CES 2008: TAS’s Neil Gader delves into Solid-State Amps, Preamps, and Integrated Amps at CES
January 23rd, 2008 — By Neil GaderNeil Gader’s Best of Show
Best Sound: As a staunch, compact-speaker fan I’d have to give the nod to TAD’s soon-to-be-released Compact Reference (north of $20,000). It’s a three-way stand-mount based on the vaunted Reference One–using the same cutting-edge cabinetry and beryllium coincident tweeter/midrange driver, but with a single woofer. Driven by TAD Laboratories prototype monoblocks, this might be the speaker to give the Magico Mini II a serious run for the money.
Greatest Bargain: PSB Speaker’s yet-to-be named prototype lineup will likely bring near-Synchrony level performance and styling at a price that should have competitors reaching for the Tylenol (again).
Most Surprising Discovery: The difference a USB cable can make! The Synergistic Research Tricon USB cable ($550) may not be cheap, but all it took was a quick demo to prove that every link in the chain can be significant.
Most Important Trend: Hands-down, it’s media server or hard-disk-driven technology.
Most Significant New Product: Wadia’s $349 dock. The only licensed and currently available dock that can receive the raw digital stream from an iPod’s 32-pin output without someone modifying or hacking into the personal media player itself.
Greatest Technological Breakthrough: Large-capacity micro-drive flash memory, like ScanDisk’s 72-gig drive, is going to change the face of digital storage not only for computers but also for the way we listen to and transport music.
