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Las Vegas -7-11 Jan 2010

30 Jan 2010

CES 2010_HIFICLUBE VIDEO REPORT_PART 1 (updated 26th Jan): A walk on the wild side, Nagra/Verity/Basis, Audio Physics, Audio Valve, Simaudio, Vienna Accoustics, VTL, Morel, Ayon+Legacy, Ypsilon, Acapella, Quad, TAD, EAR, ProAc, Scaena, Hansen Viva, Avalon, Sumiko (AR+SF); Part 2: Raysonic, Eggleston, Wharfedale, Nola, Crystal, Wadia, Audio Research, Gershman Acoustics, LP Alphama, NTT, Joseph Audio, Pass, King, Gamut, Odeon, Wisdom Audio; Part 3 (updated 26th Jan):PS Audio, Meridian, Tidal, Octave, Plinius, Continuum, Boulder, Perfect 8, Crystal, Isomike, Chapter, PrimaLuna, Marten/Vitus, Oracle, Cary, Nordost, Blue Room/Ocean Way

Exclusive video report updated daily with comments in english

Each day more videos will be added with brief comments when needed. So stay tuned to this section: Artigos/Audiofiia Crónica. For the full report in Portuguese (photos and video) go to Artigos/Reportagens. Note: poor lighting conditions (sometimes even in the dark) degrade image quality.

Follow me for a walk on the wild side. Many rooms had nobody listening apart from the exhibitor himself. And that was before I got to The Show where the exhibitors were - with a few exceptions like Magnepan and DartZeel - all waiting for Godot...

HIFICLUBE is turning more international each year. For the first time our CES report will also be published with comments in English, for all of you who don’t understand a word of Portuguese, and don’t trust online translators - and you are right no to I might add.

Comments will be brief as videos tell most of the story and they also have live sound to boot. We hope that will give you a fair idea of how each room sounded. For a more personal view of the event you really must start learning how to read Portuguese, a beautiful and poetic language spoken by 200 million people all over the world. And don’t trust Google to help you: traduttore, tradittore, I am sure you’ve heard that expression before…

You can follow all the published articles about CES 2010 by clicking the selected articles in “Artigos Relacionados”. It might seem a bit chaotic at first since we publish as we move along with no preconceived order just to keep you informed.

Note: The first two videos are HD which might take some time to download. From now on we will publish only lower resolution videos for obvious reasons. Most of the videos are published raw and unedited. Enjoy:

NAGRA/VERITY/BASIC

After the exclusive presentation of the Wilson Audio Polaris by David Wilson himself, we hereby open our collective presentation starting with our visit to Nagra/Verity at the Mirage Hotel featuring the new Nagra MSA solid state amplifiers driving Verity Amadis loudspeakers and the prototype of the Nagra 300Bi, a most lovely push-pull tube integrated amplifier, using 300Bs as the name implies, presented by Julien Pelchat:

From now on all new videos are low resolution and you'll not be able to watch them in full-screen. And yet they are still much better than someone telling you how it sounded. We offer you the real sound, not someone else's opinion of it.

The "there, there" illusion never was so...eh... real...

AUDIO PHYSICS

Dressed like a samba dancer at the Carnival, the Audio Physics played well nevertheless

AUDIO VALVE

Audio Valve? I had vever heard of it before. But I liked listening to it. It sounded crisp and full.

SIMAUDIO MOON

Simaudios's 30th anniversary? I thought it was just the 25th. Or maybe I didn´t want to admit I am getting old too. Congratulations to Simaudio. They deserve the...eh...moon!

VIENNA ACOUSTICS

I just loved this rocky reggae version of Wish You Were Here through the Musiks. Power, rhythm and pace, indeed. The best I've heard from this set up ever. I hope they forgive me the previous boutades.

VTL

VTL always had that magical capacity to sound as if playing music is an easy thing. Even when playing Italian rock...

MOREL

The show is not over until the fat lady sings, or plays the violin as is the case here. And very well she did it too. A loudspeaker for all seasons...

AYON+LEGACY

You are listening to the Legacy loudspeakers with Ayon amplification. Considering the...eh... legacy I had higher expectations.

YPSILON

I

It was not an easy musical piece to perform. But sometimes the Helius hybrid amps sounded unbearably bright, more like on...eh... helium...

ACAPELLA

That Corona plasma tweeter sometimes gives me the creeps. It looks like HAL from Space Odyssey, although it is probably the best tweeter on earth. But it sure didn't sound like it today. Hotel power is full of garbage and sensitive equipment suffers with it...

QUAD

Some things never change: quality is immutable. Only people´s needs and tastes change with time. And if you need to reset you ears, just listen to Quad. Listen for the delicate shimmering of the cymbals. And if all of a sudden, someone seems to come out of the soundstage, be very afraid for that might be a real person...

EAR

Tim Paravicini is a more contemplative than talkative person. But talking to visitors comes with the job. And sometimes they can be a pain in the ass. But not the good analog sound both from LP and especially tape I heard in this room.

TAD

At the Venetian, TAD is the other place to go if you need a good soul cleansing after hours of bad sound. But I think it sounded better last year with Pass electronics than with the new TAD amplifiers which seem to me to be just a Pioneer statement. I admit I might be wrong. Jetlag is a bitch...

More TAD. It seems I cannot have enough of them. Great loudspeakers anywhere in the world.

PROAC

Besides the superb finishing, the new ProAc Carbon Six have a clean and sweet sound. And what about depth of field? On a clear day you can see forever out there into the mountains...

SCAENA+MCINTOSH

Scaena is probably one of the few loudspeaker systems overcharged with drivers that sound coherent and well balanced. And you can upgrade it like a Lego...

HANSEN

The imposing (and ugly, looks like a bottle) Hansen Grand Master was most likely the best loudspeaker I heard at the show: effortless and very well balanced tonally. And although it has so many drivers it even sounds good in the near field. Very expensive (175 000 US$) but it delivers the goods.

VIVA

Really I heard no reason to rejoice and shout viva la vida. You can see the tubes planted deep, deep in the belly of the earth, but you cannot hear them as such. In other words, it's not the romantic type of amplifier. What's the use of tubes that sound like transistors?...

Neil Patel of Avalon was proudly showing Time. I thought the sound was a little soaked up by the forest of tube traps. However this track sounded clean and well resolved. You really must listen to more than one track or you might get the wrong idea most of the...eh...time. Amplification was by Jeff Rowland.

Note: as usual lighting conditions were poor for image quality but that does not affect sound.

Sumiko room was another one that left me standing in the dark. Even the Stradivari were the dark version. And the piano black REL Gibraltar subs didn´t help either. Poor lighting conditions but great sound. Amplification was by Audio Research Reference amps and everything sounded plummy, full bodied and oh so natural one feels like crying. Probably one of the top five sounds at the show.

GO TO PART 2

GO TO PART 3

José Victor Henriques

Email: hificlube@netcabo.pt