OK, it's probably more fair to say I was "Disturbed" <I>at</I> the Ayre and Vandersteen room. Ayre's Steven Silberman was on a mission this weekend to prove to any doubters out there that zero feedback amplifiers and first-order loudspeakers can ROCK!
Allen Perkins of Immedia is shown here with the new Allegria speakers from Sonics, a newish speaker company founded by the man who formerly founded and designed some highly regarded speakers for Audio Physic, Joachim Gerhard.
Thiel's eagerly anticipated CS3.7 was on display and playing music, with the help of Audio Research tube gear and power by Richard Gray's Power Company.
Although everything was blue at the Blu-ray introduction, including the martinis,no one was feeling blue when we were invited into a large theater and shown comparisons of standard definition video vs. high-definition on one of Sony's 4K SXRD digital cinema projectors.
Not only does the sign say so, I'm holding a full production copy of <I>Hitch</I> on Blu-ray Disc right now! OK, it's actually sitting next to my laptop since I can't type and hold it at the same time.
Aperion Audio also showed a nifty and thrifty small system called the 422 S8, which retails for $799. It includes four 422-LR satellites, a 422-C center channel, and, you guessed it, an S8 powered sub.
Internet-direct speaker manufacturer Aperion Audio won some street cred from me by building a demo in which the picture didn't take a backseat to the sound.
Late Thursday I made it over to Sony's Blu-ray demo theater display, where I was treated to the most extensive Blu-ray demo I've yet seen. Sony had a demo BD that was put together to show off not only clips from many popular films (<I>Spider-Man 2</I>, <I>Chronicles of Narnia</I> and the digitally animated <I>Chicken Little</I> among others) but also the first look at BD's dynamic interactivity.
While it's still all too common to walk by a demo room at a trade show and see a clip of <I>Fifth Element</I> running, it is far more rare to actually see one of the police officers from <I>Fifth Element</I> standing in the room!