Well, day 2 was an entirely different affair at CES 2016. The crowds picked up hugely. Not as much as RMAF at the peak but way, way more people than day one. Fortunately everyone was well showered and you could walk around breathing through your nose.
I saw probably 50+ systems. Lightroom says I have 326 pictures to sort through and post.
What was wonderful was how many people recognized me. I say in two thirds of the suites, people would come and say, "aren't you Amir from whatsbestforum?" "it is so great to finally meet you." And "you run a fantastic forum." One company from Asia actually brought me a gift of expensive looking china tea set and select tea to go with it! And a couple of people actually asked for my autograph.
Sadly none of the above is true but felt good writing it
. OK, some were true. I did run into people who were on the forum and all had positive things to say. I introduced myself to manufacturers as WBF missionary so hopefully the drop by to see what I am writing about them.
Opposite of RMAF, I found most systems to sound warm and pleasant. Gone was high-pitch demo tracks/systems that I heard in room after room at RMAF.
There were more candidates for good sound and day started early with Gary's Genesis room. Sadly I was so enthralled with the great music and sound he produced that I took no pictures! Have to go back and remedy that. But what a pleasure it was to see a high-end system and have it play like a high-end system. Beautiful sound and even better conversations with Gary and Carol. The new Fortè sounded great (I am biased of course). Having back firing tweeters helps substantially to even out the radiation all around. Other than horizontal dipole plane through the loudspeakers, you almost had an omni-directional loudspeaker. This should make placement very easy. The sound will be diffused although I was surprised at the fact that this was not overwhelming (a good thing in my book). It plays like a half way between a dipole and point source loudspeakers.
Hit MSB for my usual fix of great digital sound and they did not dissapoint:
Picked up some music to buy later which I will post in my full show report.
While on the theme of three letter companies, I also spent quality time with MBL. I must say, it was a much better sound than I remembered at other shows. Very good dynamics, clean bass that caused shivers through my seat. They had these interesting diffusers around them which I will post later.
Dali had very nice sounding speakers for just $3,800. I have been on a mission to find lower cost good sounding gear and there is more of it here than at RMAF.
Went to Sony booth to listen to their system and boy, did they blow it. Their employees would stand in the back of the room and loudly talk to other people. Kidding around, etc. What the heck? How are we supposed to audition systems with that going on? And on top of that, they would keep the volume so low. Spend all this money to come and with no supervision and understanding of why you are there, you waste all of that.
My notes say that EMM Labs had some of the best sound today. But it doesn't say why! So there, you have all that I know sans the pictures to come later.
Raidho's D-31 tower speakers sounded very nice with excellent selection of music that matched them. But once I heard they cost $65,000, it made no sense. They just don't look like $65,000 speakers. And if I am paying that much, I expect it to look like a $65,000 speaker, darn it.
Kudos to D'Agostino not for the sound they produced because there were none in their room. But for having these beautiful and massive bouquets of flower that gave a very fresh and pleasant scent to the room.
The day ended with a music session at Believe High Fidelity suite again. They played an organ piece that knocked my socks off in the first two seconds. And then lasted many more minutes. Driven by 60 watt a channel tube amp, these efficient loudspeakers produce dynamics and clarity that is unbelievable. Words cannot describe the experience.
That's it for now. Have to run off to the show....
I saw probably 50+ systems. Lightroom says I have 326 pictures to sort through and post.
What was wonderful was how many people recognized me. I say in two thirds of the suites, people would come and say, "aren't you Amir from whatsbestforum?" "it is so great to finally meet you." And "you run a fantastic forum." One company from Asia actually brought me a gift of expensive looking china tea set and select tea to go with it! And a couple of people actually asked for my autograph.
Sadly none of the above is true but felt good writing it
. OK, some were true. I did run into people who were on the forum and all had positive things to say. I introduced myself to manufacturers as WBF missionary so hopefully the drop by to see what I am writing about them.Opposite of RMAF, I found most systems to sound warm and pleasant. Gone was high-pitch demo tracks/systems that I heard in room after room at RMAF.
There were more candidates for good sound and day started early with Gary's Genesis room. Sadly I was so enthralled with the great music and sound he produced that I took no pictures! Have to go back and remedy that. But what a pleasure it was to see a high-end system and have it play like a high-end system. Beautiful sound and even better conversations with Gary and Carol. The new Fortè sounded great (I am biased of course). Having back firing tweeters helps substantially to even out the radiation all around. Other than horizontal dipole plane through the loudspeakers, you almost had an omni-directional loudspeaker. This should make placement very easy. The sound will be diffused although I was surprised at the fact that this was not overwhelming (a good thing in my book). It plays like a half way between a dipole and point source loudspeakers.
Hit MSB for my usual fix of great digital sound and they did not dissapoint:
Picked up some music to buy later which I will post in my full show report.
While on the theme of three letter companies, I also spent quality time with MBL. I must say, it was a much better sound than I remembered at other shows. Very good dynamics, clean bass that caused shivers through my seat. They had these interesting diffusers around them which I will post later.
Dali had very nice sounding speakers for just $3,800. I have been on a mission to find lower cost good sounding gear and there is more of it here than at RMAF.
Went to Sony booth to listen to their system and boy, did they blow it. Their employees would stand in the back of the room and loudly talk to other people. Kidding around, etc. What the heck? How are we supposed to audition systems with that going on? And on top of that, they would keep the volume so low. Spend all this money to come and with no supervision and understanding of why you are there, you waste all of that.
My notes say that EMM Labs had some of the best sound today. But it doesn't say why! So there, you have all that I know sans the pictures to come later.
Raidho's D-31 tower speakers sounded very nice with excellent selection of music that matched them. But once I heard they cost $65,000, it made no sense. They just don't look like $65,000 speakers. And if I am paying that much, I expect it to look like a $65,000 speaker, darn it.
Kudos to D'Agostino not for the sound they produced because there were none in their room. But for having these beautiful and massive bouquets of flower that gave a very fresh and pleasant scent to the room.
The day ended with a music session at Believe High Fidelity suite again. They played an organ piece that knocked my socks off in the first two seconds. And then lasted many more minutes. Driven by 60 watt a channel tube amp, these efficient loudspeakers produce dynamics and clarity that is unbelievable. Words cannot describe the experience.
That's it for now. Have to run off to the show....
