January 7th-10th, Las Vegas will play host to the audio industry's biggest players in the largest gathering of its type this side of the pond. CES and T. H. E. are at the back of every audio enthusiast's mind all year round. Now, with the conventional holidays behind us, many may find themselves salivating as we look forward to a celebration of a different sort; a celebration reserved exclusively for audiophiles.
Not to be left out of the festivities, Audiogon will have a team on the scene to cover this exciting occasion in-depth. As always, Albert Porter and our team of photographers will get you the best pictures on the net. On top of that, for the first time EVER we will be shooting VIDEO of the convention to try to capture each exhibitor's demonstration(s) and to conduct interviews with industry luminaries.
As you may have heard, T.H.E. Show (which runs concurrently with CES) has recently grown to include both the St. Tropez and the Alexis Park resorts now that CES has moved their high-end audio venue to the Venetian. Audiogon will be working closely with T.H.E. to bring you in-depth coverage of the most exotic two channel gear we can find. Further, we will be combing the massive CES venue for any and all companies of significant interest to our community of Agon'ers.
Here are some of the featured exhibitors that we will be paying special attention to. |
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Norvinz to unveil Roger Sanders' Secret Project
Roger Sanders (formerly of Innersound) is up to something, that much is for sure. SSS distributor and Audiogon partner Norvinz will help Roger unveil his top secret project. Additionally, you'll find turntable legend George Merrill there to discuss his latest table. Already a smash hit based on the number of RMAF exhibitors that used it in their systems.
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Audience to debut mid-size Line Source
Audiogon partner Audience LLC is well known around these parts for their world renowned power products and DIY AuriCaps. John McDonald has been working on a unique line source speaker, prototypes of which were seen at RMAF. John will debut a mid-sized, more refined version of the LSA speakers, as well as a revision to his famous Adept Response conditioner which now sports the newly developed Teflon AuriCaps.
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NFS Audio will hang out and get drunk
NFS as in Not For Sale Audio, was started four years ago by a couple of Las Vegas audiophiles that just want to have some fun with this hobby. Foregoing the yearly contribution to their ARA's (Audio Retirement Accounts), they pay for exhibit space just to hang out with fellow audiophiles. They treat vistors to an out-of-this-world presentation of a real-world audio system, to be enjoyed with a choice of fine wines.
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Magnepan will debut a motorized On-Wall ribbon
Any card carrying audiophile has (or should have) owned a pair of Maggies at some point in their career. Magnepan has been the sound/dollar benchmark in planar speakers since 1969. Jim Winey has recently pushed the threshold of nirvana all the way _down_ to a few hundred dollars. Debuting at the show will be a motorized on-wall ribbon dipole, which will probably set a new WAF/Sound benchmark.
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Purist to debut some exciting phono options
Audiogon category sponsor Purist Audio Design will demo new products including a phono cable from their highly touted Proteus line. Even more exciting is a DIN to RCA adapter to replace the wimpy din cable that comes with some tonearms. Finally, their new venture Stahl~Tek will show a production version of the long awaited Vekian DAC.
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The Wall Street Journal will perform Blind AB tests
That's right, the newspaper. When WSJ contacted Richard Beers (T.H.E. Show promotor) for exhibit space, he rolled out the red carpet so that our little industry could gain more exposure amongst the masses. Reporters for WSJ's tech column "Portals" will supposedly conduct Blind A-B tests in their Alexis Park exhibit room. This ought to be interesting to say the least, so we'll try to grab some video.
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Fidelis AV continues to beat the Harbeth drum
Harbeth must be the best kept secret in USA. Anyone who has heard Harbeths raves about them, yet their small production makes them hard to spot. Even more reclusive is their designer Allan Shaw, who has roots with the BBC going back 50 years. The US distributor Fidelis AV has convinced Allan to make the trip, and we at Audiogon will be honored to spend some time with this mysterious legend.
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Soundsmith has reinvented the phono Cartridge
You've heard of MM and MC cartridges, but how about SS? That as in Silicon Substrate with NO moving parts! Peter Ledermann has made the only significant advance in vinyl playback in the last 10 years, with his Strain Gauge cartridge. We plan on picking Peter's brain about this intriguing new concept that will be of great interest to all audiophiles (not to mention other cartridge makers). Stay tuned for inside scoops.
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Emprical Audio leads the Computer Audio movement
Longtime Agon member and prolific poster Audioengr (Steve Nugent) will demonstrate several forward thinking products for PC based systems, including the Pace-Car jitter reducer for Squeezeboxes and soundcards. Better yet, he will unveil a revised USB TubeDAC with Pace-Car built-in. Be sure to check out our upcoming coverage of Empirical Audio, for you/we will be sure to learn quite a bit from Steve.
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Check this page often for updates before and during the show. After the show we will have the full coverage online which will include thousands of pictures and hopefuly hundreds of videos.
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