CES 2012 Preview & T.H.E. Show Report 2012
   
Consumer Electronics Show & T.H.E. Show 2012

Oracle Audio is at CES Venetian Hotel suite 30-227 with The Paris USB DAC 250 ($3500) that allows data flux transfer of 480Mbits per second which enable the unit to play any high resolution audio format, including 24-bit/192kHz WAV native files and any PCM studio master with no compression or downgrade resolution to let them work. Through the high-speed USB port the DAC can run virtually any computer player system including iTunes, Window Media player, Foobar2000 as many others. Simply to install the drivers available from the Oracle Audio web site in the Firmware download section. Oracle Audio's The Paris USB DAC 250 features four S/PDIF RCA 75 Ohm inputs, one TosLink optical and one AES/EBU via XLR 110 Ohm. Digital outputs can be switched On/Off to preserve the best audio purity if not used. The Oracle Audio Paris USB DAC 250 features an analog to digital converter which enables the unit to record analogue audio signal into the computer through RCA connectors. The unit can record in 24 bit high definition from any analog source. Using any dedicated recording computer program the data transfer can be managed simply. Typically all the computers support as default a recording program to start working with the Oracle Audio Paris USB DAC function. The Paris USB DAC 250 features a volume control offering the flexibility to act as a preamplifier for connecting directly to a power amplifier or an active speakers system. The Volume control is stepping up & down can be controlled via remote or front panel keyboard.

 

Technical Audio Devices Laboratories (TAD) has two new products at the CES 2012 in Las Vegas that include the TAD-E1 loudspeaker and TAD-C600 preamplifier ($29,800 per pair and $42,000 respectively). Developed and designed entirely in-house by Director of Engineering Andrew Jones and an international team of audio engineers, artists and craftsmen, the TAD-E1 and TAD-C600 are the next steps in the brand's commitment to developing and manufacturing products of the highest quality sound technology. As the first-ever loudspeaker in this category, highlights of the TAD-E1 speakers includes the use of a Coherent Source Transducer for highly improved imaging and a more consistent sound throughout an entire listening room. TAD's Coherent Source Transducer (CST) was designed with the tweeter diaphragm mounted concentrically within the midrange cone. This design provides a point source of sound from 250 Hz to 100 kHz, enabling matched arrival times of midrange and tweeter sounds. The beryllium tweeter and magnesium midrange result in low sound coloration. One-piece woofer cone construction (one piece dustcap/cone construction) eliminates the loss of strength frequently found in conventional woofer cone construction. To prevent ringing or resonance from the speaker cabinet, TAD uses high–rigidity Baltic birch plywood combined with medium density fiberboard (MDF). The enclosure is also designed with a “teardrop” shape rear section that further reduces unwanted cabinet resonance due to the improved stiffness of curved panels. TAD's C600 preamplifier (pictured above) completes the Reference Series Highlights of the C-600 preamplifier includes fully balanced circuitry and dual mono construction to achieve accuracy from input to output. The fully balanced and symmetrical circuit design allows signal transmission to be extremely accurate, with dynamic properties of the circuits to completely identical for both positive and negative signals. Furthermore, the balanced circuit provides resistance to the effects of external noise and ground potential fluctuations. Vibration absorption technology includes using a precision-processed machined aluminum sub-chassis and three-point support insulators that block external vibration and noise, ensuring mechanical stability. At 33mm thick and weighing 33 lbs, the sub-chassis is fabricated using pure aluminum ingots which further achieves a high-level of vibration control as well as providing a stable mechanical ground. The dual enclosure design separates the critical analog preamplification stage and its power supply in separate boxes. To prevent additional interference, the control functions and display utilize direct-current based operation. A custom electronic volume control uses super-precise ball bearings and TAD's new ladder-resistance switching electronic volume control circuit achieves an absolute channel level difference of 0.1dB or less even at attenuations of more than 100dB with harmonic distortion at only 0.0005% (@1Vrms input).

 

MSB is at CES 2012 with many new products including their 0.077 picosecond (77 Femto seconds) DAC. MSB Introduces the Pro I²S Network (pictured above), a new, faster, lower jitter version of MSB’s original network. The Pro I2S Network is superior to coax and S/PDIF when using an MSB Transport and DAC offering ultra high clock precision and proprietary high speed data transfer. The Pro I²S Network also offers complete ground and noise isolation which is increasingly necessary as the DAC resolution and clock precision has improved to exceptional levels in the DAC IV Series.MSB has also introduced their new Signature Data CD IV .wav disc player playing CDs, HRX and all high resolution disc resolutions in wav format up to 32-bit/384kHz (including your burned to DVD high resolution files). The Signature version of the data CD offers a precision drive and housing with a CNC machine-created metal drawer. It also features a new version of MSB's proprietary Network as the new Pro I²S digital output connecting to the master clock in the DAC so the Data CD drive is controlled by the same clock that is running MSB's proprietary DAC modules and motherboard for hyper accurate data clocking when playing discs that was only dreamed of previously.

 

MSB has also Introduced their new S200 Class A stereo power amplifier (pictured above) that produces 200 wpc with zero negative feedback. MSB’s unique amplifier gain stage topology with zero negative feedback along with other special design features is said to yield a relaxed presentation with beautiful vocals and soundstage. Both the inputs and the outputs of this Amplifier are completely balanced. The S200 also offers a single-ended input (via RCA), that is treated separately from the balanced input (via XLR). A simple switch located near the input jacks allows users to switch the amplifier between unbalanced and balanced input. Lastly, MSB's Wi-Fi System Interface controlled from your iPad with easy to read quick responding menus for convenience and fast A/B of many features.

 

DALI’s new line of flagship speakers, EPICON, will receive its North American premier. This unveiling of the first product in the lineup, EPICON 6, wil be at CES Venetian 29-126. The EPICON series marks a milestone in DALI’s nearly 30-year history as it is the first line of speakers to use drivers designed and manufactured 100% in-house by DALI’s engineers in Denmark. Kim Kristiansen, Director of Innovation at DALI, says "We wanted to showcase the EPICON for what it is: the culmination of 30 years of speaker research, design and manufacture." The cabinet of the EPICON 6 is constructed from six individual layers of MDF, glued together and anchored to the 53mm multi-layer MDF backbone. All recesses and holes for the bass ports and terminals in the backbone are CNC milled. The 33mm thick, dual-layer curved front baffle ensures that energy from the drivers is radiated as acoustic energy, not vibration. Internally the cabinet is divided in two, allowing tuning to be done independently for the two woofers. The cabinet is finished with a real wood veneer that is lacquered ten times, each layer being hand polished in between coats to ensure a deep, high gloss finish. The EPICON 6 uses a driver configuration that has become DALI’s standard on their higher-end models, with a hybrid tweeter design comprised of a ribbon and soft dome tweeter, and wood fiber cone woofers. Driver compliment includes a 29mm soft dome tweeter and 10mm x 55mm ribbon, with lowermost frequencies being produced by a pair of 6" drivers. Overall frequency range is from 35 Hz to 30 kHz, crossover frequencies are 700/2550/15,000 Hz. The unit presents a 5 Ohm load and has a sensitivity of 88dB/W/m. Dimensions are 40.4 x 9.2 x 17.4 (HxWxD in inches) and weight is 65.7 lbs.

 

Nuance and Gracenote have partnered top advance voice-enabled music and video experiences. This ten year strategic partnership will accelerate voice innovations and next-generation solutions for interactive music and video experiences on phones, tablets, in cars, on smart TVs, and in the cloud -- all across a broad range of content providers. The partnership brings together the leading innovators for voice and digital media metadata respectively, whose technologies today are used by the biggest names in the mobile, consumer electronics and automotive industries. Nuance's leading voice and natural language understanding technologies will leverage Gracenote's MediaVOCS database of phonetic transcriptions of artist names, albums and music genres, as well as movie and TV metadata. The first solution with the combined technologies will be made available via Nuance later this year -- VoCon Music Premium. VoCon Music Premium will deliver an unmatched voice experience where consumers can simply speak the name of almost any artist, song, or album, and instantly get results -- even for the most difficult artist names for systems to recognize, such as Ke$ha, AC/DC and 311.

 

Nagra Audio at the CES' Mirage Hotel Floor C suite 59 has just launched a special edition of its SD recorder for hi-fi customers. When production of the prestigious Nagra V recorders was discontinued, Nagra Audio launched 10 numbered copies especially for the hi-fi market. This initiative created a bridge between professional recorders and the audiophile public and met with immediate success. Based on this concept, Nagra is launching today a special package including its best-selling pocket recorder, the Nagra SD. The audiophile Nagra SD kit is packaged in a strong aluminum case including all the accessories needed to perform a high-quality recording. Accessories include a state-of-the-art Nagra stereo microphone with electret capsules, a carrying case, SD memory card, a table tripod to move the device in an optimal way, batteries, USB and microphone entry cables plus of course the digital Nagra SD recorder. The Nagra SD uses a removable SD flash card for storage. It records in a linear 16 to 24 bits and 24 to 96 kHz PCM format or in MPEG compressed format. Additional assets include a 3-second buffer, USB port, built-in loudspeaker and 5 hours of autonomy thanks to two AA batteries. The special Nagra SD Hi-Fi package is available as from January 2012 at all Nagra hi-fi distributors.

 

Synergistic Research is at CES' Venetian Hotel room 29-227 with their newly released Tranquility Base. The inspiration for the Tranquility Base came to the company's lead designer when faced with the challenge of elevating the performance of computer based audio; to first match (and then exceed) the best performance possible from traditional state-of-the-art (and expensive) multi-box digital solutions. The company feels that the solution was to clean up inherently dirty power supplies and circuits found in a PC or Macintosh, and the deleterious effect they have on the music we listen to. Simply filtering signal and electricity as it leaves a computer only goes so far, and fails to address this fundamental distortion according to the company. Namely, the negative effects that closely positioned circuits, RAM chips, CPU processors, IC chips, circuit components (ie. resistors & capacitors), inductors, and power supplies have on the overall sound of computer based music. By cleaning up the problem before it can affect the music, Ted discovered a fundamental way to improve music reproduction and bring it much closer to the live event; not only for computer based audio but for all audio components. Synergistic Research feels that by placing a variation of their EM Cell technology beneath a computer, it would have a similar ability to condition signal while still in the computer, as it does when conditioning AC and signal running through cables. This led to several new patents pending, and one of the most amazing new products to come to audio in over a decade: the worlds first Active isolation platform capable of conditioning signal while still in your stereo’s components. There are three levels of this new base system. Tranquility bāsik Level 1 has 7 layer laminate mechanical isolation, one set of MiG resonator footers and measures 17 inches wide x 14 inches deep. The next level, Tranquility Base, has Level 2 active signal flow control, Level 1 passive ground plane, 9 layer laminate mechanical isolation, Two sets of MiG resonator footers and measures 18.5 inches wide x 16 inches deep. Lastly, the top-of-the-range Tranquility Base XL has Level 2 active signal flow control, Level 1 passive ground plane, 9 layer laminate mechanical isolation, One set of MiG resonators and one set of BIG MiG resonator footers and measures 20 inches wide x 23 inches deep.

 

Millenniata announced it received the Visionary Product Consumer Storage device award for their M Disc 1,000 year storage disc during the Storage Visions 2012 conference at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show for its M-DISC permanent storage technology that etches data onto a stone like material. M-DISC is on display today in booth 8 at Storage Visions and in the LG booth 8204 in Central Hall during CES. Millenniata launched the new optical disc technology ushering in a new era of information storage with its M-DISC and M-READY disc storage-technology that permanently etches data onto the write layer of the disc for use anytime and for generations to come without data lost. Millenniata also entered into a manufacturing and marketing partnership with Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc. to manufacture M-DISC compatible DVD drives under the LG brand. The M-DISC will not degrade over time and is usable on a daily basis. M-DISC is a perfect storage solution for music, photos, videos, genealogical records, business records, data loss prevention, permanent file backup, medical imaging, government usage, and for archival purposes. M-DISC optical discs are currently available through all of Millenniata's retail, reseller and distributor partners and through the Millenniata website. LG-branded M-DISC compatible DVD drives are available online. Drive availability will steadily increase throughout 2012. The M-DISC is the first backward compatible non-dye based DVD optical technology constructed of inorganic materials that are known to last centuries. M-DISC compatible drives are a high quality optical drive specifically designed to laser-etch digital information onto the M-DISC. This combination allows information to be written once and read over time and offers perhaps the best permanent data storage solution in the industry.

 

Click here for CES 2012 show report / THE Show 2012 coverage part 4.