January 23 - Do you have any idea how many loudspeakers above $12,000 are shown at CES? I do. Practically every room on the 29th, 30th, 34th, and 35th floor of the Venetian hotel–which is to say, every room in the CES’s primary high-end-audio exhibition area–had a pair or two playing merrily away in the spots where minibars stocked with $4 cans of Coke and $15 nips of Scotch once stood.

Not to mention the half-dozen or so $12k+ speakers in the Venetian’s ground-floor Meeting Rooms or the scores off-site at the Mirage, the MGM Grand, the Alexis Park Hotel, the St Tropez Resort, etc. I did my best to cover the field, but, outside the Venetian proper, I failed miserably. My apologies to all those companies I missed. I tried–believe me. Check out the ones I did cover below.

Scaena, Merlin, Magico, Ambience, and Quad

Verity, Vivid Audio, Abbington, American Acoustic Development, Avalon Acoustics

Chario, Isophon, Silverline, McIntosh, Escalante

Kharma, Magico, King Sound, B&W, Art Deco

Nola, Revolver, Usher, Kharma, Siltech

Gersham, Von Schweikert, Manger, Cessaro, Venture

Acapella, Wilson Audio, Avalon, Dynaudio, Sound Lab 

TAD, Vienna Acoustics, MBL, German Physiks

Jonathan Valin’s Best of Show

Next: Scaena, Merlin, Magico, Ambience, and Quad