Fred Manteghian

When JVC graciously invited me to Japan to the CEATEC show as their guest, I only hesitated for an instant before saying yes. I've gone to a lot of shows this year, but the opportunity (and desire) to see Japan was too strong. The twenty-eight hour trip from my home in Connecticut to our hotel in Tokyo was taxing and the three hours sleep I managed before I awoke at 3:00 AM local time with a sudden desire to check my mail have put me a little on edge on my first full day here, but I've seen plenty to write about already, so let me fill you in.

J<B>anuary 7, 11am</B><BR>Using a new 61" ProScan HDTV, Thomson Consumer Electronics demonstrated a high-definition DVD that uses Divx technology to decode the fully encrypted digital signal coming from a special ProScan Divx-compatible DVD player. According to Thomson's Larry Pesce, "The beauty of our high-definition process is that the HD signal is never sent unencrypted to the display device."

MBL had some great sound in their room. Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" left me with goose bumps and Leonard Cohen's baritone vibrated through my being. While a playing of the "1812 Overture" was meant to highlight the dynamic abilities of the system (the demonstration only partially succeeded in this), I still find that these big speakers are at their best with more minimalist music, imparting the human voice, that violin of the gods, with a sweetness and believability that is rarely captured.

The system, composed of the MBL Reference line speakers mbl 101E ($46,900 / pr) and monoblock mbls 9011 amps ($73,200 / pr), mbl 6010 preamp ($19,000), mbl 1621 transport ($19,000) and mbl 1611 dac ($21,000), all run with Tara Omega speaker cables ($10K/pr) and Tara Zero digital cable ($6,000) and Zero interconnects ($14,000 / pair). And you need a couple of pair of interconnects too, so this stuff starts to add up big time. You do the math. If I had this kind of money, I'd pay off my mortgage first.

Rotel’s RDD-1580 (top unit in picture) uses two Wolfson WM8740 digital-to-analog converters instead of a single converter in a configuration Rotel claims reduces noise and distortion. A front panel USB port accepts output from Apple iOS devices like an iPod. But most people will opt to stream music from their device to the Rotel via an included Bluetooth dongle that would plug into the USB port. A pair of coaxial and a pair of optical connections on the back should handle connections to a CD, DVD or Blu-ray player. The converter comes with a remote control or you can select which source to convert via the front panel buttons. Both single-ended RCA and balanced XLR outputs are available, the latter a very nice touch indeed. No pricing has been announced yet.