Margules Group Mexico at CES 2011

Remember this turntable? Well, I was able to meet with the gentleman from Margules Group Mexico, the company that is trying to make these turntables a reality. They stopped by the Cardas room for a while and I was able to speak with them about these amazing designs as well as their strategy for bringing them to the audio marketplace.

Julian Margules, the patriarchal head of Margules, spent a few minutes providing me with updates. He let me in on some amazing information such as:

1. They want to bring these turntables to the international market for less than $1000. This will include the arm, which for now is a Rega OEM arm based on the highly-tweakable RB-250.

2. Oh, wait...there's more! For $1000, Sr. Margules wants to include a built-in phono preamp that's built right into the gorgeous plinths. That means this will truly be a plug and play analog solution.

3. Sr. Margules told me if he can't make this the best-sounding $1000 turntable on the market, he simply won't do it. He realizes that there will be some real challenges in accomplishing this, but he simply won't compromise the sound.

4. These designs were actually produced by design students in Mexico. He was amazed at the style, simplicity and execution from these 18 and 19-year-old individuals.

Colleen Cardas told Sr. Margules that she wants the first one...serial number #001. AND she wants it in pink. He hedged a bit--you can tell he wasn't nuts about the whole "pink" thing. But he will try to deliver.

I told him I wanted the second one off the line. I made it easier by telling him I wanted the one in wood, however. I hope Margules Group Mexico can achieve these goals, as I think this will be an exciting product that will really shake up the affordable turntable market.

These are a few of my favorite peeps...

Here some pics that I stole from both Colleen Cardas and Trenner & Friedl. They're much better photographers than I am.

First, here's a pic of Colleen Cardas and her nephew Luke at CES. I'm probably speaking out of turn here, but Luke is the real mover and shaker behind Cardas Audio.

Here's another pic of the Cardas think tank with musician Dean Peer. Dean cut his hair prior to CES, and almost no one recognized him.

Here's a much better pic of the Dukes. As someone else said, "Holy crap...I'll never listen the same again."

This is Bob Clarke of Profundo pouring me some more wine. I drank more excellent wine at CES than I have in the last ten years.

This is Bob and his wife Stacy. She was a ray of sunshine and offered tremendous support to everyone there.

Here's a pic of Colleen and Andreas Friedl. I want someone to hand feed me Cheetos. I'd pay handsomely.

Here's Peter Trenner. Another ray of sunshine. His love for good music is infectious.

Here's Dan Muzquiz, me and Colleen. Sammich!

Bob and Colleen.

And finally, Dan, Andreas and Dean. Thanks everyone for showing me a good time!

Sonneteer Morpheus Music Centre music servers at CES 2011

I have a lot of miscellaneous pics from the CES convention, and I'll share them with you a bit later.

The first few pics come from the Sonneteer room, where they were displaying their new music server, the Morpheus Music Centre. One of the reasons I attended CES was to see what was going on in the world of music servers. My brother and I build custom music servers for many of our local customers, and most of our solution involves software rather than hardware. It was interesting to get my brother, who has been an IT guy for a very long time, to give his impressions of commercial servers. He had some interesting observations, which I'll discuss later as well.

I spoke at length to Basil Bahrani of Sonneteer, and their solution is to offer as many possibilities to the consumer as possible no matter what format or source becomes popular. Their modular approach and the feature-laden server is impressive and packs a lot of versatility in a compact, attractive and easy-to-use design. It was fun to play with their server and to revel in both its excellent user interface and its sleek technology. Of all the server solutions I saw at CES, I liked this one the best.

Plus they had their servers hooked up to the excellent Penaudio speakers from Finland. I have plenty of seat time with their Serenade speakers and always found them to be supremely satisfying in every way. In other words, the sound quality of this simple yet gorgeous system was musical and could easily drag this anachronist into the 21st century.

Plus, I dug all of the cool colors for their remotes! Oh, and I'm still very sorry for spilling my coffee on their carpet. Oops. I'm a klutz, but I can still mount and align a cartridge in minutes.

DeVore Fidelity at CES 2011

I've been a huge fan of John DeVore's speakers for quite some time. While I was at TONEAudio, I had the DeVore Fidelity Gibbon Super 8s on hand for six months and truly fell in love with their ability to project a gigantic soundstage. Then I had the Gibbon Nines for another six months, reviewed them, and then gave them back to John with a tear in my eye. When my parents visited me in Washington State a couple of years ago, I had the Nines in my system and my dad turned to me and said, "Now I know why you do what you do."

I've been hearing about DeVore's new Orangutan speaker for quite a few months now. John often has a bunch of his audio friends over to the DeVore factory in Brooklyn for a night of listening; these gatherings and the room itself are known as the Monkey Haus. For the last few months, John has been playing the Orangutans for his guests and they have been quite enthusiastic. Looking at these simple two-way boxes, you might be reminded of those Audio Note AN speakers...deceptively simple designs that produce a very high-quality sound. At CES, the Orangutans were nothing short of spectacular. As modest as they look, they will remind you of huge speaker systems that cost twice as much money (the Os will run $12K a pair).

These speakers may look simple, but the sound quality more than justifies the price.

Megasystems at CES 2011

The Consumer Electronics Show is all about putting your best foot forward and showing the industry what your company is capable of achieving. As a result, you see some pretty spectacular systems. While nothing quite trumped the Trenner & Friedl Duke/Rowland Research room, a few megasystems came quite close.

This system is from the German company Burmester, and their gear is famous for being very beautiful and ornate (more Italian than German in style). They're also known for being quite expensive. This state-of-the-art system included most of their premium line, and it sounded magnificent. For me, the Burmester sound is very meticulous and detailed and revealing. If you're looking for lush and romantic, look elsewhere.

Speaking of lush and romantic, the megasystem is from Kondo Audio Note and featured the legendary Ongaku amplifier, their new and quite massive turntable and a beautiful set of field coil loudspeakers. In the past, I've been frustrated by the inconsistency in the Audio Note setups at various audio shows...it's either the best sound I've ever heard or the worst. This time it was the former, and I was hypnotized by the gorgeous, fluid sound.

The system is from YG Acoustics. YG caught some flack in the audio press a couple of years ago for announcing in their print ads that their speakers were the absolutely best in the world. After a couple of years, however, people are starting to recognize that these huge aluminum speakers do offer a rarified level of performance. Even though this system was located in one of the big rooms downstairs at the Venetian (where the high ceilings are huge obstacles to achieving great sound), this system really sounded great and captured my undivided attention for quite a while.

One more system offered what I felt was first-class sound...the Wilson and Lamm room. Wilson speakers are not really my cup of tea since I prefer a slightly warm and romantic presentation. Wilson speakers are extremely revealing and often sound a little too relentless to my ears. Lamm amplifiers, however are a different story. I've never heard a Lamm-based system I didn't love, and this time was no exception. The Wilson Alexandria speakers were utterly captivating with the tubed Lamms, so this was easily the best sound I've ever heard from Wilson period.

Modwright Instruments at CES 2011

I got to meet up with my old friend Dan Wright at Modwright Instruments at CES 2011. I haven't seen him for a couple of years, probably since I reviewed the 36.5 preamplifier for TONEAudio. Dan has had a lot of success with his new power amplifiers, the KSA 100 and the KSA 150, and had received a lot of great reviews from the press. He had a system set up with the KSA 150, his brand new LS 100 preamp, one of his modded Sony SACD players and a Townshend Rock 7 turntable. Speakers were small aluminum bookshelf speakers with matching subwoofers. I can't recall the name but I'll try to find out as quickly as possible.

We listened to some Johnny Cash and I really appreciated the purity and simplicity of the sound. Johnny's presence in the room was eerily realistic, which was even more surprising since it was a mono recording. I've always liked Dan's gear, especially the 36.5 and some of his outboard phono stages.

I was intrigued with the new LS100, and asked Dan if it was his new flagship. He said it was actually his new entry-level model, replacing the old 9.0. I was surprised because the case for the LS 100 was actually larger than the top-of-the-line 36.5. It's the same case as the one used for the KSA 150 power amplifier. Dan prefers to use the larger case because there's more room for the tubes inside. Dan is definitely a guy who likes to tube roll; when I reviewed the 36.5, he brought me every conceivable tube that could work including some very rare industrial-grade tubes.

I have always enjoyed the blue glow that emanates from all of Dan's products, as you can see in the pics. I loved having his gear in my system because it always made my listening room look so calm and relaxing. Plus, it sounds great!

GIANT Boulder amplifier for CES 2011

Just when you think amplifiers couldn't get any bigger, someone comes up with something that truly makes you gasp. These monoblock amplifiers are made by Boulder, and they're literally each the size of a coffee table. These prototypes were basically empty cases, but the finished product will sport about 1500 watts per channel and weigh more than 400 lbs. apiece. They come mounted on a 75 lb. granite base, which you can see in these photos.

Price will easily be in the six-figure range. A representative from Boulder told me that the casework was exceptionally difficult to make. If you look closely, you can see that each box is asymmetrical yet sold in mirror-image pairs. These boxes are so big that I'm sure I could curl up inside one, and I'm not exactly petite. If you're looking for a big amplifier for your Cardas Clear Beyond cables, this Boulder might just qualify!

Joseph Audio at CES 2011

Right next to the Cardas Audio room at CES was the Joseph Audio room, where Jeff Joseph was showing off his new speaker, the Perspective. This slim floorstander fits nicely between his flagship Pearl2 and the premium bookshelf monitor Pulsar. I was able to hear both the Perspective and the diminutive but mighty Pulsars for some time, where they were driven by Bel Canto electronics and hooked up with Cardas Clear.

I told Jeff I couldn't believe it's been 20 years since I first heard his RM7s in an audio store in Maryland, just outside of Washington DC. I remember pointing to the little two-ways (which still exist in his line in an XL version) and asking about the company. The salesman replied, "Don't know much about them, it's a brand new company." After auditioning them, I almost bought them on the spot. The only reason I didn't was that I was po' at the time.

20 years later, Jeff and his loudspeaker company are still going strong, even though they've maintained a relatively low (albeit steady) profile. I've heard many of Jeff's speakers over the years at various audio shows, and I've enjoyed every model. Right now, my favorite is the Pulsar because I love really high-quality small monitors. I love the way they disappear in a room and image like crazy. The Pulsar, however, go very deep in the bass for their size. Jeff was even bold enough to play some pipe organ music for me (an organ-only version of Pictures at an Exhibition) and I was extremely impressed with their combination of solidity and delicacy.

The new Perspective, however, went even deeper. These are gorgeous speakers (sorry the pics are so dark, but the lighting in the room was on the sultry, seductive side), and extremely well-crafted. Jeff even upped the ante by playing vinyl on a Clearaudio table with one of those exotic strain gauge cartridges from Soundsmith. First of all, every cartridge should be lighted from within (it helps with cueing, and it looks awesome). There was just something about Jeff's room that was relaxing, classy and very satisfying.

I was also a guest at his wine and cheese event and went a little overboard with both. (I also ate more than my share of M&Ms). At the same time, I cracked open a bottle of Lagavulin single malt scotch and shared a couple of glasses with Jeff's brother David as well as a few others. So it evened out. Congratulations to Jeff on a fine new speaker!

Little Ol' Me at CES 2011

"How come there are no pictures of you on the Internet?" Colleen Cardas asked me a few months ago. First of all, I'm a bit camera shy. For instance, when I watched the video of myself on The Movie Junkies webcast a couple of weeks ago, I could not stand to watch myself fidget in my chair and stare right into the camera at the worst moments. What a dork. Also, I think those camera thingies steal your soul. Finally, I've been surrounded by photographers throughout my life (my brother Greg is a fairly well-known one), and I can't stand to say "Cheeese!"

Nevertheless, some pics of me were invariably snapped of me over the last few days. I tried to grab their cameras and smash them on the ground, but some of these audio guys are bigger than me. So I suffered through it all.

The first pic is my favorite...the Three Amigos. That's me with Dan Muzquiz of Blackbird Audio Gallery and Bob Clarke of Profundo. I love those guys...embarrassingly so.

The second pic is me and Gavin Fish of MIT Cables. I told you these guys are big. I'm 5' 10", so I'm not that short. But I kept running into guys like George Cardas, John DeVore and Jeff Rowland...you know, guys who could have played in the NBA if they hadn't been sidetracked by audio. Note how Gavin works for MIT Cables, yet we snapped his pictures in front of a poster for Cardas Clear cable. I hope he still has his job on Monday.

Finally, the last pic of moi. It was taken by either Trenner or Friedl. That goofy smile is because I was listening to the Dukes. Enough said. I need another haircut. I actually had a few inches cut off before I went to CES. It wasn't enough.

God, I hate pictures of myself.

CES 2011...Cardas Audio

Since I was a guest of Cardas Audio for the CES (I even got to put my name badge in one of their cool leather holders), I used their room as sort of a home base. When I say room, I have to specify that it was their MAIN room, as many of the rooms at the Venetian had the words "Cardas Audio Ltd." on the banners over their doorways. That's because many other exhibitors used Cardas cables in their reference systems. Why? Because Cardas was introducing their new top-of-the-line Clear at CES. To paraphrase Van Halen, everybody wants some.

I use Clear Light in my own system, which is the entry-level cable in this premium line. Above that, you have the just-plain Clear and the flagship Clear Beyond. The Beyond, of course, was extremely impressive, and was one of those cables that is as "thick as a garden hose." The Beyond was used in many of the most expensive, state-of-the-art systems including the one with the Trenner & Friedl Dukes. Admittedly, the Beyond is such a high-performing cable that only the very best systems can extract all of its performance. Even a couple of people from the Cardas camp admitted that the Beyond was too much cable for their systems (although I bet it's perfect for George Cardas' amazing home system, which you can find on YouTube). For most people, myself included, Clear and Clear Light are all the cable they'll ever need. But if you're one of those audiophiles with a no-holds-barred rig, you'll want the Beyond to take it to the next level.

The price of Beyond is high, but there are quite a few brands that charge more for their top-of-the-line offerings. In a world full of $30,000 8' pairs of speaker cables, the Beyond is priced fairly and sanely, especially when you see how complex its construction is.

The Cardas room also featured the new LP releases of Ben Harper's Pleasure and Pain, which I've written about extensively. Dean Peer's new 180 gram limited pressing of Airborne was also there, and yes, I now own my very own copy, given to me by Dean himself. (I know, I'm a name-dropper.) In fact, I'm traveling to San Diego next week for the Music Night at Blackbird Audio Gallery featuring Dean Peer, and I hope he'll sign it!

I also had a chance to speak to George Cardas himself about his latest audio interests, which include finding the right solution to the preponderance of DACs in today's audio market. He also gave me a preview of Cardas Audio's upcoming earbuds. This is the second time I've heard them, and I have to say that I want a pair badly.

This surprises me, because I've disliked every pair of earbuds I've ever stuck in my ears. I'm somewhat claustrophobic (which was a bit of a problem in the packed elevators at the Venetian, and which is why I got so much exercise in its stairwells), and I'm always uncomfortable with having something slid into my ear canals. The Cardas earbuds were downright unobtrusive and fit into my ears very comfortably due to the revolutionary shape. In addition, the sound was so spacious and extensive that I felt they were more like wearing tradition cans. Earbuds, in my opinion, often sound aggressive and forward because of the nature of their placement. Not these ones.

George demonstrated this by having me first listen to a pair of Sennheiser HD800s, one of the best headphones currently on the market, through a headphone system consisting of products from Ayre and Musical Fideilty. The sound was pretty amazing, smooth and full and believable. I then switched to the new Cardas earbuds and the soundstage was larger, the bass was fuller and the overall sound was less fatiguing. I don't have any pictures of these yet because they still haven't been formally announced, but they are great-looking little devices, made from metal instead of the ubiquitous plastic of most earbuds. George said that the materials used helped to contribute to the more solid and engaging sound. I'll speak more about these in the future, especially if I get a chance to test-drive them.

Once again I'd like to thank the Cardas Audio crew for their incredible hospitality to this humble blogger. I was able to meet most of the gang including George, Colleen Cardas, Darcy Cardas (George's wife), Mary Cardas (the oldest daughter), Angela Cardas Meredith (the youngest daughter), Josh Meredith (Angela's husband and the principal sales and marketing executive for Cardas) and Brian Von Bork. I even got to meet Luke Cardas, the nine-month-old son of Angela and Josh. Children aren't allowed at CES, but Luke had a Cardas name badge, so nobody dared to question his importance at the convention!

CES 2011--The Profundo Room

Sure, I spent as much time as possible in the big Trenner & Friedl room with the Dukes, but I also frequented the other Profundo room which was run by Dan Muzquiz of Blackbird Audio Gallery in San Diego. Profundo is the US distributor and importer of many of Dan's brands such as Trenner & Friedl, Heed Audio, Transfiguration and VivA Audio. Profundo is basically Bob Clarke, who is one of the good guys in audio because he loves music and puts that first. In fact, once you get to know Bob, you'll find out that when he plays music, he loves to crank it up. Yes, Bob Clarke rocks.

It was also great to hang out with Dan, because over the last few months we've become good friends and yet we've never met in person. It was weird to walk up to him in the Profundo room and wait for him to recognize me. When he did, I got a huge bear hug.

Anyway, Dan had some very intriguing gear set up in this room. First, as I mentioned before, he had the ART monitors set up and run by the Heed Audio monoblocks, along with a Heed preamp. Sources were a Basis turntable with a Transfiguration cartridge as well as a digital transport and DAC from Heed. Cables, of course, were all Cardas.

But the ARTs had a little something extra on top...the new add-on super tweeter from Trenner & Friedl. I erroneously reported earlier that this was the same tweeter used on the Dukes, but it's actually a scaled down model. It's a Vifa tweeter instead of the diamond tweeter used on the Dukes. That makes sense, because the diamond tweeter add-on would cost approximately $15,000 to $20,000, and that doesn't quite make sense with a pair of $4250 stand-mounted monitors. The smaller tweeter will retail for somewhere around $2500. While this still sounds expensive, especially in the context of the ARTs, it makes a lot more sense for the middle speakers in the Trenner & Friedl line such as the Ella and the Dizzy. Best of all, both of these super tweeters can be added to almost any speaker on the market.

This smaller tweeter also has the striking Swarovski crystal on top. I watched guest after guest walk into the room and immediately run toward those big "diamonds" perched on top of the ARTs and try to figure them out. Once Dan explained how they work, it made a lot more sense. The super tweeters, as you can tell from the pics, fire upward from the top of the speaker. The crystals are cut in a specific way to aid with proper dispersion. I was able to listen to the ARTs with and without the super tweeter, and the difference is not subtle. With the super tweeter in place, the ARTs sounded a lot bigger and threw up an amazingly deep soundstage. It's very impressive to hear such a wide, deep, expansive sound coming from such little speakers. As I toured from room to room in CES, I saw nothing but giant speakers everywhere I went. It was nice to see the ARTs, in many cases, sound just as authoritative and impressive as those big floorstanding behemoths.

I also felt that the ARTs, with and without the super tweeter, sounded much better in this room than in my own personal listening room at home. First of all, the room at CES was quite a bit larger than mine and the ARTs had more room to breathe. Secondly, the Heed amplification is quite a few notches above my current Rega amp. The ARTs produced an amazing amount of bass with the Heed monoblocks, so much so that we often found ourselves laughing at just how much low frequency information was coming from these mini-monitors.

Fortunately, I will soon be able to experience this kind of sound at home. Bob told me that once he recovers from CES, he's going to send me the Heed Obelisk SE integrated amplifier and X2 outboard power supply that I blogged about a few weeks ago. Bob told me that the wonderful thing about the ARTs is that you can keep throwing higher and higher quality amplification at them and they'll keep sounding better and better. Bob uses the ARTs at home with the expensive VivA amplifiers from Italy, and the ARTs definitely pull their own weight. It's nice to know that as I improve the other pieces in my own system, it will be a long time before I feel like upgrading the ARTs. In fact, unless I can win the lottery and buy a pair of Dukes in the near future, I plan to keep the ARTs for a very, very long time.

Maybe with that super tweeter, though.

Trenner, Friedl and possibly the greatest speaker ever made

I am back from CES. I think this was either my seventh or eighth CES I've attended, but I have to honestly say that this was the best CES ever. Why? Well, perhaps it was because I was not functioning as a member of the audio press, but rather as someone who has recently made some very good friends in the world of audio and was treated, in turn, as a friend. As one of these close friends told me, there are some great people in the world of audio, and getting to know them is one of the true joys of high end audio.

Peter Trenner and Andreas Friedl, the Austrian gentleman responsible for my Trenner & Friedl ART monitors, certainly qualify as members of this group. Despite the fact that these two gentlemen are IMO true geniuses in the world of speaker design (Peter is the business side of T&F, while Andreas is the "mad genius" behind the designs), they truly GET that audio reproduction is about the emotional connection between the music and the listener. And their new statement product, the Duke, is perhaps the greatest loudspeaker I have ever heard.

Yes, this sounds like hyperbole, and calling one audio product the "best" is usually met with ridicule in the industry. After all, we audiophiles certainly have different and subjective priorities when it comes to the final results. But let me explain. At a CES a few years ago, I heard a state-of-the-art system from a European audio manufacturer that was by far the best sound I had ever heard up to that point (and I have heard a LOT of gear over the years). Every last barrier between audio gear and live music seemingly vanished. Sure, the massive speakers cost well over $100,000 dollars, but this redefined my expectations of what high-end audio could accomplish.

Well, after spending a significant amount of time with the Trenner & Friedl Dukes, I went back and heard that other speaker system in another room. And suddenly, it was clearly bested.

First of all, the T&F Dukes cost more than my house here in Central Texas. (And I have a 3000 square foot house with five bedrooms that was built just a few years ago.) So these are certainly not speakers for the audiophile masses. In addition, this is the first and currently ONLY pair of Dukes in existence. So you will probably not hear these speakers at your local audio store in the near future. They are very dear and very exclusive. Having heard them, however, I must say that once again my expectations are redefined. The Dukes did everything perfectly. Coupled with first rate gear from Rowland Research and dcs (and, by the way, it was all from digital sources) the Dukes provided everything I could ever want.

So why are they so good? First of all, they played every type of music...even intimate music on a small scale. I heard some recordings of solo classical piano, and the Dukes projected the EXACT size of the piano and the recording venue. I could clearly define the size and shape of the grand piano. I've heard HUGE speakers make everything sound big. Singers are suddenly ten feet tall. Pianos are twenty feet wide. Everything sounds giant. The Dukes preserved the size of everything just as it is in real life. I could not tell the difference between this recording and listening to an actual live performance.

The Dukes could also resolve detail like nothing else I've heard before. I could hear the pianist shift back and forth in space as he played. I could hear him rock back and forth on his bench. I could hear him breath. Like most great gear, I could sense the interaction between musician and instrument rather than just hear the notes. On many systems, you may hear a singer and his instrument individually, as if they exist in a vacuum. Very seldom do you truly perceive that interaction of the two...how the artist is holding the instrument, how it sounds against his or her body, how there is a true partnership. The Dukes captured that ebb and flow every time.

Okay, so the Dukes could play intimate music well. But do they rock? Well, on Friday night after the show closed down, I attended a private party in the T&F suite and we started playing lots of funk, especially James Brown. And we all started dancing. We just couldn't help it. It was like being at a live show. We were moved and compelled by the performance. We were interacting (there's that word again) with James and his band.

By now you might be wondering if I'm getting a big check in the mail from T&F. I'm not. I was completely won over by my tiny little ARTs. They are the best small speaker I've heard (again in my humble opinion). The ARTs are the ENTRY LEVEL model for Trenner & Friedl. The Duke, however, is the culmination of everything these guys have accomplished. And it's absolutely stunning.

The shame, however, is that I had to keep telling people to go up to the 34th floor and listen to the Dukes. They should be the talk of the show. Instead, everyone was talking about USB ports on DACs and creating music servers that reflected the needs of the ever-fickle consumer. But the Dukes are utterly and completely about the music. And they need to be heard, even though they cost what they do. None of the speakers T&F makes are what you would call affordable. But I've been in this game since the '70s, and I've never been this much in love with a piece of gear.

Over the next few days, I will speak more about what I heard at the show. An overwhelming amount is GOOD. But as I'm writing this, there's still one more day of CES. Everyone there should run to the T&F suite and listen and then tell me if I'm wrong.