GoodSound! Goes to CEDIA's
Expo 2007
 Last month, I traveled to
Denver, Colorado, to cover the annual Expo staged by the Consumer Electronic Design &
Installation Association (CEDIA). The Expo has grown from what was once considered a
custom-installers-only showcase to what is probably the second most influential audio
tradeshow in North America, after the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). These days at the
CEDIA Expo, you see not only custom-installation products, but also a plethora of the more
traditional gear you’d see at a regular A/V show. In fact, some of the most relevant
A/V companies now make their annual product introductions at the Expo. This report focuses
mostly on what GoodSound! readers want to know about: what’s new in affordable
two-channel audio.
One of the first displays I stopped at was that of PSB
Speakers, a company whose name is synonymous with high performance and high value.
Legendary speaker designer Paul Barton founded the company in the 1970s and is still
the chief designer. Barton has a vast knowledge of loudspeaker engineering, and is
considered by many to be the grandfather of the Canadian speaker industry.
This year, Barton wasn’t showing off his inexpensive
speakers; rather, he was promoting PSB’s new, upscale Synchrony line. But Barton has
always been a master at wringing the most performance from the lowest price -- upscale PSB
products don’t cost nearly as much as the top products from other brands. The most
expensive Synchrony model is the One, for $4500 USD/pair -- a chunk of change, and a far
cry from the prices of the equipment we review here. But the line’s entry-level
offering costs much less. The Synchrony
Two B bookshelf model retails for $1500 and is built to the same standard as the rest
of the line. I’ve had the pleasure of watching Barton develop the Synchronys at
Canada’s National Research Council, the same place the SoundStage! Network measures
speakers, and I can attest to the fact that some wickedly complex engineering has gone
into these designs. If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a small, state-of-the-art
speaker but never thought you had the pocketbook to match, the Two B might be your ticket.
Barton promised that he’d soon drop off a review pair of Two Bs at GoodSound!’s
headquarters.
PSB wasn’t the only firm offering upscale products at
reasonable prices. At the Pioneer display we saw the Elite
X-Z9 stereo system, which features a richly appointed receiver that plays CDs and
SACDs, has XM/Sirius radio capabilities, and an iPod dock, which seems mandatory these
days. The build quality also seemed solid. Also looking very good were the accompanying
speakers, which employ a coaxial driver atop a mid-woofer. Marc Mickelson, the SoundStage!
Network’s editor-in-chief, accompanied me to the Expo and was quite taken with the
Elite X-Z9’s compactness, quality, and features. The price is $1799; again, GoodSound!
has been promised a review system.
France’s Cabasse is well known for making radical,
spherical speakers that cost an arm and a leg. At this Expo, however, they showed
something pretty neat and fairly inexpensive. The new Alcyone
speaker costs $299/pair and has a single, 4" full-range driver. I doubt that the
Alcyones will ever be used in a two-channel setup -- they’ll more likely end up in
wall-mounted multichannel systems -- but I thought them worth mentioning for their
magnetic mounting system, which allows you to attach and remove the speakers from their
mounting brackets in a flash. I suspect other companies will offer something similar in
the future. After all, convenience is what today’s consumer wants.
Boston Acoustics’ Horizon speakers are more
traditional in that they sit on the floor, but their styling indicates that they’re
intended for contemporary environments. Unlike most speakers, which have cabinets made of
wood or fiberboard, the Horizon is molded of plastic, which allows BA to offer them in
funky shapes and a variety of colors. It looks really good, but I have no idea how
good the cabinet material sounds. Still, there’s no denying that the speakers
look appealing and are just as attractively priced: The Horizon
MCS 100 we looked at costs $499 each.
Era made a splash a few years back with their pint-sized D4
loudspeaker, designed by Michael Kelly of Aerial Acoustics. The D4’s big sound belied
its small size, and the price -- $600/pair -- made it attractive to budget-minded
audiophiles. At the Expo, the company showed their new floorstanding D10 and D14
models, priced at $1700 and $2200/pair, respectively. At those prices, they’re up
against stiff competition -- lots of companies make good-sounding speakers for that much.
However, based on the success of the D4, the new models will undoubtedly be worth
auditioning if your top priority is sound quality rather than size and convenience.
The last pair of speakers we saw came from Dynaudio, and
they kind of surprised us because of their large size. The DM
2-10 and DM 2-8 are priced at $1350 and $975/pair, respectively. The DM 2-10 uses a
10" woofer, the DM 2-8 an 8" one. No, an 8" woofer isn’t all that odd,
but it’s strange to see a 10" cone in a two-way stand-mounted speaker; Marc was
prompted to call the DM 2-10 a maximonitor. Obviously, the DM 2s are designed to be used
in fairly large rooms.
The large numbers of home-theater buyers who attend each
CEDIA Expo mean that subwoofers always appear in force. A subwoofer is a mandatory item in
an HT setup, but a good sub can be just as useful for the two-channel enthusiast who has
small speakers and wants to extend his system’s bass response. Two Canadian
companies, Energy and Paradigm, were anxious to show us their new sub wares.
Energy displayed four
new subwoofers: the ESW V10 ($700), ESW V8 ($500), ESW 10 ($330), and ESW 8 ($220);
the latter two have downfiring woofers, and all four use Energy’s woven-fiberglass
cones.
Paradigm countered with five new subs. Three are
DSP-controlled to improve their response: the DSP-3400 ($899), DSP-3200 ($699), and
DSP-3100 ($499). The non-DSP models are the PDR-10 v.4 (left, $349) and PDR-8 v.4 ($249).
Both companies give the value-conscious consumer a lot to choose from in terms of
technology and price.
As for electronics, I quite liked Peachtree Audio’s Decco
($799). It looks like a table radio, but it’s actually an integrated amplifier with a
tube input stage and a built-in D/A converter. Furthermore, you can swap its case with
another of a different color. This product should appeal to value- and style-conscious
consumers. (I thought it was pretty cool.)
A step up from the Decco in price were Simaudio’s new Moon
CD-1 CD player and i-1 50Wpc integrated amp, each costing $1500. To some, the price
might seem insane -- $1500 is a lot for a CD player or a lower-powered amp. But consider
that Canada’s Simaudio has built a strong reputation for making some of the finest
two-channel electronics in the biz. Their 150Wpc Evolution i-7 is the best integrated amp
I’ve heard -- ever -- but it costs six grand, so even I don’t own one.
But if the i-1 hints at the i-7’s performance for only a fraction of the price and
your speakers don’t need more power, then that might make the i-1 something of a
deal. Plus, Sim backs all its products with a ten-year electronics warranty. Impressive.
Everyone seems to be talking about the resurgence of vinyl,
and it certainly seems to be happening -- new LP releases come to market regularly, and
manufacturers are responding with new phono stages and turntables to play them on. One
affordable new turntable we saw, the TT50
from Britain’s Cambridge Audio, costs $679 and comes complete with a tonearm and a
moving-magnet cartridge. However, Cambridge didn’t make the TT50 themselves from
scratch -- probably a good thing, as there are plenty of other companies with the
resources to tap who have oodles of vinyl experience. The turntable and arm are made for
Cambridge by Pro-Ject; the cartridge is from Audio-Technica.
Finally, the budget-priced product that most thrilled me at
the Expo was NAD’s new C715
AM/FM receiver with built-in CD player. It outputs just 25Wpc, but that’s more
than enough power for many small systems. (Way back when, NAD made its name with the 3020,
a small, inexpensive integrated amp that put out only 20Wpc, but sounded much bigger and
better than its price or size let on.) Plus, the C715’s price is right ($499), and
the styling, too, is good. Nor is it a wide, shallow component that takes up too much
space, as so many do. The C715 is shaped more or less like a shoebox, which means it will
fit better in the smaller spaces available in the systems in which a lower-powered amp is
likely to be used. NAD hasn’t yet promised us one for review, but we’re going to
get on them to do so. I like the potential this product offers, and I think GoodSound!
readers would be well served to know more about it.
That concludes my bargain-hunting trip to CEDIA’s Expo
2007. There were plenty of more expensive products to be seen -- and you can see
them in our full online
show report -- but I get the biggest kick from finding equipment priced at levels that
most of us can afford. Seek out some of the stuff I found this year -- all of it should
soon be on store shelves. And you can be sure that I’ll be back next year, looking
for more.
...Doug Schneider
|
