Ahh…finally here!

We made it to Las Vegas and back safe and sound.  While we have been to CES in the past, this year was a bit different.  The economy is showing signs of solid recovery, our customers are geeked about our passion for great equipment and music, and David Michael Audio has firmly established itself as one of the best audiophile shops in the midwest.   To say we were excited to visit CES is an understatement.  We had the chance to meet with  many of our key partners to learn of their plans for the coming year, and to explore new options in the market place with the ultimate goal of  finding the best sounding equipment  available, bring it home to Michigan, and share it with you.  In all fairness, shows like CES are not typically the best venue for maximum fidelity but you can still get a very good sense for the overall sound of the equipment.  Unfortunately we aren’t able to cover every product at the show, but we did want to give you our impressions of some of the products that stood out for us. So, here we go.

Sexiest Products

Oh my.  The Bergmann Magne Air-Bearing Turntable and Arm was just the best looking product at CES.  $12,000 for this level of craftsmanship and technology, seems like a steal to us. It sounded great too.  Runner-up was a sexy little Italian 10w integrated from Pathos.

Funnest (Is that a word) Room

These guys sure know how to have fun.  The sound was a little cupped and forward but the choice of music was just a hoot.  As we walked in the door, the needle hit the record and out came this synthesized sweep of music.  Everyone looked puzzled as to whom the artist might be.  When asked if we knew who it was, David immediately said Van Halen.  1984 intro track rolling into Jump.  About 115 db and rocking it out.  This speaker was made for this.  Just too much fun.

Best Affordable Products (< $10,000)

Revel introduced their new Performa series due sometime in June.  Driven by Mark Levinson electronics, they sounded just great.  One of the shows highlights on a budget.  Down side, they are made in China.  Oh well, at least Mark Levinson is still made right here in the USA.

Rogue audio introduced their new class d tube hybrid amps.  $3995 (200w) and $2995 (100W) respectively.  Great sounds from class D. Didn’t know it was possible on a budget.  Affordable and made in the USA.

Canalis who?  Canalis speakers were created by famed loudspeaker designer Joachim Gerhard in collaboration with Spiral Groove founder Allen Perkins. They feature cabinets made of 3-ply cross grain, vertical core, Mao bamboo plywood.  DMA carried Sonics speakers a few years ago.  Same designer.  We liked them but never fell in love.  These speakers are a different story.  They were spot on.  Fantastic sonics top to bottom.  Great voicing and driver integration.  Rarely do we hear this level of sonics at reasonable prices.   Made in USA with pride.  This was the show diamond in the rough.  No doubt you will hear lots more about this speaker in the press.  We will upload a pic soon.

Best Expensive Products (> $10,000)

There was certainly not a shortage of high end, very expensive products at the show.  Some sounded good, some great but there were a few standouts that we thought reflected true state of the art sound.

CH Precision was making it’s CES debut this year.  This Swiss company manufactures both a dedicated transport unit that plays standard CD’s as well as SACD, and a DAC that have to be heard to be believed.  It’s as close as we’ve heard to analog from a digital source.  CH also allows tremendous flexibility through the use of boards in the DAC to allow customization of input and output based on individual need.  They also had a prototype amp that promises to be the equal of their digital equipment when it’s introduced to the market later this year.  The system was using Luxman M-800 A mono block amps and Magico Q3 speakers with Argento cabling and a new Argento power conditioner.  The sound was fantastic.

The VTL room was producing wonderful music from a variety of components, some new introductions for Bea and Luke Manley, and others from their existing product line.  One system showcased Rockport Technologies’ new Avior speaker being driven by VTL’s new S400 II Reference stereo amplifier, a TL7.5 Series III preamp, YP6.5 phono preamp, and  a Spiral Groove turntable.  The sound was incredible, being both detailed, articulate, and smooth at the same time.  Their second system used a pair of Avalon Acoustic Indra loudspeakers with VTL’s S-200 Signature stereo amplifier and TL5.5 II preamplifier . Both systems shared the same digital and analog sources including a dCS Paganini DAC, player, clock, and upsampler and a Spiral Groove turnable with Centroid tonearm .  Transparent and Nordost cables were used throughout both systems.  The sound was some of the best we heard.

 

Magico introduced their new Q7 to the marketplace and it was impressive.  We heard them early in the show when they were being driven by a variety of black boxes that no one was taking about.  Maybe Magico is getting into the electronics business?  The sound from the Q7′s was deep and authoritative with Magico’s renowned midrange and treble.  An organ piece was played that really showcased the new speakers, and had the most believable deep bass that we’ve heard in some time.  They also introduced the new S5, a lower priced alternative to the Q series, but they were still in prototype form.   We expect our demo pair 2nd Quarter 2012.

The MSB space had YG speakers and a variety of MSB components being used.  The new Platinum S200 stereo amplifier was introduced and it sounded great.  Vince Galbo, MSB’s national sales manager said the S200 even sounds better than their well regarded mono 202 amplifiers which are being replaced with the new 203 mono blocks in the next couple of months.  The new HD Tracks release of Cat Stevens Tea for the Tillerman was in the rotation and sounded better than the Island vinyl copy that I’ve listened to for years.  Vince explained that the new 24/192 release had been mastered on MSB equipment on loan from David Chesky’s studio.  The sound was superb. DMA will have the new S200 and M203 amplifiers on demo soon.

We had not heard MBL before and they were impressive. If you’re not familiar with the company, they make both speakers and components, but are best known for their omnidirectional speakers. They had their high end speaker line and components and the sound was impressive. Very 3-dimensional and spacious. From what we estimated the price tag (we think $500K) to be for the system it should be!

TAD was demonstrating their two floor standing speaker lines and their new line of components. The amps are built on a cast iron framework that weighs 50lbs in addition to the weight of the amps. The sound was clean, articulate and dynamic. Maybe a bit too detailed for some tastes, but the sound was beautiful none the less.

Marten, a speaker company from Sweden, introduced the Django loudspeaker with a combination of ceramic and aluminum drivers that floored both of us.  There was tremendous soundstage depth and width, with great articulation.  Most of all the speaker sounded musical with everything they played.  They were being driven by an MSB front end and their own digital amps.  We ordered a demo pair on the spot and should have them in our place in March.  They have to be heard to be believed.  Retail will be $15,000.  Yes, that’s expensive but these sound like $30,000 speakers! Our pick for second best sound at the show.  David’s hair stood up on a remake of Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Making Love”.  WOW!

Last but not least were the Vivid G3′s.  Based on Philip O’Hanlon’s (the US distributor for Vivid) description of them to us prior to CES we expected something larger.  We were surprised to see how small the new speaker is, and initially couldn’t believe that they could produce the state of the art sound we were promised.  Boy, were we wrong.  They were easily one of the best speakers at CES if not one of the best speakers we’ve ever heard.  Early reviews from some key magazines confirm our initial impression of the speaker.  Don’t let the size and somewhat unique design of the speaker through you off.  Come in and listen when they arrive in a couple of months.  They’re truly amazing.  Philip was using Luxman amps, an Audioaero CD/DAC unit and a Brinkmann table and arm.  He was also playing some reel to reel tapes.  Steely Dan’s Goucho never sounded so good.

Overall Best Sound

And the winner is……the Vivid Giya G3.  Yes, they are weird looking (maybe even ugly), yes they are purple, yes we carry Vivid, and yes they are $40,000, but OMG are they amazing.  Flat out the best sound at the show hands down.  Lawrence Dickie take a bow!