CES 2008: Jonathan Valin Explores the World of High-End Loudspeakers at CES
January 23rd, 2008 — By Jonathan ValinJonathan Valin’s Best of Show
Best Sounds: No single speaker stood way above the pack this year in my price range, so I’m going to name several Best Sounds of Show: the Magico Mini II, the Magico V3, the Quad Reference ESL-2905, the Cessaro Alpha 1, the Nola Baby Grand Reference, the Von Schweikert R-5, the McIntosh XRT1k, the Gershman Black Swans, the Wilson MAXX 2s, the Avalon Indras, the TAD Reference One and TAD Compact Reference One, and the Kharma 3.2.2s.
Greatest Bargain: In my neck of the woods, that would have to be the Quad Reference ESL-2905.
Biggest Surprises: The Cessaro Alpha 1, the Nola Baby Grand Reference, the Von Schweikert R-5, and the McIntosh XRT1k.
Most Important Trend: The persistence of analog. In the spite of the iPod and the computer-based music server, the turntable just keeps spinning along, and now reel-to-reel tape is making a mini-comeback in the form of The Tape Project decks and 15ips half-track tapes.
Most Significant New Products: The Lamm ML3 monoblock power amplifier.
Greatest Technological Breakthrough: Though it isn’t exactly a technological breakthrough (in fact, as the speaker in question is horn-loaded, it’s a technological throwback), the one product at CES 2008 that raised the bar on musical realism, reproducing information that I had never heard before from discs and LPs I know by heart, was the Cessaro Alpha 1, which simply set a new standard in lifelike treble-range resolution and transient response.
