Playback CEDIA 2012 Show Report - Part 1 (Playback 61)

Headphones, Earphones & Personal Audio at CEDIA

In an interesting side discussion at CEDIA, a MartinLogan spokesman allowed as that the firm was at least “considering” entering the full-size headphone market, though no firm decisions have been reached as yet. Stay tuned.

McIntosh

For some reason 2012 proved to be a year when many CEDIA exhibitors were announcing single-chassis tabletop audio systems, but none of them proved to be as ambitious as McIntosh’s (very) upscale Airplay-enabled McAire system ($3000). Surely this qualifies as the mother of all tabletop audio systems and it has all the expected McIntosh signature styling elements, just to prove its pedigree.

Micromega

The centerpiece of Micromega’s CEDIA display was the MyDAC ($399)—a low cost but astonishingly high performance high res (192/24-capable) DAC, recently previewed by Robert Harley on theabsolutesound.com and described as a “$399 miracle.” To drive home this point at CEDIA, Micromega invited show attendees to participate in a blind listening comparison between the MyDAC and far more expensive competing products from Wadia Digital and Bel Canto—products ranging from roughly three to almost four times the price of the MyDAC. The wisely chosen listening device for these tests was a pair of very revealing Sennheiser HD700 headphones. The point, frankly, wasn’t whether the MyDAC “won” or “lost” the comparison, but rather that the results were close enough that listeners really had to stop and think carefully about which sound they actually preferred. This fact alone speaks volumes for the exceptional sound quality/dollar on offer with the MyDAC.

Watch for part 2 of this report, coming soon.