The SoundStage! Network has completed coverage of CES 2013, held January 8-11 in Las Vegas, NV, USA. The SoundStage! Network’s show report, which appears on SoundStage! Global, features over 100 product photos and more than one dozen feature articles by Doug Schneider, Jeff Fritz, Roger Kanno, Aron Garrecht, and Hans Wetzel. It's the largest show report produced by any publication covering the specialty audio industry. The next show the SoundStage! Network will cover is Salon Son & Image 2013, held March 21-24, in Montreal, QC, Canada.
The SoundStage! Network’s coverage of CES 2013 in Las Vegas has officially begun. The SoundStage! Network team members for this event include Doug Schneider, Jeff Fritz, Roger Kanno, Aron Garrecht, and Hans Wetzel.
The coverage began with the 2012 SoundStage! Network Product of the Year award presentations, and will continue with photo galleries focused on new-product highlights, as well as feature articles that detail the most interesting products and systems at CES. All the coverage can be found at SoundStage! Global, the SoundStage! Network’s special site for event coverage and factory tours.
The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the world’s largest showcase for home-entertainment electronics, as well as high-end audio. This year’s show runs from January 8-11.
The SoundStage! Network’s team is already in Las Vegas preparing for extensive coverage of all four days of the show. The team will also be presenting the 2012 Product of the Year awards to the manufacturers’ representatives (see Doug Schneider’s January 1 article on SoundStage! Hi-Fi for full details about the winners). CES 2013 coverage will commence on January 8 on SoundStage! Global (SoundStageGlobal.com), the SoundStage! Network’s site for event coverage and company tours, and will finish on January 11. The awards presentations will also be featured there. Updates will happen throughout each day, so check SoundStage! Global often.
GoldenEar Technology has announced the new Triton Seven loudspeaker, bringing the company's Triton line to an even more affordable price point. Although it is the first Triton without a built-in powered subwoofer, according to the company it still achieves "superbly deep, subwoofer-like impactful bass performance by combining advanced-technology drivers with our highly evolved and sophisticated bass-loading technologies."
The Seven’s cabinet shape is said to be "acoustically purposeful," with a rearward rake and a complex crossover that aligns the driver array for a "coherent wave launch." The cabinet also has non-parallel front and rear baffles for better control of internal standing waves. The non-parallel cabinet sidewalls and slanted top are said to provide the same acoustical benefit. The Triton Seven's cabinet dimensions are 40 1/4"H x 7 1/4"W (rear of cabinet) x 11"D. Each Triton Seven weighs 31 pounds.
The Seven combines a "D’Appolito array of bass-midrange drivers," which surround the same High Velocity Folded Ribbon (HVFR) driver that's used in the more expensive Triton Two and Three models. The HVFR tweeter functions by pressurizing the air, rather than pushing and pulling it, for what is said to be much better impedance matching with the air. This reportedly results in superb extension combined with a "silky smooth, non-fatiguing character." The spider-leg cast-basket bass-midrange drivers, newly developed at the company's Arnprior, Ontario, Canada, engineering facility, were designed for an exceptionally long throw for "tremendous dynamic range and extraordinarily deep bass response."
The Seven incorporates two side-mounted sub-bass radiators that are located low on either side of the cabinet "for optimum coupling to the room." The Triton Seven's frequency response is said to be 29Hz to 35kHz, and the sensitivity is rated at 89dB (2.83V/1m). Availability is said to be spring of 2013 at a price of $1399.98/pr.
Rockport Technologies has announced the introduction of their new entry-level loudspeaker, the Atria. The Atria is said to be, essentially, a smaller, less-expensive version of the company’s Avior loudspeaker ($32,500 USD/pr. after January 31, 2013). Like the Avior, the Atria uses Rockport’s new custom, carbon-fiber-sandwich-composite cone midrange and woofer, as well as the same beryllium-dome Scan-Speak tweeter. The main difference is that the Atria uses a single 9” woofer per cabinet, instead of the Avior's twin woofers. Therefore, the Atria's cabinet volume is approximately one half that of the Avior.
Andrew Payor of Rockport Technologies said: “The result is a loudspeaker which has the same transparency, texture, and most importantly, the same life that defines the Avior. The Atria has nearly the same bass extension as the Avior, however, it is meant for smaller rooms, or for people with more moderate listening habits, and will not energize the air in the first octave quite the same way the Avior does. The sensitivity is also slightly lower, coming in at roughly 87.5dB. We have been listening to the first set of Atrias for some time now, and they are spectacular! I can also say that it has perhaps the most lovely form factor of any loudspeaker that we have built for the last ten years.”
Regarding the rest of the Rockport line, Payor adamantly stated: “I'm very excited to have the Atria as the entry-level loudspeaker in our product range, and it's the perfect complement to the Avior in our product offerings. For now, we will still offer the Alya as a specialty product for people with severe space constraints, and the Altair and Arrakis will continue to round out our product line on the top end. Also, it should be noted that there will be no changes for the Altair and Arrakis other than using our new cone profiles for the midbass and midrange cones on the Audiotechnology motor units, which we have already implemented.”
The Atria will be introduced at $21,500 USD/pr. and should be available by late February, 2013.
Definitive Technology’s new Sound Cylinder is a Bluetooth-enabled, battery powered high-quality speaker system that attaches to tablet-type computers, and can even double as a tablet stand. According to the company’s press release, the Sound Cylinder “features a built-in side-firing subwoofer in addition to stereo speakers to provide listeners with rich, full-bodied stereo sound wherever they may go. Surround Array image enhancement processing creates a lifelike soundstage that extends beyond the compact dimensions of the cylinder.” The rechargeable battery is said to last up to ten hours.
Like all of Definitive Technology’s products, build quality and styling are paramount. Accordingly, the company says that the “Sound Cylinder is fabricated with premium materials to achieve a level of attractive appearance, precision fit and luxury finish unusual in portable audio products. The grilles are custom perforated aluminum while the ‘kickstand’ and clamp mechanism parts are injection-molded Magnesium alloy, a costly high-tech material that is incredibly strong yet lightweight.”
The Sound Cylinder will make its world debut next week in Definitive Technology’s booth at CES 2013 in Las Vegas. It will be available this month in specialty-audio brick-and-mortar retailers and in online stores with a suggested retail price of $199.
The SoundStage! Network has announced the 2012 Product of the Year award winners. The winning products were selected from among the reviews that appeared in SoundStage! Hi-Fi, SoundStage! Xperience, SoundStage! GoodSound!, and SoundStage! Xtreme (Ultra Audio), which are all SoundStage! Network sites.
Trophies will be awarded to company representatives at CES 2013 in Las Vegas next week. Photos of the recipients will be published on SoundStage! Global, the SoundStage! Network's site for event coverage and company tours. SoundStage! Network founder and publisher Doug Schneider has written an article on this subject that includes his commments on each product (click here to read). The winners are summarized by category below:
Exceptional Value
Outstanding Performance
Additional
Lamm Industries of Brooklyn, NY, USA, has announced the release of the LP1 Signature phono stage. According to Lamm, “The LP1 Signature has been designed to complement the ML3 amplifier and the LL1 preamplifier. It completes the Signature Series triad and, in combination with the other two Signature components, represents a ‘match made in heaven.’ However, the LP1 Signature will perform its magic in any system provided it is of sufficient quality.”
The LP1 Signature is a three-chassis, dual-mono, class-A, no-feedback design that Lamm’s press release says contains a plethora of high-quality parts from Dale, RCD, Bourns, Electrocube , Cornell Dubilier, Hammond, and Neutrik. The LP1 Signature has three moving-magnet and two moving-coil inputs, along with a single pair of RCA-based single-ended outputs. Separate power supplies are used for each channel. The LP1 Signature carries a retail price of $33,000 in the United States. It will debut at CES 2013 in Las Vegas next month.