40 ($23,000/pr) monoblock single-ended 40 watt 'Class A' with TRAC system triode and pentode in parallel driving the WLM Viola loudspeakers ($10,750). Cabling will be by Nirvana Audio. Also in their room will be the HRS (Harmonic Resolution Systems) MXR-1921-4V component stand in walnut burl finish with M3 1921 Isolation bases for shelves and Wilson Benesch's Act II turntable with Act II tonearm and Carbon cartridge

 

   Anagram Technologies will have their new line of ultrahigh performance digital audio modules targeting high-precision 24-bit D/A audio converter systems. Four new modules, Quantum, Sonic2, Sonic4, and TimeLock incorporate the latest generation of Anagram's patent-pending Q5 Upsampling / Sample Rate Conversion and DSS Synchronization. These modules now include the ability to convert DSD to PCM to deliver a fully integrated high quality CD, SACD and DVD-Audio converter solutions. The Quantum is the highest performance unit and delivers better than 144dB THD+N and with conversion rates up to 384kHz. It is also the only available ASRC capable of upsampling DSD streams from SACD playback devices. The Sonic2 and Sonic4 are pure upsamplers that are intended to drive ultrahigh precision audio DACs, with the Sonic4 capable of driving 4 DACs per channel independently in L/R± differential mode (a total of 8 DACs) with upsampling to 768kHz. Anagram technologies' TimeLock is an ultra-low jitter master clock generator capable of supplying DACs and other critical components with an extremely stable clock.

 

  Amazing Audio will debut the company's Grand Forte, a 5-driver, 3-way design loudspeaker. The Grand Forte uses premium driver's and crossover components consisting of two 10-inch woofers, two 5.5" midrange/bass drivers, and a 1-inch soft dome tweeter. Other products that will be appearing at the CES include Amazing Audio's Galante 3-way monitor, DragonFire line of cables and SuperFire line of silver interconnect cables. SuperFire cable is their premium line made from the finest European sterling silver wire. Each RCA interconnect cable consists of 2 sets of triple braided wires. Each wire contains 42 silver strands spiraled around a center core of 7 silver strands. This intricate weave of silver wire. Naturally their loudspeakers come internally wired with the company's cables.

 

  Rives Audio takes their award winning technology from the PARC and expands into the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) market. The company's new sub-PARC is primarily focused at high end subwoofer manufacturers and high-end loudspeaker manufacturers. Rives Audio's sub-PARC is a programmable crossover and parametric equalizer equipped with a 1,200 watt digital switching amplifier. Crossover points can be set from 30Hz to 300Hz with a fixed slope of 24dB. It can also be bypassed for home theater use and can switch back and forth from stereo to home theater via a 12 Volt trigger. Of note is that this OEM product will be sold only to manufacturers.

 

  NXT will have the company's latest flat panel technology that employs bending wave physics to achieve wide bandwidth from flat panel loudspeakers. The launch of their Balanced Mode Radiator (BMR) technology works on the principle of bending wave physics by using a unique balancing technique, which allows flat panels to be used in wide bandwidth drive units. The panels, which can be either circular or rectangular, are mounted in a chassis much like a conventional drive unit. NXT claims that their BMR low frequency performance is equivalent to conventional drive units of the same size, with high frequency range extended for wide directivity as found in other NXT technologies.

 

  ZON Audio will have their all-digital whole house audio system developed by Oxmoor Corporation. Their products allow users to enjoy music from the comfort of the living room couch, dining room, kitchen or bath. For the first time ever, a complete ZON Audio system is being installed in the NextGen Demonstration Home located in the CES Central Plaza at the LVCC. Their system is 100 percent digital from end-to-end (even when the input is analog, the sound is converted to a digital signal on the front end). Their system is iPod1 ready, has 60-Watt all-digital stereo amplification, easy to use graphic display, volume/source/EQ/balance/etc. adjustments via wireless remote, has user-defined display name, and connects to router with CAT-5e or CAT-6 wire.

 

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