| CES 2004 – Highlights From Jerry Del Colliano |
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| Home Theater News Industry-Trade News | ||||||||||||
| Written by Jerry Del Colliano | ||||||||||||
| Friday, 16 January 2004 | ||||||||||||
Page 2 of 2 Audiophile Stuff – I spent some time at the audiophile portion of the show and was continually astonished at the diversity of companies that make expensive gear that I had never heard of. Another trend I saw especially at the renegade “THE SHOW” (next-door to the CES audiophile show) was a lack of any real bass in most of the audiophile systems. Nobody had a subwoofer setup rocking and many of the systems were lacking the energy and power found in the best AV systems. Speakers that did stand out were the new Gallo Reference speakers ($2,600 per pair). These very modern looking speakers were hiding behind screens and sounded as if they were 5 times the asking price. Bel Canto had their complete setup of electronics working. We blasted some (very non-audiophile) Jimi Hendrix from Axis Bold as Love from their Player through their Pre-Pro preamp and powered is with their Evo amp technology. It made a pretty sound that was realistic and dynamic. Jimi would be proud. I took some serious heat from the AudioRevolution.com staff for falling in love with the coolest amp stands I have ever seen from Stillpoints. $1,300 is an insane amount of money to spend on stands however they were so modern and cool looking I must own them for my Krells at home. They are a brushed aluminum finished design that looks like they were stolen out of a NASA laboratory. Room Correction and EQ – Everyone from Velodyne to Sunfire to Revel now have subwoofers (often with mics) with room correction software so that you can have a chance at getting tight, accurate and dynamic bass in your room. Gone are the unenlightened audiophile days that say “EQ is bad – EQ has phase problems” that is and always was misleading garbage. Today music and home theater enthusiasts have the technology needed to make their system sound great with deep bass coming from their subwoofers in ways never before possible at the consumer level. Other cool room correction software was on display from AV123.com (being used with their Rocket Speakers) as well as from upstart Australian pro and high end audio company DEQX. The DEQX system was incredibly flexible and powerful in terms of EQ and room correction. They also had a proprietary set of NHT speakers that are designed to work with their system that sounded uniquely good. There was so much more to see at the show than I could possibly get to however these few items were among the most kick ass products I saw during my time in Vegas. The good news is there is some great, new affordable gear coming to an AV store or on-line retailer near you. Stay tuned.
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