I don't want to hear any post-show moaning about low attendance at this year's CES. They were dangling from the rafters at LG's positively immense booth.
Sony’s CES press conference kicked off in a surprisingly
cool manner with a Jimi Hendrix clip, followed by a live (in 3D, that is)
performance by Sony music artist Taylor Swift, who was introduced by the
company’s apparently smitten head honcho...
We've missed Optoma's engaging big-screen demos the past few shows, but we had to miss them again this year. The featured attractions here were several project 3D demos using video projectors. Unfortunately, they were disappointing compared to the 3D demos elsewhere at the show, with decent 3D effects but noticeably compromised resolution.
The audience is all ears listening to the flagship home theater system from Swans (more below), via Arcadia of California via Hi-Vi in China. For those who are interested, they were listening to Yanni Live at Mandalay Bay on a multichannel DVD.
This is the system to which the crowd in the above photo were paying rapt attention. Or rather the left and right speakers in that system (my photo of the entire system didn't fare well).
The M6HT system from Swans is more modest than the 2.3B system described above, but just as classy in its solid wood threads. Unfortunately, however, it was not on demo.
A few years back the maker of Energy and Mirage speakers, Audio Products International, was bought by Klipsch. Then a company celled Gentec International gobbled up all three brands. Unfortunately, Energy and Mirage went through the succeeding years with little new of interest to the serious audiophile. A shame, because the Energy Veritas v2.8 from 1994 remains one of my all time favorite (and underappreciated speakers). I still own a pair and although they were never ready for home theater (a matching center channel was never made for the original Veritas'). I break them out every time I need a (still excellent) 2-channel referenced. That's not often these days, but as little as time as they get in my listening room they aren't going anywhere.
Monster has unveiled yet another set of headphones, the "Jamz" series. While not linked to a specific musician, Monster's Jamz bear some resemblance to the company's "Beats by Dre" and "Miles Davis Tribute" headphones, along with some similarity to...
Begun as a collaboration of several companies, the Nordic Tone ended up as Electrocompaniet's first high-end speaker when the others dropped out for one reason or another. First shown at the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival in November, the Nordic Tone's infinite-baffle (i.e., sealed) enclosure is sand-cast aluminum consisting of five sections glued together with vibration-damping adhesive. Its 3-way design achieves a frequency response from 28Hz to 35kHz, and it sounded great, with tight bass, uncluttered mids, and crisp highs, but what else should you expect for $29,000/pair?