You've done the factory tour at Zuffenhausen. Eight times. You once got in a fight and lost a canine, defending the IMS bearing in your M96 engine You patiently explain to newbies why the ignition switch is on the left side. Of course, you have "911" tattooed on your bicep. And, you just bought a Porsche Design soundbar.
What do Hunter S. Thomson, Philip K. Dick, and L. Ron Hubbard all have in common? For starters, they all use an initial in their names, and anyone who does that is obviously trying hard to appear to be intellectual. More important, I think they would all have enjoyed attending this year's CES.
You probably haven’t heard of Maroo Audio. The company, after all, is just launching this year. But based on the sound quality of its initial products, you might want to hear more from Maroo Audio.
ARCHT Audio (pronounced “ark” as in “architecture”) arrived on the audio scene last year with its ARCHT One wireless speaker, following its Kickstarter campaign in 2014 that raised $242,000 from over 500 backers. Following on that success, ARCHT is debuting the Mini speaker.
Mark Levinson has a strong tradition of making ultra-luxurious audio gear, and under Harman’s stewardship, the tradition is alive and well. Harman showed the ML No. 519 Audio Player, and the No. 526 Dual-Monaural Preamplifier. Both will break your bank and are worth every penny.
Blue Microphones is well known as a maker of - you guessed it - microphones. It’s been in that business for 20 years. It has more recently entered into the headphone market with the Mo-Fi powered headphones and has now debuted the Lola headphone.
The XDP-100R is already available in some overseas markets (most notably in Japan, where enthusiasm for hi-res audio is very healthy) but now the player is available for us nephews and nieces of Uncle Sam.
Shure is showing two very upscale products at CES: the KSE1500 electrostatic earphone system (MSRP $2,999) and SHA900 portable listening amplifier (MSRP $999).
Everyone and their brother (and mother) are making headphones these days, but Audio-Technica has been doing it for far longer than most. They continue to refine their designs, and are showing five new or upgraded headphones in their High Fidelity line.