Gersham, Von Schweikert, Manger, Cessaro, Venture
In contrast, the Gershman Black Swans ($25k) with Lamm amplification, while a bit darkish in balance, was one of the Best Sounds of the Show, with superb bass (superb everything, actually, from top to bottom). It isn’t news anymore, but this is one terrific loudspeaker.

The four-way, floorstanding Von Schweikert R-5 ($26k) with quasi-transmission-line loading of the bass drivers showed exceptionally well, thanks, I think, to Audio Space’s wonderful (Product of the Year Award-winning) Reference Two preamp and new Reference Three amps. These electronics literally transformed the previously unimpressive R-5, adding wonderfully realistic clarity and detail to Marc Cohn’s voice on “Ghost Trainâ€?–so much detail that you could almost hear the spit in his mouth. Same with Guitar Gabriel on “Keys to the Highwayâ€? and Captain Luke on “Rainy Night in Georgia.â€? The utterly unstrained, non-electronic transparency of these Audio Space products from Peter Lau is phenomenal. Clearly, one of the very Best Sounds at CES.

The Manger 109-AG ($25k) is a handsome stand-mounted two-way equipped with the Manger bending-wave transducer (which is rather like a spherical planar) operating from 140Hz–35kHz, and a Scan Speak 8-inch bass driver below 140Hz. Fed by Metronome’s Calista transport and C3A DAC, the 109-AG made Marc Cohn’s touching “Perfect Love� sound nearly perfect, with superb imaging size and height, very fine detail, and lovely timbre. The sound was liquid, without much power in the bass but with decent balance, nonetheless.

 

The Cessaro Alpha 1 ($60k) was an imposing three-way horn loudspeaker with a TAD compression tweeter, a 2-inch TAD midrange loaded by a spherical horn, and a backloaded 16-inch TAD woofer. Electronics were from Zanden, which left their lovely imprint on the Alpha 1, making it sound very low in horn coloration, smooth, spacious, and not aggressively detailed but not missing anything important, either.

On “Schlagstück 5â€? the Alpha 1 demonstrated absolutely incredible transient response in the treble (and everywhere else)–the best transient response I’ve ever heard on cymbals and bells. It was superb again on the gamelan-like prepared piano in Mr. John Cage’s Prepared Piano. Had it not been for a slightly shelved up response in the upper mids, this would have been my undisputed choice for Best Sound of CES 2008. If Cessaro can add a little more density of color to the mids, it will have a world-beater here. As it stands, the Alpha 1 did something no other speaker did at CES–it showed me a new level of resolution and realism.

I was considerably less impressed with the three-way floorstanding Venture Reference 3 Signature ($135k), with four woofers and an AMT tweeter, which sounded no better than okay driven by Venture’s electronics and a Weiss DAC and transport.

Next: Acapella, Wilson Audio, Avalon, Dynaudio, Sound Lab

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