in this issue

CES2006 REPORT
Still, a novice visitor might be excused for
wondering whether recent innovations such as
multichannel audio, high-resolution media,
Class D amplification, or post-Fifties music
ever existed. Next year, I predict, the availability
of Blu-ray and HD DVD—with their
associated hi-res Dolby and DTS digital audio
formats—will prompt a metamorphosis of the
venerable audio architecture. In the meantime,
there were still some noteworthy trends on
display at CES 2006.
Cost is (Apparently) No Object
One thing truly new at this year’s show was
the shockingly stratospheric prices to which
functionally humble, technologically mature
components have climbed. Imagine an auto
show at which every car on display is some
variation of a Bentley, and you have the equivalent
of this CES. Perhaps manufacturers were
convinced that a Nineties-like economic juggernaut
will materialize to mint thousands of
new millionaires. Or maybe, given the current
limbo between old and new sonic frontiers,
they simply saw few options other than
maximizing quality (and thus cost). For whatever
reason, manufacturers abandoned affordability
in droves.
I lost count of the bonanza in new
$40,000+ speaker models—how many people
can really afford such things?—and a surprising
number of CD playback systems emerged
in similar territory. These included the
$43,000 dCS stack consisting of the new
Verdi Encore transport ($17,995) plus
$25,000 worth of existing clocks and DACs; a
resurgent Wadia’s $38,000 rig that includes
its new 781 transport (est. $10,000); and
mbl’s exquisite 1622 transport (est.
$24,000), designed for use with its $21,450
1611 DAC. In the context of such extravagant
introductions, the plethora of new
$5000 CD players—occupying a price point
once considered fairly lofty—resembled
downright bargains.
CD Strikes Back
Last year, even two-channel systems took
advantage of high-resolution formats such as
SACD. Not so this year, as CD and CD-playing
equipment made a triumphant comeback.
The announced players sported several
features that elevated them above Plain Jane
status. For instance, while universal players
were virtually extinct, nearly every new CD
player could also accommodate SACDs. This
puzzled me, since that format, along with
DVD-A, is essentially dead. However, several
manufacturers explained that CD and
SACD are technologically “friendlier” to
each other, at the design and implementation
level, than are CD and any other format. All
three of the aforementioned flagship models
play SACD, but the trend was evident at
every price point, as exemplified by
Esoteric’s new X-01 Limited ($14,000) and
SZ-1 ($5600) players, as well as
Goldmund’s Eidos 18 ($5450).
While CD player prices climbed—five
grand qualifying as “entry-level” at this
show—many of them partially offset that
increase by obviating the need for a separate
linestage. To accomplish this, several players
featured digital inputs and/or digital volume
controls, enabling them to serve as a
system’s control point. Typifying this trend,
which began last year with Meridian’s 808i ($14,950), was
Wadia’s 581i ($8450) and Burmester’s 052 (est. $8000).
Many players, including the dCS, Burmester, and Wadia units,
also included upsampling circuitry, once the exclusive
province of outboard DACs.
Music-Minded Media Servers
Media servers are no longer novel, but CES demonstrated that these
devices are beginning to take sound quality more seriously. In general,
servers fell into two categories: those utilizing a PC platform,
and those aimed at mitigating the need for a PC. In the first camp
is Bardaudio, whose hardware, along with the user’s choice of PC
music software (iTunes, etc.) turns one’s computer into the front end
of a 2.4GHz wireless, whole-house music system.
Ofra and Eli Gershman displayed the impressive
Black Swan speaker; Sonicweld’s aluminum speaker
48 THE ABSOLUTE SOUND ■ APRIL/MAY 2006