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Day 1 - Saturday, January 6, 2001

 

Below you will find a large table with photos and their descriptions (legends) underneath. The photos will be updated throughout each day, so check back often. At the bottom are links to photos from each of the days at the show. Day 0 is the day when the exhibits are being installed, and the equipment photos are previews. The actual show starts on Saturday, January 6 ("Day 1").

Theta released the Casablanca II, which has up to 12 channels, and is fully upgradeable. It has the options of adding fully balanced circuits. The new Velodyne FSX-1211  is a true servo feedback subwoofer, 12" driver, for $799. That is the best price on a servo sub anywhere on the planet.

Remember the AAD speaker terminals we showed you yesterday? Here is the front of some AAD bookshelf-sized speakers. Notice the metal rods on the front. Birdseye Maple veneer version shown here. $2,695 the pair. Wisdom Audio Adrenalin Rush ribbon hybrid speakers. $85,000 the set of four columns in photo. They need tri-amping, done here with Jeff Rowland. The sound was spectacular! Especially with SACD.

Sunrise from the 10th floor of the New York New York Hotel. You can see the Statue of Liberty on the horizon. James has a 'full-depth' in-wall speaker set.  Better be a deep wall to handle the large sub (center of photo).

Paradigm's Mark Aling hefts an incredible new driver just long enough to be photographed.  It will be used in the upcoming Servo-25 Reference sub. Now THIS is the kind of driver a big subwoofer really needs. The Anthem AVM-2, introduced at CES 2000, has seen some improvements before its release this year. The brushed aluminum version is on top, and the standard black one is on the bottom.

Paradigm's Monitor line has been completely retooled and is available in this smashing new rosewood vinyl finish. The compact Focus Technologies QuadScan Elite is both a line doubler and scaler. It accepts composite, S-Video, and component video signals, and outputs RGB in whatever resolution your projector prefers.

I guess I need to feed my writers more often if they are taking pictures of the meat rack in the hotel. Thule Audio, displaying their DVD player and Preamp/Processor.  This clean silver on black look is uniform in their home theater and stereo lineup.

Aragon expands the 8008 line, with the 8008x5 amplifier.  Also on display was a late prototype of their progressive scan DVD player and Soundstage amplifier. From the Netherlands, Final Technologies was displaying their upcoming 0.2 Electrostatic Home Theater.  Price has not yet been established, but if you love ESLs, this might be the theater for you.  The Mains and Surrounds are identical and can be either stand or wall mounted.  The Center channel utilizes a horizontal and vertical component to prevent beaming.

The days of vinyl are not yet gone.  Here we have Pro-jects Perspective turntable in clear acrylic.  It's a striking design and the top of their turntable line at about $1,000. A simple fix for stereo sources feeding a single speaker, but from a dispersion pattern perspective, dual tweeters in a ceiling speaker are BAD, BAD, BAD.  

Hi-Fi components with IEEE-1394 are coming. Denon's AVR-5800 is scheduled for an upgrade soon. One wire in and out, daisy chained, carrying audio/video and control communication.  Plasmas, plasmas everywhere, but they all have problems with blacks.  They're slowly getting better, bigger and cheaper, though, and are flatter than other display devices.

Small and stylish seems one of the trends.  Nakamichi's Soundspace 12 system looks like they're taking a stab at B&O in the cosmetic design department.  Teac had their own little cuties.  Shown here, a DVD player and receiver capable of Dolby-Digital and DTS decoding.

Not particularly new, but just so darn pretty.  The models shown, made by Sonus Faber, ranged from $1,095 to $3,250.  Considering the beautiful wood finishes, complemented by leather, it seems reasonable We reviewed a Russound multi-room system some time back, which used keypads shown on the left.  To the right are new keypads that will operate the same equipment, but with light!

If you feel a laser on your forehead the next time you're enjoying your audio, don't assume somebody's has you in their sights.  You may, but it might also be your friend leveling the angle of your loudspeaker to optimize the most focused Sonic Image, as per Sound Alignment's Digital level with its own laser. BAD, as in Big-A#& Driver.  Aura's 18" woofer left some of us feeling a bit insecure about our masculinity.

 
A piece of interest for those of you who are considering whole-house audio.  Xantech's PA1235 provides 35 watts each for 12 channels, with gain and balance controls accessible through IR keypads, which they also provide.  

Click on links below to go to the photo pages for each day.

DAY-0    DAY-1    DAY-2    DAY-3    DAY-4    Wrap-Up

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© Copyright 2001 Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity
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