having just returned from the 2003 ces show in vegas, i thought i would post some observations to anyone's possible interest.

sony announced the release of 'dark side of the moon' and alan parsons project multichannel hybrid SACDs. should be available in march, according to sony reps.

i found that the audiophiles (stereo cd and lp) remained distanced (actually, seperate buildings, a long shuttle ride apart) from each other, which i find both odd and annoyingly silly. none of the high end audio exhibitors offer multichannel high res listening except for macintosh, who had a theater setup and whose demo, to me, was the best of the show as to a good mix of cd, dplII, dvd-a and attack of the clones, with a very informed spokesman.

the HT camp all showed short sceenings of action movies (you all know which ones) and high-res and stereo were all but non-existent.

i saw no new prepro models.

i was disappointed in the meridian setup (source, prepro, amps, speakers). it sounded overly bright and equally overly priced.

i visited krell, sunfire (good setup and sound), parasound, klipsch's aragon, linn, denon, marantz, pioneer, ead, cary audio, ada, etc., and found little in the way of any new models or innovation.

i still maintain that the outlaw audio model 950 easily plays in the same ballpark with all of them.

there were 2 companies with subwoofer processors (theil and m&k) that were interesting and spendy. i think theil had the best overall price/models/sound combination speaker exhibit. in fact, loudspeakers in general were the most impressive single category. a taiwanese company called calix showed their phoenix line and it truly blew me away. amazing sound and stunningly awesome to look at. of course, at 66k a pair, one would think their flagship would be all that.

it looks like the netherlands companies (cad audio, mueta, lcaudio, etc.) have a leg up on everyone else in the area of class d amplification. i think this will be the next revolution in multichannel reproduction and they will be available in all power/load configurations later this year from several small companies.

soundhound...i met a guy who seemed to have many things (toobs, toobs, toobs) that would interest you. let me know and i'll hook you up.

i didn't pay much attention to screens and other monitors, but the line to the faroudja booth was out the door. dlp (digital light processing, from texas instruments) seemed to be the buzz in quality picture.

integrated home systems seem to be finally maturing into an segment that offers glitch free and some very cool products (in wall speakers/security/lighting/monitoring/appliance control/energy savings, etc.)

there were, of course, thousands of companies and products...too many to ever comprehend in a few days. i concentrated on audio, both music and soundtrack. it was a good show and i met a lot of talented and cool folks (phil marchand, "the crossover guru", for one example).

any questions, i will be glad to answer if i can.

would've been cool to see the outlaws there, though i understand why they weren't. still...looking for 'big brother' news nonetheless.

Bosso:

Thanx for the CES update! I was thinking of going, but at the last minute thought that, given the economy, there would not be much new - you confirmed my thoughts.

Perhaps next year if Outllaw shows, it might be worthwhile to try to arrange a get-together of as many of us as can attend. Might be fun.

Yes, link me to that toob guy! "Ya know, NOTHING of significance in electronics has been invented since DeForest added that grid to the vacuum tube

PS: I'm on my way this afternoon to El Cholo for a great Mexican dinner and you guessed it, a pitcher of Margaritas!

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited January 12, 2003).]

Universal players have been announced by Lexicon and Denon, and Lexicon also announced the MC-8 pre/pro. A pricey $6k, but you can get the still current DC-2 for $1500 and the MC-1 for $2000. Also, very cheap uni players by Zenith and Pioneer (~$250) were announced.

In the latest S&V, ATI has a blurb for their new pre/pro. I wonder if it's based on the Outlaw. Says it has BM on the analog inputs, and ATI made the 750 (and maybe the 770 and 755) for Outlaw.

Anything on Paradigm's new Statement line??

Rotel announced a new pre, the rps-1098, which you can see here:
http://www.htguide.com/CFBoards/index.cf...uestTimeout=500

also from rotel is this:
http://www.htguide.com/CFBoards/index.cf...uestTimeout=500

rich

Seems like there's a whole lot changed if it is an Outlaw clone. You don't even need a TV to watch DVDs: ATI pre/pro . Not sure if this is what you're referring to, since the release date is 9/2001, even though the web page says it's a new product.

[This message has been edited by tofufot (edited January 12, 2003).]

the 750 was made in the same factory as the ATI amps...maybe it is even ATI's very own factory, but the 750 is not a rebadged ATI amp.

Interesting to note: Parsons received a Grammy award for his quad mix of 'Dark Side of the Moon', but wasn't invited to work on the new SACD. That's gotta sting. Supposedly, this is going to be a new 5.1 mix done from the original master tracks.

Some short news pieces about it:

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=18725896

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=19270275

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=19866834

Sanjay

Never said it was... Personally, I consider ATI (amps) as a good thing to be associated with.

Well, as far as the ATI pre/pro goes... The blurb I have says it has 2 coax inputs, 4 opt inputs, and 6 composite/S-video inputs, plus the BM on the analog input. All exactly the same as the 950 and the Sherbourn. Not the 8500, the 7500... Goes for $3k not $4k. Current issue of S&V, in the new products section. So maybe they have 2 coming.

flyguy: interestingly (to me, anyway), paradigm did not appear anywhere in the directory. as a result, i did not find them at the show. hard to believe they weren't there, but without a listing in the directory, no way to find them except to just run into their exhibit.

kcb: i couldn't find the dual player at the denon booth. it was very crowded there, and i suppose they had the player inside their listening room. i saw every other model they offer but...no dual player on the shelves. lexicon were in the hilton suites, seperate from the main halls where the HT people were. i didn't get to see them...sorry.

soundhound: http://www.magicparts@magicparts.com

paul knight. he said to say that he also carries radian, altec drivers and some other cool stuff.