Alan Sircom’s Best of CES
Best Sound (cost no object)
Sony’s stunning SS-AR1 loudspeakers, played through the Pass Labs as mentioned by Steven Stone, but this time on vinyl, using a Spiral Groove turntable (the deck du jour at the Venetian). Hearing ‘When I Fall In Love’ from Steve Hoffman’s excellent remaster of Nat King Cole’s Love Is The Thing album made you remember why you got into audio in the first place. Magnificent!
Best Sound (for the lowest price)
Paradigm’s Shift loudspeakers. These active two-way loudspeakers are hooked directly to the fun button, especially as Paradigm is happy to demonstrate them as part of a kick-ass bedroom DJ set-up. Cleverly, the Shifts can be turned into wi-fi loudspeakers without tears, as they have a slot at the back to accept and power an Airport Express. All for $500.
Most Significant Product Introduction
The new ElectroMotion series from MartinLogan has already picked up an Innovation award from the Elders of the CES. The slim, full-range hybrid electrostatic loudspeaker delivers the beautiful open midrange of the breed, and not far removed from the company’s new Theos model, but costs just $2,000. Expect them to sell bazillions.
Greatest Technological Breakthrough
Meridian Sooloos Media Core 200. Stripping back all bar the key aspects of the Sooloos system, the Media Core 200 features a half terabyte drive, analogue and digital connections and all the key functionality of Sooloos, but can be run from a computer and controlled by an iPad. Best of all, it halves the price of admission to $4,000.
Most Important Trend
Those four words that ended every Venetian demonstration ‘…controlled by an iPad.’ This not only highlights how quickly the iPad became ubiquitous, but also shows a new-found maturity in audio; had the high-end reacted in its usual way, it would have tried to make its own version, which would have worked half as well and cost five times as much.
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Comments
"Most Important Trend
Those four words that ended every Venetian demonstration ‘…controlled by an iPad.’ This not only highlights how quickly the iPad became ubiquitous, but also shows a new-found maturity in audio; had the high-end reacted in its usual way, it would have tried to make its own version, which would have worked half as well and cost five times as much."
LMFAO!
All that's needed in such a component is a web server such as Apache and the relevant web pages framework, negating the need for a proprietary user interface and enabling use with any wireless device, ranging from laptops to tablets (iPad, Android) to smart phones.
Brian Walsh
Essential Audio ~ Chicago area ~ 773-809-HIFI (4434)
Most companies took an even simpler, more pragmatic route... an iPad running Apple's Remote app. A few companies that run their own hardware (Linn, Meridian, Naim, Sonos) have custom apps. Yes, you can go the Apache route, but as the majority of people running computer sources at the Venetian were running Macs with iTunes and Amarra, the iPad/Remote option was the obvious one.
Alan Sircom
Editor, Hi-Fi Plus Magazine
London, England
editor [at] hifiplus [dot] com
I would hardly say that setting up a web server and such is difficult, especially considering the availability of people who practically do this sort of thing in their sleep and at low cost. While the iTunes/Amarra approach works and fairly well at that, it is proprietary and not at all cost effective, nor is it necessarily the optimum solution.
Brian Walsh
Essential Audio ~ Chicago area ~ 773-809-HIFI (4434)
The problem here is one of manpower and skills. Most of the people who demonstrate audio have been doing so for years... long before computer audio became a vital aspect of high-end audio. Their skill set is installing and demonstrating a good audio system, and their IT literacy has traditionally been very much a secondary consideration.
A web server approach may well be a better solution, but in most cases would require an extra expert on hand to install the server in the room and to be there if the thing falls over. That's an extra cost consideration... and at the Venetian, where moving a table costs $150, overall show cost considerations are vital.
Interestingly, the likes of Linn and Naim approach the subject in a networked manner. I've tested both the Linn Majik DS-I and the Naim UnitiQute recently (both are essentially UPnP-enabled media rendering receivers), which both use slightly different but equally valid ways of approaching a networked audio solution, and the two companies both showed systems with great success. However, even though neither used Apple equipment in their choice of media server or for any of the network infrastructure, both selected the iPad as a Control Point. I would imagine this sits less comfortably with Linn Products, as it designs its architecture open source.
There is another (lesser) consideration. A number of companies selling DAC-based solutions would rather not paint the concept of computer audio in anything other than the simplest possible light. The migration to computer-based solutions is still in its tentative stages and at this time presenting a solution that is virtually off-the-shelf is a friendlier option to someone who is still basically wary of the whole process.
This is why things like the Paradigm Shifts exist. A possibly more sensible solution would be to use cheaper, less proprietary options than the Airport Express (and of course, so long as you ignore the slot for the AE, you can do exactly that), but the Apple product is a sensible one in this case because it's capable of being used by both the IT-savvy and those whose computer skills have only just on from the "where's the 'Any' key?" stage.
As to the whole cost-effectiveness of the solution, er, this is high-end audio we're talking about! I think anyone discussing cost-effectiveness would be concerned they could be accused of cutting corners in the process. It's a cut-throat world out there, after all.
Alan Sircom
Editor, Hi-Fi Plus Magazine
London, England
editor [at] hifiplus [dot] com
Brian is right. I believe the future of media control systems lies in web applications which can run on almost any computing device, and control many different media library managers, not apps written specifically to proprietary platforms. I'm working on such a generic controller myself, and it's very promising.
And I wouldn't be too quick to credit the high end community for out of the box thinking, when they almost all seem to be relying on the lowest common denominator interface (iTunes) . It seems that there ought to be a happy middle ground between functionally limited freeware and multi thousand dollar proprietary systems, no?
Scott, I don't think Alan is crediting the high end community with out of the box thinking. I think he is crediting them with in the box thinking. I believe his point is that producing a consumer friendly product, in a reasonable timeframe at a realistic price is a good move for some.
That said, no complaints if others try to do something better for more money (or less). What is a pain is something bad, 3 years from now, that is really expensive.
Who said anything about 'out of the box thinking'? My point is that for once the high-end companies didn't reinvent the wheel by making a proprietary iPad sized remote control for more money and with less functionality.
And, with the greatest of respect, future solutions don't really cut it when the show ended last week. If a company had pitched up with a DAC, preamp, power amp, speakers, cables, tables – and the promise of an upcoming web application that will run on a generic controller sometime in the future – that company isn't going to get very far.
The assumption that almost all rely on iTunes is in error, just a lot of iPads in control. There were a lot of Amarra/iTunes systems running under Remote, but there were also a lot of Ayreplay, Songbird, J River and even a few Foobar users with a VNC client on the iPad, as well as proprietary systems. And not all of these cost thousands of dollars; Linn's media server software is open source, although it does demand Linn hardware as part of the deal.
Alan Sircom
Editor, Hi-Fi Plus Magazine
London, England
editor [at] hifiplus [dot] com
I think the point here with the iPad is that it is good-enough and a bit of a de-facto personal accessory, like the iPhone and iPod.
This -is- the high-end we are talking about, so the bonus is that not-only are these devices readily and commonly available, and relatively easy to integrate, but also that there are completly compatible high-end and after market modifications for things like gold/diamonds or rare wood cases available, that just aren't available commercially for other models, in the same variety.
Sure, there are high end phones, like the Vertu, so there will probably be other models (non-iPad based) 'pads that run linux, and maybe can come with decent looking aesthetics in the future - but the iPad isn't so shabby to begin with, and works, like a hot darm.
Plus, programming for an iPad is about the same as programming for a popular computer (say a Commodore 64) back in the day.
I won't compare running a system interface through a BBS and a dial up modem, with running a system interface through WiFI and HTML5, but the fun is to be had a such a higher level, natively, with relatively larger access to the whole-hardware.
I've seen very nice musical applications come out of MIT for the iPhone and those guys are no Linux/OS slouches/non-advocates, but they simply chose the iPhone because it was both a commodity-toy and neat.
It won't be long before we see better iPad interfaces (like Soloos perhaps) for music. Writing an app for the Mac can't be very hard if my experience using Apple/NeXT's interface builder and Objective-C stuff for the PC/Windows is any indication
Plus with Apple/Verison now announced, Apple's position in the US looks brighter than it was, not long ago. Investing in such a platform looks like a relatively safe bet - just look at what a smashing success iTunes and the AppStore have been on the delivery front.
This is coming from someone who hates iTunes, and has am unused iPod nano somewhere in the room, and not a mac, in the house.
Next year, the most important trend will be the demise of dedicated music servers, as commodity computers and software will have totally replaced them.
I like Sircom and personally think they are the best Thanks for letting others know about this brand..