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WANDERING THE CES HALLS
Every
visit to Las Vegas and the Communication and
Electronics Show is the very definition of
information overload. I can only leave you
with a thumbnail impression of what transpired
there. For me relative quiet came only at the
end of the day, while attending the press
parties and the sponsored evening’s
entertainment. It is just not possible to be
in more than one place and do it all, but I
did decide to drag my old bones to the Bang
and Olufsen press party. They gathered in the
luxurious Sky lofts atop the MGM Grand Hotel
and at it’s conclusion they handed out tickets
to a classy “T&A” extravaganza called La Fem.
The DTS people sprang for Blue Man Group at
the Luxor and Monster Cable sponsored the Rod
Stuart concert in the Paris Ballroom, Rod is
57 years old and still going strong.
I veered off the main road and did some
extracurricular scouting over at the Hilton
Hotel Convention Center right next door to the
Zoo. The Zoo is what the old-timers have
nicknamed the cavernous Las Vegas Convention
Center. By the same token, I have come to
refer to the Hilton Convention Center as the
“Land Of The Lost Toys.” The vast floor on the
left side hall of the Hilton center appeared
to be is covered with innumerable rows of
booths populated by small Pacific Rim wannabe
manufacturers that are not well represented in
the U.S. While there, I did see a little
wooden picture frame sitting on a table that
held a picture of a dog and then a
good-looking girl and then a succession of
changing images. At first I didn’t realize I
was looking at a tiny LCD screen, this is a
pretty neat idea. It is possible that you
might need only one 5 by 7 inch frame to hold
all your family photos.
I continued into
the LVCC’s North Hall, which is right next
door to the Hilton and I passed something that
left me with a very troubled feeling. It was
part of the custom Auto Sound installer’s
area. There was one thing (among many) in
particular that got to me. It was an
approximately 7’ diameter tunnel completely
lined, edge-to-edge with (I believe) forty
fifteen-inch woofers. It was referred to by
the manufacturer as the “Vibe Bass Tunnel.” A
sign nearby proclaimed “Feel The Difference”.
It was totally impossible for me to wrap my
mind around this concept. How is it possible
for anyone to get this brain damaged? No,
don’t answer that. You will probably just tell
me it’s SPL induced, needless to say I didn’t
go into it.
Other than
looking at the micro-miniskirt wearing pretty
girls hanging all over the rides, this is
absolutely a desert for the intellect. Let us
move on to something far more pleasant,
subject numero uno, Music and Audio. And of
course for us it is the High End Audio
universe of which the epicenter is about a
mile away at the Alexis Park Resort. But
first, there is a smaller site next door at
the St Tropez Resort that is called the
“T.H.E. SHOW”. Lets start over there.
It is slightly unusual for the CES, but at the
SHOW you can find classic, vintage audio
components, as well as vintage, and
increasingly valuable, audio tubes and stack’s
of old magazines and test equipment for sale
in the Vacuum Tube Valley room
(triode@vacuumtube.com). It was both a
surprise and a delight to find a combination
of magazines and store. I spent a very
informative half hour talking to the Editor
and proprietor Charles Kittleson. He is a
fountain of knowledge when it comes to vintage
audio and its development through the years.
Another favorite weigh station has to be the
Atmosphere Audio room (www.atma-sphere.com)
and of course the main man over there is Ralph
Karsten, designer of some great sounding OTL
(output transformerless) tube amp’s. I always
make it a point when I’m over that way to chat
him up. I usually leave his place a little
smarter than when I walked in.
 One
floor down in the Overkill Audio room (www.overkillaudio.com)
I was surprised to find a new implementation
of the wonderful Manger drivers. They
displayed two new speakers, the Ovation and
the Encore. They were playing tunes through
the two-driver Encore, the almost full range
Manger driver resides in a teardrop shaped
module sitting atop a box holding a 12”
mid/bass driver. The only problem I could hear
was the price, about $50,000 and up. It
figures, gorgeous craftsmanship, great sound,
and way out of my reach.
 Now
at last we arrive at the main venue next door,
at the Hi End Mecca that is the Alexis Park
Resort. Every year I go there with a priority
list held in my hot little fist with the
things I must do and see and things I would
(given the time) like to check out. At the top
of that list was the very hot on the audio
grapevine PrimaLuna ProLogue One (photo right)
and its sister the PrimaLuna Prologue Two.
They are both wonderful sounding integrated
amplifiers. The PL1 has four EL 34 output
tubes and is rated at 35 wpc, and the MSRP is
$1,095. While the PL2 uses four KT88 outputs
and this version is rated at 40 wpc with an
MSRP of $1,350. Both of these amps held court
in the Musical Surroundings room AP2112. You’d
better believe that I wasted no time putting
in my bid for a PL2. They are both terrific
bargains and distributed by Kevin Deal at
Upscale Audio.
 After
a short stroll I was surprised and delighted
to find the venerable Grommes Precision back
in the Hi End of audio. Residing at Alexis
Park in room AP1562, they exhibited the
wonderful sounding retro, open cage monoblock
model 360A KT-88 amps MSRP $4,000. The Grommes
Precision Company or more exactly Grommes
Audio (Phone 847-599-1799) can trace their
lineage all the way back to 1946. I wish them
continuing success; somehow seeing them has
imparted in me a reassuring feeling that we
have not yet lost what was once so important
to audio.
Over in room AP1610 I found another integrated
amp with very good. Word on the street says it
is the reasonably priced PATHOS Classic One
integrated amp. It is a tiny Italian hybrid,
with a solid-state output and a tubed input.
This one is rated at a comfortable 70 wpc with
an MSRP of $2,395 it’s main claim to fame is a
very natural and true to life mid range. This
sleeper of an amplifier has gotten very good
print in the Brit mags. I could go into
excruciating detail about Conrad Johnson,
Audio Research, Boulder, and Jeff Rowland and
so many more of the big names in audio, and I
suppose that would neatly tie up the
electronics part of this report, but they are
the high-priced spread and all the
conglomerate magazines will trip over
themselves to tell you all about them.
 What’s
happening at the show in the speaker part of
our pastime? For me, this is the difficult
part. First, I don’t really trust what I hear
in those small hotel rooms. I can, at best,
get only a very rough approximation of what to
expect back in my home. To a large extent the
resultant sound you hear is dependent on the
setup skills of that particular dealer or
manufacturer. Ergo, under show conditions it
is possible for really good speakers to sound
mediocre when compared to a lesser rival. But
if you really must twist my arm, I did like
what I heard in the Tyler Acoustics room. He
pumped tunes through a pair of nicely finished
Lynbrook Super Towers. Each speaker is a
ported 2-way design that uses five Seas
drivers and is five feet tall. They list for
$7,200 but Ty Lashbrook, the owner said you
could order them direct (www.tyleracoustics.com)
and save $2,000. They offer a payment plan and
a list of discount (demo?) speakers. Even
better, if you are legitimately involved in
the audio industry and can prove it, there
might be a little more wiggle room. I also
liked the newest version of the ProAc Tablette
8 speaker in the Modern Audio Consultants room
AP2313 (Tel: 410-486-5975). I didn’t get the
US price, but this just might be a perfect
match up for the Prima Luna Amps.
One of the more gossipy items I overheard at
the show was the Sony Corporation buying MGM
Studios and dropping their production of SACD
discs. Now I can’t vouch for this but insiders
expect continued production from Sony
licensees. And by the time you read this the
final word should be out. My intention for
this show report was to uncover a few little
not often reported bits of the big CES
picture. To my mind, the good news is there
are still ways one can assemble a really good
budget system, that is, if you know where to
look. I hope I was able to lend a little aid
to a few green presidents pictures for poor
people like myself, Ciao.
Ron Nagle
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