CES 2013 Preview & T.H.E. Show Preview  2013
   
CES & T.H.E. Show Preview 2013

Genesis Advanced Technologies will be exhibiting at the International CES 2013 in suite #9-119 at The Venetian debuting their line-source Genesis 2 Junior (G2jr) speaker. This is their largest speaker design that will fit through the door of the company's suite! The advantage of a line-source loudspeaker is that sound pressure level falls off at -3dB for every doubling of distance away from the loudspeaker, instead of -6dB as with a point source unit. Also, small changes in distance make less of a difference in sound pressure level with line sources, as it has a sweet-spot that accommodates a couple or a family instead of just one person according to genesis. Also, at the usual listening distance, it will be twice as efficient as the equivalent point-source loudspeaker. This makes the G2jr sound more dynamic and louder with the same amplifier power, or more capable with lesser powered amplifiers.”The Genesis G2jr uses ribbon midrange and ribbon tweeters, which have far less mass than conventional cone transducers. Measuring in at over 6-foot tall and weighing 220 pounds, the G2jr features a 48-inch midrange ribbon, a line-array of Genesis ring-ribbon tweeters, and twin 12-inch servo-controlled amplified subwoofers per channel. Overall frequency range from the genesis G2jr is 18 Hz to 40 kHz.

 

Audiofly will be at CES 2013 for the mainstream CES Central Hall booth 12742 to showcase their new in-ear monitors and other products. Audiofly has launched its initial high-quality in-ear headphones and has two new product line-ups that are built for music lovers. The company will be showcasing the AF78 i-Line with inline volume controls and separated the mic for better voice transmission during conversations. The top line AF78i (pictured) has custom articulated dual drivers and Audioflex Twisted Core Cable with Cordura fabric. Their new AF56i has custom voiced 13mm dynamic drivers and Audioflex braided cable with Cordura fabric whilst the new AF45i uses an 11mm dynamic driver and Audioflex braided cable with Cordura fabric. Lastly, the small AF33i has a tiny 9mm dynamic driver. Other models by the company include the AF160 with three balanced armature drivers, Comply foam, single and tri-flange silicon tips, and interchangeable cables. The AF140 has two balanced armature drivers, Comply foam single and tri-flange silicon tips, and interchangeable cables. Lastly, the AF120/120i uses one balanced armature and 9mm dynamic drivers, Comply foam and single flange silicon tips, and interchangeable cables.

 

Tymphany and Qualcomm Atheros have collaborated to deliver music everywhere with the Skifta Audio Module. Tymphany chose the Qualcomm Atheros Skifta Audio Module to meet demand for an end-to-end wireless audio experience that accommodates the connected lifestyle of today’s music consumer. As an original design manufacturer (ODM) for industry-leading audio brands, Tymphany brings their expertise in acoustic systems design and delivers high-quality audio solutions to the consumer electronics industry. The Skifta platform provides media shifting to and from DLNA Certified and UPnP devices inside and outside of the home. The platform also comes with the Skifta Engine software for mobile devices, customizable controller applications for popular smartphone operating systems and integrated content Channels from leading audio and video content providers such as Soundcloud, Rdio, ShoutCast, Soma.fm, Dropbox, Instagram, Facebook Photos, Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket, TED Talks and more. Designed for the connected home and mobile markets, the Skifta Audio Module is based on Qualcomm Atheros' Wi-Fi system-on-chip and provides a cost-optimized hardware, software and service solution for audio device manufactures looking to enable multi-room streaming of local and cloud-based audio to mobile devices and multiple speakers, audio/video receivers and other audio playback devices in the home.

 

KR Audio Electronics, a Czech Republic manufacturer of high quality vacuum tubes and high-end audio equipment, will debut their VA 910 push-pull monoblocks (€15,000 or approx. $18,800) at the CES 2013 Venetian Hotel room 30-122. The unique feature of these monoblocks are that they provide 160 watts of output power by using only two pairs of the KT 120 Tung Sol tubes in output stage; with MOSFET transistors in driver stage and JFET input stage. This hybrid configuration design brings a high SNR (signal noise ratio). The VA910 operates in pure Class A mode up to 100 watts. All vacuum tubes are automatically biased and there is no need of user adjustment after vaccum tube replacement. Should the need arise, each tube has its own dedicated LED to indicate tube failure. For this premier, the VA910 will be paired in a system with the KR Audio P-130 preamplifier using a dedicated KR05 tube and Kings's Sound speakers model KSII.

 

Antelope Audio has earned becoming a CES 2013 Innovations 2013 Design and Engineering Award Honoree for their Rubicon Atomic AD/DA Preamp, which will be at The Venetian Tower suite 29-121. The Rubicon is a 384 kHz digital audio preamplifier addressing the specific needs of high-end consumer electronics enthusiasts for accurate audio representation and detailed soundstage of both analog and digital recordings. Rubicon employs extremely precise atomic clocking, which teamed with Antelope Audio's jitter management Acoustically Focused Clocking (AFC) and the stabilizing Oven Controlled Oscillator achieve unprecedented levels of sound clarity, transparency and detail according to the company. Antelope Audio is inviting CES 2013 attendees to experience a sneak preview of their Rubicon AD/DA preamplifier. Antelope Audio staff will be on hand conducting demonstrations of its advanced AD/DA and clocking technologies, which are recognized and used extensively throughout the recording, mastering and film production world. In addition to showcasing the Rubicon and conducting private listening sessions of its DACs and clocking technologies, Antelope will have its full line of Zodiac DACs on hand too.

 

Wisdom Audio, a high-end designing and manufacturer of planar magnetic transducers for speaker applications, will be at CES Venetian Hotel Suite 35-111 and is offering a press Cocktail and Demo Reception @ CES 2013 on January 9 from 5 pm to 7 pm. In their main room they will be demonstrating a Wisdom Series reference system featuring wall-mounted LS4s in a Diamond White finish with clear anodized metalwork. This will be paired with Wisdom Audio's STS subwoofer and driven by Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems power amplifiers, a dCS Vivaldi DAC, all interconnected with Transparent Audio cables. Their second demo features the Insight Series P6i in walls paired with the SCS subwoofer in a two-channel system including Wisdom Audio's SA-2 amplifier. 

 

The WiSA Association will be at the 2013 International CES demonstrating the latest technologies in wireless audio including 2 channel and 7.1 surround sound. Attendees will be able to hear audio across the interference free wireless link, which is scalable up to eight channels of uncompressed 96kHz/24-bit. The WiSA's ensures the CE market industry interoperability specification, with compliance testing programs for manufacturers of high-performance wireless audio devices. These devices include speakers, DTVs, Blu-ray disc players, gaming consoles, set-top boxes and mobile devices.

 

NuVo Technologies, recently acquired by Legrand, will be at the CES 2013. The NuVo Wireless Audio System employs the aptX audio codec for Bluetooth and handles multi-room setups with audiophile sound quality. This new system is supported by a control app that is available for Apple and Android users for ease of utilization. This multi-room wireless audio system is claimed to deliver the highest audio resolution – 600 kbs per stream – for up to 16 streams at once. Using both dual-band concurrent Wi-Fi and MIMO technologies, the NuVo Wireless Audio System is said to be the closest to audiophile-grade of any Wi-Fi based wireless system available today. NuVo Technologies' Wireless Audio System begins with their Gateway ($199) and if you need amplification, also available is a P100 40 watt amplifier and 120 watt P2 amplifier. Another available option is their three-zone P3100 rack mount amplifier component ($1499).

 

Atma-Sphere Music Systems' owner Ralph Karsten will be at T.H.E. Show Las Vegas and sent me an e-mail saying:

The news around here is that we are doing LP mastering on our own lathe, using our amps to drive the cutterhead. Its the world's first transformerless vacuum-tube mastering system! Turns out that a set of our M-60s can do the work with power to spare- double the power that the 125-watt stock transistor amps can do at 20 kHz. This has to do with the impedance of the cutterhead. The M-60s are nearly the ideal combination with the Westerex 3D head! We have several projects at the pressing plant right now. If we get any of them back in time, we will be playing them at T.H.E. Show. None of them are for our own label -- this is all work that we are doing for whomever brings us a master tape or sound file.

All the Best,

-- Ralph

 

Earning CES' Innovations 2013 Design And Engineering award, Morel's Sopran ($12,000) floorstanding loudspeaker will be at the Venetian suites 30-210 and 30-212. The Sopran employs many of the company's Fat Lady technologies and performance attributes such as a carbon fibre composite cabinet that has no internal damping. New for the Sopran is the inline reflex ports system, which a port is deployed directly behind each woofer to achieve "outstanding, tight and controlled bass reproduction". The same system is used in the midrange driver. Morel's Sopran three-way employs uniquely designed 6" drivers (midrange and woofer) that have a titanium voice coil former. Uppermost frequencies are handled by a 1.1" Acuflex soft dome tweeter incorporating a triple magnet system. Morel's Lotus grille was naturally inspired by the lotus flower and is said to minimize high frequency energy loss and considerably reduces distortion levels usually created by other protective covers.

 

Divergent Technology will be at T.H.E. Show Flamingo suite 4008 with the new NEFES loudspeaker ($9950 CAD per pair). Following in the footsteps of the legendary Reference 3A, the high resolution NEFES benefits from decades of experience in design and production. With a constant pursuit of employing advanced materials coupled with precise crossoverless drivers, a pair of 8" full range drivers are mated with a pure Beryllium dome tweeter. The drivers are assembled in a vertical array into a very rigid and inert cabinet. The Beryllium tweeter is mounted behind an exponential acoustic wave guide for better time alignment and more uniform dispersion patterns. With no crossover on the main drivers other than a very high quality capacitor, the high-pass filter on the Beryllium dome tweeter is said to "sound dynamic, fast, articulate and very coherent" says the company. They continue by saying, "To further refine the performance of our new model NEFES; patented Surreal Acoustic Lenses for diffusing inherent driver cone turbulence noise and patented Magnetic Wave Guides to purify the incoming audio signal are also used. Cryogenically treated, Teflon insulated, pure OCC copper conductors in appropriate thicknesses for each driver and copper input connectors are also used to ensure perfect signal transmission." The NEFES is finished in a durable anthracite colored suede textured Nextel coating that effectively absorbs sound and light for acoustically and "visually silent" cabinets. Cabinet dimensions are 52" x 13" x 17" (HxWxD) and weight is a hefty 123 lbs.

 

Nola will debut their Concert Grand Reference ($197,000 per pair) floorstanding loudspeakers at the CES 2013 Venetian suite 30-101. This is the company's all-out ultimate two tower loudspeaker system. The Concert Grand Reference is an open baffle short line source design employing twelve state-of-the-art transducers per tower. Naturally for best sound this system is configured in mirror imaged speaker pairs. Each channel has a pair of 12" subwoofers, in separate ported chambers, which cover sub-bass range to below 18 Hz(!). Four magnesium cone 4.5" woofers in the upper ported chamber cover the midbass range. These drivers have only slightly heavier moving mass than Nola's midrange driver and are four times lighter than typical midbass drivers. For midrange duties, four 4.5" drivers are operated in a line source, open dipole array. They utilize hand built construction and have premium Alnico magnet systems and ultra light tri-laminate cones. The tweeter is a unique design for Nola and is the Raven 12" long pure ribbon driver. This design allows ribbon operation from 1 kHz up and employs an MMX alloy that is six times stiffer than aluminum. Nola's Concert Grand Reference employs the unique five-way Unison crossover technology, implemented on six separate boards, to allow one pair of amplifiers or one stereo amplifier to drive the system. The system is supplied with a dedicated ball bearing double platform isolation base and premium spikes.

Specifications 
Frequency Response: 18 Hz to 46 kHz
Sensitivity: 90dB/W/m
Impedance: 8 Ohm / 4 Ohm minimum
Dimensions: 71" x 15" x 22" (HxWxD of overall system including bases)
Weight: 275 lbs. net per side
Grilles: Left side, right side, and rear
Finish: True Piano Rosewood with True Piano Black bases is standard. Piano Black and other finishes available by special order.

 

Triode Corporation of Japan will launch their new TRX-M300 8 watts Class A monoblocks at CES 2013 ($15,750). Internally, the unit features high quality components and simplicity of the circuit design ensures sonic purity and reliability. The uniquely sophisticated power supply and custom made transformers allow the TRX-M300 to "provide excellent transparency, sweet mid-range, real bass and excellent transient response. Its ability to create three dimensional sound is phenomenal." Triode Corporation's TRX-M300 SET Class A monoblock uses a 300B tube driven by 91A tube in Single Ended Class A design. Maximum output is 8 Watts at 8 Ohms, with speaker taps available being 4, 6, 8 and 16 Ohms. Frequency response is from 10 Hz to 50 kHz (0/-3dB) with a THD of < 0.1%. Analog inputs include unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR. Overall weight per monoblock is 60 lbs and dimensions are 430 x 340 x 185 (HxWxD in mm).

 

YG Acoustics will be at CES 2013 at the Venetian Hotel Tower suite 35-203 with their new line called Sonja (from $38,000 to $106,800 depending on configuration). The Sonja speaker line is said to be quite an ambitious undertaking for the company. A pair of Sonja speakers consists of 3056 parts and takes over 154 hours to machine on their high speed machinery. The finished unpackaged pair of Sonja 1.3 speakers weighs 1012 lbs and requires 1654 lbs of aluminum to produce. The 550 plus pounds of excess aluminum is then recycled to be eco-friendly. This ambitious design project resulted in a technical and aesthetic tour de force including distinctively pure and flowing visual lines while complementing the acoustics of the speaker. The enclosure design was brought about by identifying key aspects of air flow and its effect on sonic behavior. With Sonja, wave propagation enjoys improved uniformity and ease, resulting in superior dispersion and reduced diffraction effects says the company. They also say this enclosure is the quietest they've ever created. Sonically, YG Acoustics feels the Sonja offers further refinement of the highly regarded YG Acoustics attributes, in no small part due to an expanded no‐compromise DualCoherent network. Their DualCoherent technology ensures "the most flawless amplitude response coupled with a pristine integration of phase into the critical bass frequencies - complete 'one-voice' coherency from top to bottom." The BilletCore drivers are machined from solid blocks of aircraft‐grade aluminum. They are mated with YG Acoustics' ForgeCore tweeters that have been measured to have vanishing low distortion. Frequency response is from 14 Hz to 40 kHz for the top-line Sonja 1.3 system.

Sonja 1.1
Two-way passive monitor. Can be expanded by adding bass modules (.2 Sub and .3 Sub) $38,800

Sonja 1.2
Consists of Sonja 1.1 and passive .2 Sub bass module (active available by special order) $72,800

Sonja 1.3
Consists of 1.1, passive .2 Sub , and passive .3 Sub (active available by special order) $106,800

 

Bryston LTD will be at the CES 2013 Venetian Bassano ballroom 2601 celebrating 50 years in business and to introduce the BDA-2 outboard digital to analog converter (DAC, $2395). The BDA-2 builds on the award-winning success of the BDA-1 DAC, adding the latest 32-bit DAC technology and the most advanced USB interface to accommodate the ever expanding computer-based entertainment market. The Bryston BDA-2 uses fully discrete Class-A proprietary Bryston analog circuits, two independent (analog and digital) linear power supplies and dual 32-bit AKM DAC chips. The BDA-2 also utilizes a new asynchronous USB input capable of 192kHz/24-bit resolution. Flexibility with an array of inputs includes USB, S/PDIF coax, TosLink optical, and AES/EBU. For audio outputs, the BDA-2 offers both balanced XLR as well as unbalanced RCA stereo connectors on the rear panel. The BDA-2 is RS-232 software upgradeable and the BDA-2 power supply employs two independent secondary windings on the power transformer — one each for the digital and analog sections of the device. In the BDA-2, each stage in the digital chain is also independently regulated to prevent any unwanted interactions. Bryston's BDA-2 comes with a 5 year warranty.

Bryston LTD BDP-2 ($2995) digital music player will also be at CES 2013 and is an enhanced version of the company's BDP-1 that accommodates larger music libraries with faster load times. Both the BDP-1 and BDP-2 were designed to give music aficionados the ability to enjoy their library of high-resolution digital music files (resolutions of up to 24-bit/192kHz are supported) residing on a USB storage device, which in turn is directly connected via standard USB cable or thumb drive to the Bryston digital music player. New to the BDP-2 are six USB 2.0 inputs and upgradable to USB 3.0, future-proofing the device as a long term solution. Additionally, the BDP-2 contains eight times the internal memory and three times the processing speed compared to the BDP-1, which will remain in the Bryston lineup alongside the BDP-2. "The user interface and sonic qualities of the BDP-2 are identical to the BDP-1," explained Bryston VP James Tanner. "We have given the BDP-2 NAS and eSATA drive connectivity, UPnP/DNLA client/server support and much more speed for those customers with very large libraries of music files." The BDP-2 features two RS232 ports for control system connectivity and two Gigabit Ethernet connections, all pointing to a new internal motherboard powered by an Intel Atom processor. Bryston's BDP-2 also has accommodations for a user-supplied internal drive that should be installed by an authorized Bryston service facility. The Bryston BDP-2 features:

• No moving parts
• Six USB 2.0 inputs
• Future USB 3.0 upgradable... providing two additional USB 3.0 inputs (total 8)
• One eSATA Drive input
• Internal SATA drive compatible (optional)*
• 2X - Gigabit Ethernet Inputs (for network connectivity)
• NAS Connectivity Supported
• UPnP/DNLA Server
• Improved power supply delivers over 5 amps (10 amps peak)
• Custom Intel Atom powered motherboard
• Eight times more system memory (than the BDP-1)
• Two RS-232 Serial Ports (device control)
• Manages much larger libraries
• Improved load times on drives
• Improved load times on all wireless interfaces (MAX, MINI, MPOD, MPAD etc.).

 

Lastly, Bryston LTD will introduces their BP17 high performance solid-state stereo preamplifier ($3550). This new model features balanced outputs and advanced circuitry derived from the company's SP-3 surround processor whilst the analog/digital stereo preamplifier section is derived from the B-135 integrated amplifier. Basing a component preamplifier design on existing architecture enables Bryston to deliver continued high performance. The BP17 utilizes a software controlled motorized analog volume dial and integrated balance control, enabling the preamplifier to be operated remotely while still adhering to fully discrete analog circuits. Bryston's BP17 can be ordered in four configurations — in its standard form, with an optional moving magnet (MM) phono stage, with a high resolution internal DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) or fully loaded with both the DAC and phono stage. The BP17 includes provisions for six stereo RCA inputs (four with DAC option), one stereo RCA output, one stereo tape loop and a headphone output. The Bryston BR2 remote is made from a machined aluminum block and is also an available option.

Bryston BP17 Features
Frequency Response 20 Hz to 20 kHz ( +/- .05dB)
IM And THD Less than 0.003%
Independent power supplies and ground paths for analog and digital circuits
Balanced and unbalanced outputs
Two quick-connect 12 Volt output triggers – (one programmable)
New digitally controlled balanced action analog volume dial
Works with full featured BR2 remote (optional)
Four assignable digital inputs
Six stereo RCA inputs R232 control and software upgradeable
IR control
Headphone output jack (front panel)
Two TosLink optical and two S/PDIF inputs
Optional Internal phono stage (moving magnet)
Optional Internal DAC (Digital to Analog Converter)
20 Year Warranty

 

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