CES 2007

Here are a few pictures of the 2007 CES, held January 8-11, 2007.

As usual, we (Locus Design) provided all of the cabling for the Sonicweld exhibit, which consisted of:

• Sonicweld Pulserod Active loudspeaker system
• Esoteric DV-50s CD player
• Locus Design power extension boxes
• Locus Design Nucleus power cables
• Locus Design Polestar power cables
• Locus Design prototype interconnect cables
• Locus Design prototype digital cable

AudioXsell has some nice pictures on their site as well. For my personal impressions, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.

Locus Design power extension box and Polestar AC cables

Locus Design Cables

Right view of speaker system

Left view of speaker system

Esoteric for trasport, modified DEQX as preamp/crossover/room correction

Input and power cables by Locus Design

Input cables and power cabling by Locus Design

The mighty Sonicweld Subpulse. 1100W, 15" and tight and tuneful!

Locus Design power extension box and Polestar AC cables, part deux

Special "glowing" Locus Design cable!

Many clients have written and asked me what caught my eye at CES, so...as far as personal impressions, I was mostly stuck in my demo room, so did not get around much. Here are a few highlights:

The highlight of the show for me was the Sonicweld active loudspeakers (my room partner), they are always a treat. Incredibly detailed, smooth and most importantly get the music "right". His new "Gen V" model is the best yet. Systems don't get any better, IMHO. My personal reference for state of the art sound. Look for some remarkable press on these this year.

If you can afford the Sonicweld's, buy them! However, even if you can't afford the whole system, Sonicweld can mod your DEQX digital processor, giving you a "taste" of the Pulserod's sound. A couple of pictures (courtesy of AudioXsell) of the modified DEQX are below.

Custom modified DEQX by Sonicweld

Closeup of the custom Sonicweld power supply for the DEQX

In no particular order, I also remember:

• I liked the new 300W Flying Mole mono's quite a bit. Nicely made and making good sound on Green Mountain Audio speakers.
• Cardas has a new UL listed in wall cable which should be cool. I will order some soon and try it out.
• I procured a bunch of samples from Furutech of their new receptacles--they look to be very nice. Also, they have a new line of receptacle covers (including a brass and carbon fiber unit that looks VERY cool!) and very inexpensive power cabling--both look very promising. I should have them listened and formed impressions of within a couple of weeks
• Oyaide has a new 20A (Beryllium Copper base, plated with Platinum and Palladium) receptacle that looks very exciting. I will have samples soon for evaluation. They also introduced 20A IEC ends--finally! I also spied some new $100-125 power cables that looked REALLY good. I will bring these in soon.
• A Japanese company named Acoustic Revive had some really nice accessories that I may bring in soon.
• Bocchino Audio has a few new connectors and some isolation feet. I will bring a few new products from them in soon, the Mecado isolation feet are VERY, VERY good if the short demo I did in the room is any indication.
• AudioKinesis had two really inexpensive but good sounding speakers. Talk to Duke or Lori if you are in the market for $3-4k speakers. Very nice midrange, and VERY nice people!
• American Digital Audio, Inc. had a really nice line of inexpensive tube amps. Chinese sourced, and looked to be pretty well built.
• Aura Audio (April Music) had a cool "all in one" amp/cd/USB DAC that would be great for an office system
• Eminent Technology had their "rotary" subwoofer--Crazy bass! ;-) They were also demoing the LFT-8 speaker system. If there is a better $1800 speaker available today, I haven't heard it.
• Kharma was sounding good, as usual.
• Simon Yorke has a new "affordable" turntable coming out, looks very nice. One of these are on my 2007 wish list.
• The Kimber/Isomike room was very memorable. Playing master tapes recorded by Ray at Weber State University through 8 (if I remember correctly) Soundlab speakers and Pass amplifiers, the sound was large and spacious. Ray's Isomike recordings are really worth seeking out.

I am forgetting a lot, but those are the rooms that are on the top of my head.

I am sure that I will remember more and have missed some cool stuff, but my memory "ain't what is used to be". ;-)