International CES 2009 & THE Show Report
   
Consumer Electronics Show & THE Show 2009 Preview

  Show attendees can hear the new Magus Silver loudspeakers with pure silver coils drivers in what Teresonic is touting as "the ultimate analog system presented by Teresonic" at THE Show. The 92dB/W/m Teresonic Magus ($4,485) will be powered by the Reference 2a3 amplifier with all-NOS tubes. For analog replay, Clearaudio's Master Solution turntable with a new Helius Omega tonearm will be equipped with a Benz LP cartridge. A new Fosgate Signature all-tube phonostage (designed by Jim Fosgate) will be previewed and wired with new Teresonic Clarison Gold cables -- yes, Clarison Gold uses pure 24ct solid gold conductors. This all-tube system, with no solid-state electronics is claimed by Teresonic to "demonstrate the shortest path from vinyl to speakers - to produce true analog sound for true music lovers".

 

 

Loiminchay Audio, manufacturers of hand-crafted and luxurious limited-edition loudspeakers for connoisseurs, will features their entire line-up at this year's CES. Their lineup consists of the stand-mounted Degas, the floorstanding Chagall, and the hybrid Kandinsky ($37,000, $48,500 and $56,000 respectively). Designed in New York by owner Patrick Chu and hand made by dedicated teams in his atelier in China, each heavily-braced enclosure is painstakingly crafted, layer by layer, from beautifully formed Birch MultiPly laminate resulting in a sensually shaped, extremely non-resonant structure. The enclosures are bored out then finished inside and out with fully sixteen coats of the finest hand-polished lacquer for a lustrous cabinet so finely sealed that no air bubbles remain to leak internal pressurized air. Loiminchay employ three people just to route the interior and driver holes, and even the baffles are hand-shaped in the laminate during fabrication. Loiminchay will be using XLO Argentum Acoustics cables, a Continuum Criterion/Copperhead turntable with the latest Benz SLR Gullwing cartridge and various Nagra electronics.

 

 

Morel will present their fat lady ($32,000) product, which is said to be greater than the sum of its parts. The fat lady, a 2009 CES Design and Engineering innovation award winner, is really the company's technical tour de force with over three decades expertise in manufacturing some of the world's finest loudspeaker drive units. The fat lady project also represents Morel's new approach and design philosophy. The cabinet has an outer layer of lacquered carbon fiber optimally mixed with fiberglass and epoxy resin, resulting in a very light yet strong enclosure. This curved form has no straight lines and, therefore, needs no internal damping according to Morel. As a three-way, four drive unit system, a pair of 9-inch hybrid double magnet woofers are mated with 6-inch Hexatech aluminum voice coil midrange and Supreme 1.1-inch Acuflex coated soft dome tweeter. Frequency response is from 20 Hz to 25 kHz, sensitivity is 87dB/W/m and presents a 4 Ohm load.

 

 

PS Audio PowerPlay power line conditioner is a web controlled unit allows configuration to communicate without a fixed web address. The unit provides a control bridge that connects equipment in custom installations to the dealer/installer through a simple web interface requiring no setup or software. PowerPlay's list of controls features include multiple IR commands, hard reboot by zone, ping based auto reboot for modems, assignable priority for battery backup, scheduled green vacation time, power on/off, email notification of events and hourly power line conditions and event logging. Instead of the classic client-to-client approach based on the power conditioner's internal web page accessed through a specific web address, Cloud Computing places all the control, software and access in a network "cloud" accessible from anywhere in the world through a secure specific dealer web address..

 

 

For over 25 years Emanuel Lafleur has been developing his passion for high-fidelity audio, and now offers his creations via Lafleuraudio. The X-1, X-2 and MX-1 and MX-B will make their appearance at the 2009 CES ($13,500/pr, $17,500/pr, $8900/pr and $9500/pr. respectively). LafleurAudio will present the new exiting X-2 stand-mount loudspeaker, which is based upon the company's highly-rated X-1. Also on display will be a prototype of the MX-3 floor-standing loudspeaker composed of the MX-1 head and MX-B bass units. Chief designer Emanuel Lafleur will be at the show explaining the technology behind this new design. The X-2 is a 2.5-way bass reflex design with a pair of 5-inch midrange/woofers and 1.5-inch ring dome high-frequency transducer. Frequency response is from 45 Hz to 20 kHz, sensitivity is 90dB/W/m and the loudspeaker presents a 4 Ohm load. Dimensions are 27 x 11 x 14 (HxWxD in inches) and weighs 55 lbs. The smaller X-2 is a two-way design with single 5-inch driver and has an overall frequency response from 45 Hz to 20 kHz. Sensitivity is 87dB/W/m and the loudspeaker presents an 8 Ohm load. Dimensions are 17 x 11 x 14 (HxWxD in inches) and each unit weighs 42 lbs.

 

 

Amphion Loudspeakers will proudly have their Krypton2 ($25,000) that has an improved cardioid dispersion pattern said to decrease unwanted room reflections and allows one to hear less of the room and more of the loudspeaker. Cardioid dispersion is achieved via large tweeter waveguide and placing the two 8-inch midrange drivers in their separate flow controlled chambers. The cardioid chambers reduce the energy to the side by 5dB and 20 dB to the rear, and allow to midranges to work in nearly open-air conditions. This contributes to the open and highly communicative midrange, which is one of the strong points of the Krypton2s. The newly developed Seas midrange drivers utilize a newly designed wood and plant fiber membrane. To improve the critical 600 Hz to 2000 Hz range, the cones have special ribs embossed on them. Amphion Loudspeakers are saying these ribs effectively make the 8-inch units work more like a 4-inch within this specific frequency range yet still retain the lower distortion advantage and high power handling of the 8-inch driver. The titanium tweeter, made by Seas, is a new design and housed in a proprietary waveguide. Overall frequency response is from 19 Hz to 30 kHz, sensitivity is 87dB/W/m and the unit presents a 4 Ohms load.

 

 

Parasound will be within the Canton room and have two John Curl designed Parasound JC 1 400-watt monoblock amplifiers and a JC 2 preamplifier. The unit is fully balanced with hand matched FET dual-mono Class A amplification circuitry. The unit is direct DC servo-coupled with no capacitors in the signal path. A pair of balanced (XLR) and six sets of unbalanced (RCA) inputs and outputs plus a wireless remote control that can select normal or inverted polarity are some of the highlights of this design. Frequency response is an ultra-wide 5 Hz to 100 kHz with a very low THD of <0.003 percent. Signal to noise ratio is >116 dB while the dual mono design naturally has a wide >100 dB crosstalk. Maximum gain is 14 dB, overall dimensions are 17.25 x 16 x 5.875 (WxDxH in inches) and the unit weights 24 lbs.

 

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