Premiere Design

The debate over the sound of vacuum tubes versus solid-state audio electronics has endured since the invention of the transistor, and it's not likely to be settled any time soon. With the new C-60 CD player from Australian boutique maker <A href="http://www.vincentaudio.com.au">Vincent Audio</A>, there's no need to decide&#151;you can switch between its tube-based and solid-state output stages as desired.

When Lars Engstr&#246;m built his first first amplifier at age 12 in his native Sweden, he could hardly have foreseen where it would take him. But his passion and talent for audio engineering eventually led him to found <A href="http://www.thelars.se">Engstr&#246;m & Engstr&#246;m</A> in 2009 with his nephew Timo, an industrial designer whose skills complement those of Lars perfectly.

The human hearing system is exquisitely sensitive to directional cues that let us instantly determine where a sound is coming from. This was critical for our survival in prehistory when the snap of a twig or a low growl might be the only harbinger of impending doom in the jaws of a hungry predator.

Reader K. Reid asked for a profile of ultra-high-end cables from <A href="http://www.nordost.com">Nordost</A>, and I'm only too happy to oblige. At the pinnacle of the company's extensive product range is the Odin line, which includes power cords, tonearm cables, analog and digital interconnects, and speaker cables.

Horn-based speakers have been around since the earliest days of audio reproduction, and they continue to find favor among audiophiles today. Germany's <A href="http://www.avantgarde-acoustic.de/hornlautsprecher.php?lang=en">Avantgarde Acoustic</A> is no stranger to horn speakers, basing its business on them since 1991. At the top of the company's considerable lineup is the Trio, shown above in the Classico configuration with a massive Basshorn subwoofer.

Most of the products on display at CES are new to the world market, but there are a few exceptions. For example, the Sunray speaker from Germany's <A href="http://tidal-audio.com/english/startenglish.htm">Tidal Audio</A> has been available for several years, but not in the USA&#151;until now. North American distributor <A href="http://www.aaudioimports.com">Aaudio Imports</A> used CES 2010 as the venue to introduce the Sunray to the American audiophile community.

AC power has long been the bugaboo of high-end audio&#151;necessary to power the electronics, but prone to polluting the audio signal path with unwanted noise. American boutique manufacturer <A href="http://www.veloceaudio.us">Veloce Audio</A> has come up with a unique and elegant solution to this problem in its LS-1 vacuum-tube preamp&#151;put the power supply and audio electronics in completely separate boxes and run the electronics with a rechargeable battery.