Massive Consumer Electronics Show 2006 Coverage

[RGA]

was done by these guys -- well over 600 pics with comments - Some very interesting companies with weird looking speakers -- Accuton gets my vote for strangest speakers (the one that looks like a flower - either on side 3 or 4.

I like how each side (page) carries us through the tour from day 1 to day four with the final wrap-up.

http://www.audiofederation.com/hifiing/2006/CES2006/index.htm

[RoyY51]

was done by these guys -- well over 600 pics with comments - Some very interesting companies with weird looking speakers -- Accuton gets my vote for strangest speakers (the one that looks like a flower - either on side 3 or 4.

I like how each side (page) carries us through the tour from day 1 to day four with the final wrap-up.

http://www.audiofederation.com/hifiing/2006/CES2006/index.htm

Thank you RGA!

I have always wanted to attend this show, but circumstances have always dictated otherwise. Now, thanks to your wonderful pictorial tour, I (almost) feel like I was there. Except, of course, for the fact that I have just as much money now as when I started. Win, win!

Thanks, again!

[RGA]

This was not my tour -- just wnat to be clear.

I wanted to go as well but I just graduated in December and the money after these last 5.5 years had dried up. So Unfortunately I could not make it.

This is some sort of federation of people maybe? Audio Federation and man these guys did a lot of work -- I think they have closer to 1000 pictures than the 600 I initiially said -- and they had some good comments on a number of set-ups.

Still I don;t think shows are always the best way to judge -- you can get a general idea of the sound but the listener seemed to want to be wowed from one room to the next and not every system is about "WOW" so they can sometimes be negatively discussed - especially if the previous room had big powerful "SLAM"

I also think it would be tough with so many different designs and "beliefs" about what good is to really be able to put the pre-conceived biases aside.

Of course I can;t disagree too much with their assessment of Audio Note :D - I was happy to see that Peter was Playing the heavey metal again to show people that his 8 watt set-ups can make your ears bleed - that alone is an education people need.

[Geoffcin]

If you are not using broadband this link could lock up your computer.

I thought their coverage was pretty awful. A lot of pics, and little content. More like a couple of hifi geeks with a camera than good journalism.

[RGA]

Well they have more pictures than comments but then what other coverage is there?

These guys went and heard a TON of gear. Unlike some other sites that hear maybe 10 rooms.

None of the show reports are particularly deep - they can never be because it is impossible to hear them all -- even these guys missed Cabasse apparently and maybe Cabasse would have been best to them.

I know of previous shows where other web sites had a "best of show" and none of the representatives went into any of the Audio Note or JM Reynaud rooms -- so their best of show beat Sanyo and Polk Audio -- big deal.

[eisforelectronic]

I can't believe I don't remember that much of the show. I could have sworn I at least looked into most of the rooms at Alexis park. I took a very brief listen at AN simply because of RGA's positive raves, but really did not have any time for critical listening. I liked what I heard. I was very impressed by the bass output of the smaller Silverline speakers, only 3" drivers and it's rated down to 35 hz. Everyone that walked into Silverline just stood there dumbfounded. I enjoyed listening to the Anthony Gallo's. Very non-conventional looking speaker with a relatively small footprint producing surprisingly room filling sound. As always Totem was a great experience, I gotta say the people at Totem are always very open about their products and tend to play a larger variety of music and video. In my opinion, the most impressive product at Alexis park was Kaleidoscope. Imagine instant access to any DVD or CD you own in any or every room of your house. And not only access to any disc, but access to any track with automatic resume on everything. When I say instant access, I mean INSTANT. That server was lightning fast.

[RGA]

3 inch driver and 35 hz. Silverline's website unfortunately doesn't provide a speaker that only uses a 3 inch driver but they also don't indicate how many db down the frequency is. Generally speaker if a speaker maker says this:

35-23khz +/-3db then the speaker is 35hz -3db and 23khz -3db. Unless otherwise specified.

If they leave the +/- off then at best what they are saying is that the speaker is usable at that frequency which means it is -10db at that frequency.

Looking at the Silverline Reference 11 at $1,500.00 and their cheapest standmount - it uses a 4 inch woofer and looks like a number of speakers from the likes of Reference 3a, and a smaller Gershman Acoustics. (both companies I ver much like -- so the Silverline's look to be something i might want to hear.

This speaker is rated Frequency Response: 48 Hz - 22 kHz, 87db senstivie 8 ohms according to their website so I am curious if you know which Silverline -- this is the smallest speaker I could find on their web-site http://www.silverlineaudio.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=7

The tone of my last post was not meant to sound the way it came out because in reality I don't buy into such shows too much -- they are after all geared to audio retailers more than customers -- customers already own given companies and have preferences. Dealers may be looking for stuff to carry for purley business model reasons.

That is why you could have 7 sites do an evaluation and draw 7 different conclusions - you walk into a room that is playing music you don't know or don't like and that alone could be a strike against the room.

If one room is all about "SLAM" that can be VERY VERY enticing on a short listening session in a "SHOW" event like this. Longer term listening may in fact have the less showy less or non Blast ansd Sizzle set-up seem, in comparison in short sessions, less exciting. I myself have been extremely drawn to a number of speakers and systems initially that on longer sessions I found to have serious issues. You get better at spotting it.

If I go to one of these things I should imagine that I would want to listen to 4 rooms in a day at most and play a significant amount of music to be able to discern which systems are able to play the widest array of all music satisfactorally and separating the most differences amongst recordings -- but that requires me to "take-over" the room for the duration of my stay. That is an unreasonable request to make at an audio show.

[eisforelectronic]

It's the silverline Prelude. It's in the front in one of the pictures from the link RGA posted.

one 1" aluminum/magnesium alloy dome tweeter
two 3.5" aluminum/magnesium alloy mid/woofer
frequency response: 35 - 28,000 Hz
sensitivity: 91 dB
8 ohms
40"x5"x8"
$1200 /pr US

[drseid]

I thought their coverage was pretty awful. A lot of pics, and little content. More like a couple of hifi geeks with a camera than good journalism.

I agree for the most part... They also had a lot of pics of the few speakers they actually covered instead of covering many rooms (see next paragraph for a potential partial reason for this).

It also should be mentioned that these guys sell speakers, and as such, they gave a lot of coverage to their own lines, while making some negative comments about many competing brands.

I will say that the photos they *did* take were quite good though...

---Dave

[GMichael]

Photos, photos and more photos. WOW RGA! That was a lot of cool pics. Wish I could hear what they sounded like from here.

Thanks for the scope.

[RGA]

I agree for the most part... They also had a lot of pics of the few speakers they actually covered instead of covering many rooms (see next paragraph for a potential partial reason for this).

It also should be mentioned that these guys sell speakers, and as such, they gave a lot of coverage to their own lines, while making some negative comments about many competing brands.

I will say that the photos they *did* take were quite good though...

---Dave

This a two edged debate though -- they carry whatthey carry because they think ti is better than the stuff they don't like-- so it makes sense. Either that or you go with stereophile which loves absolutely everything -- even when it is utter junk. They also cut down a few systems in which they do carry. They seemed to say negative things about Sound Lab and yet they carry Sound Lab for example

[Geoffcin]

I agree for the most part... They also had a lot of pics of the few speakers they actually covered instead of covering many rooms (see next paragraph for a potential partial reason for this).

It also should be mentioned that these guys sell speakers, and as such, they gave a lot of coverage to their own lines, while making some negative comments about many competing brands.

I will say that the photos they *did* take were quite good though...

---Dave

This really isn't CES coverage, it's just a couple of shills working the crowd.

[Smokey]

This really isn't CES coverage, it's just a couple of shills working the crowd.

I thought they did a good job, but as you said they seem to be slightly biased, especially toward "Tube" gears, and certain brands. Every other picture contain some type of Tube component, and a newbie might think that these pictures were taken from 1955 CES covarage :D

Tubes gears IMO are way overrated :)

[RGA]

Geoffcin you're too funny -- I suppose the dealer is a shill because they actually like what they sell -- and of course the dealers you deal with probably sell stuff they think is total crap but they sell it because it sells. Ohh and you don't see any shilling from any magazine that touts gear that they receive mega advertising dollars from?

Yeah one day your stereo may progress to what they carry -- so don;t be jealous you'll get something good one day. :rolleyes:

[drseid]

This a two edged debate though -- they carry whatthey carry because they think ti is better than the stuff they don't like-- so it makes sense. Either that or you go with stereophile which loves absolutely everything -- even when it is utter junk.

I have nothing against them covering their own products (as that really is the only reason why they did the report in the first place)... But I think they are a bit disingenuous in their presentation of it being "show coverage." I call it more like Audio Federation's product coverage...

As for them selling/covering what they like... yes, although there are a lot of products at THE Show and CES that they *can't* sell, as they are sold direct to customers (not to mention limited distribution brands that only have 1 distributor per country or in total). Those are the products I tend to focus on when I go to CES/THE Show each year, as it is impossible to demo them at my local audio salons. I found none of these products in their coverage of course...

As for alternate reports, I tend to follow the continuing stereotimes.com coverage... I find it much more broad based (including limited and direct to consumer distribution brands), albeit a bit too positive (OK, even more than a bit). :-)

---Dave

[RGA]

i find it disengenuopus to report on CES when you take money from the companies -- like any and all magazines.

Steven Rochlin of enjoythemusic.ciom also covers the show but makes no comments probably because he does not feel right commenting on such things while also taking money in advertising. The problem though of course is that you then get no information from enjoythemusic whatsoever so it's completley useless.

The Audio Federation can't win here and can't possibly be viewed as objective. This is after all A MANUFACTURER'S showcase for DEALERS -- so the only people going to be doing such a thing is advertising taking magazines or dealers or some guy like me.

I think from reading AF's web-site is that they truly want to carry audio equipment of supreme quality and listenability...and of course it is subjective opinion.

It is unfortunate that a dealer is automatically condemned as a shill but that is rarely ever said about reviewers who most of the time have FAR less impressive systems than dealers have and FAR less listening hours. My dealer is Soundhounds in Victoria and their audiophile mass music lover and collector Terry has been at this game thirty years and has carried a truly amazing amount of products over that time.

He says he finds it interesting that many customers will buy stuff based of a single review (from a reviewer that owns stuff Terry sold at one time and thought largely mediocre and got rid of) with barely any real listening and how few ever ask "Of all the stuff you sell - what would you buy?" Granted there is a bit of trust required there as unscrupulous dealers (and there are very many) will point one in the direction of the highest profit margin...but that is not true for all of them -- if Terry makes a suggestion to the customer is he now a shill? I see no difference between this and the Audio Fderation crew who criticised a number of stuff they themselves sell and hailed stuff they don't sell.

They are very up-front about it putting an asterisk by companies they have an association with.

[drseid]

Well I did not accuse the AF of beings shills, I just said they had an obvious agenda for doing their "coverage." I would say the same of any dealer that does the same. There really is nothing wrong with what they did, I just personally would discount any comments they have as a result.

I am not slamming dealers, BTW... While my local dealers are less than impressive, I have been to one in Phoenix, AZ while visiting family that was the complete opposite of the spectrum. Just like anything else, there are good dealers and bad ones. AF could be some of the good ones for all I know, I have never met them so it is hard for me to know. Bottom line is they are still biased, so I would keep that in mind when looking at their coverage of the show (as I would any dealer's coverage).

Again, I am more focused on products that are not sold by dealers, or sold by only a handful at CES... as such, dealer coverage does not interest me (while CES is primarily geared towards dealers, there are plenty of rooms with the end consumer in mind and not the dealers at all).

As for bias in the online and print magazines... sure, that too exists. I tend to look for coverage of products that are *not* advertised in the online or print magazines covering them, as that coverage has a better chance of being less biased. Personally though, the best coverage of the show is by my own two ears... The Audio Federation and others are free to like, distribute and cover whatever they want... I'll let my own ears decide.

---Dave