Key Kim

This year’s CES was spectacular; the weather was perfect and there were lots of stellar sounding rooms. It just doesn’t get any better than this. There were sunny days with temps in the 70’s by day and 40’s by night. I dressed accordingly to enjoy both. As you have probably heard last year the weather was horrible; it rained all weekend and for a while it even snowed! Surprisingly, attendance seemed down compared to last year at both Alexis Park and the St. Tropez. However, this year there were better sounding rooms, at least to my ears. Here are some of the rooms that were outstanding in every price range.

          

APL Hi-Fi
The APL Hi-Fi room was, to put it simply, superb. The sound was really remarkable. The room produced some of the best sound I heard at the show. It was music to my ears, extremely pure and transparent, and it delivered the immediacy and delicacy with plenty of power. Every component in this room was designed by Alex Paychev. Let’s start with the fully modified, (actually, let’s say redesigned by Alex) Esoteric UX-1 ($19,995). Key design features include a super low jitter Master Clock, AKM DAC chips, a hybrid attenuator and transformer coupled class-A output tube stage featuring the 6H30 Super Triode Vacuum Tube sticking out at the right rear of the player like the sexy Ducati 996’s infamous exhaust pipes. It was powered by a unique 350 watt hybrid amplifier (?). It is hand built (introductory price of $ 24,995) and was paired with the NWO-1 ($19,995 per pair) floor-standing speakers, incorporating the finest Scan-Speak Revelator drivers with first order main crossover. All cablings are Alex’s designs featuring silver interconnects, speaker and power cables built with some of the finest and purest silver available today. The highest grade Teflon is used for insulation (price to be announced). This room clearly demonstrated how important a system’s synergy is. Congratulations Alex on your wonderful work!!!

Viola Audio Laboratories
                        

Former Cello and Mark Levinson designers, Tom Colangelo and Paul Jayson, now bring us Viola Audio Laboratories. This fabulous sounding room had an almost all Viola setup (except for a Bel Canto CD player) and it produced a winning sound at the show. The VAL room featured their reference speakers, the Allegro three-way monitor perched atop the Basso passive sub woofers ($52,000). They were driven by the almighty Forte monoblock amps producing a modest 75 watts ($10,000/pr) and the amazing Cadenza preamplifier ($16,000). The Forte mono amps’ performance was simply outstanding. These little amps made formidable music. I was amazed at how well this set up powered the reference speakers and let them sing. They sound more like little amps on steroids. Hats off to the Viola team!

Ascendo/Virtual Dynamics/CAT/Acoustic System
Once again, the Avatar Acoustics room provided a transcendent musical experience. The sound was truly remarkable, especially considering the less than ideal show conditions. It was dynamic and had a three-dimensional soundstage, reproducing a realistic stage width and depth. It gave me this sense of a live concert experience, especially when listening to classical music. The digital front end, the Reimyo CDP777 ($15,500 plus the mod by Upgrade Company) and the Ascendo System M ($45K with a Chrome stand and black piano lacquer finish) was powered by the CAT JL-3 signature MK II($36K) along with the CAT Ultimate Preamplifier ($7K). All cabling was Virtual Dynamic’s new remarkable Revelation Signature Series cables. Finally, the room was tuned by the man, himself, Franck Tchang with his magical resonators, tuning feet and component rack 4-tier platform ($6,000).

Isophon/Accuphase
Next I bumped into Roland Gauder, the designer of the Isophon loudspeakers from Germany. I was so glad to see him and to learn that Isophon was showcasing their Cassiano loudspeaker with Accuphase components. I had heard the Cassiano in last year’s Munich show. I was very impressed with its sound. The Cassiano ($25,000 with diamond tweeter) is the reference loudspeaker from Isophon. It utilizes all ceramic drivers from Thiel from Germany, and a diamond tweeter. As I remember the sound was neutral, transparent, coherent, and yes, seamless and musical at the same time; not at all analytical, just musical. The Cassiano again performed like a winner just as I had experienced at the last Munich Show.

Jadis/Piere Gabriel Acoustics

The Jadis room was put together by Pierre Gabriel Acoustics. The U.S distributor for Jadis put up an impressive sound for an entry level, yes, I mean an entry level price for their super high-end electronics. The system starts at about $ 12,000 complete, including speakers and cables! The room sounded outstanding, dynamic, open and the emotional connection with the music was a breath of fresh air. It could have cost double or more for that matter. I was very intrigued to find out how Pierre Gabriel had set up an entry level Jadis system using his own loudspeakers and finished off with his entry level Silver Cables. This room, which featured Pierre Gabriel Series A Loudspeakers ($3,500) was paired with a beautifully made Jadis Orchestra Evolution Integrated Amp ($3,995) and Jadis Symphonia Evolution CD player ($3,500). All cabling was by Pierre Gabriel. The Interconnects are ($350/meter per pair) and Speaker cables ($800/2 meter per pair). Pierre Garbriel demonstrated that you don’t really need to take out a second mortgage to create an impressive sound using superb Jadis goodies.

               

Karan Acoustics/Virtual Dynamics/Acoustic System/Dynavox
This marvelous sounding room was orchestrated by Darren Censullo of Avatar Acoustics, distributor of the Ascendo speakers, Karan Acoustics amplifiers and the Acoustic Systems products. This room produced an outstanding sound, very musical, dynamic and natural sounding. It really was a memorable experience listening to and enjoying the music in this room.
The Ascendo System C7 ($5,000) was powered by the Karan Acoustics KAI 180 Integrated Amplifier ($7,995) which is built like a tank. It features fully balanced topology, extremely short signal path, 24 K gold plated circuit boards, 180/300 W into 8/4 Ohms and the Dynavox Dynastation tubed CD player ( photo right $4,000) from Germany. All cabling was Rick Schulz’s VD Master Series cables. The Acoustic System’s component racks 4-tier platform ($6,000) was used and once again, Franck Tchang tuned the room with his remarkable weapon, the Acoustic System’s resonator treatment.

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