CES 2016 Show Report Day 2

CES 2016 Show Report Day 2

These Techinics headphones look good on me, no?

Technics also introduced a new set of high end headphones at CES. The EAH-T700 headphones use a pair of angled drivers in each ear cup, the first being a 50mm dynamic driver to handle the bass and mid-range frequencies and the second being a 14mm super tweeter to handle high stuff. They are a closed back, over the ear design that felt very comfortable to wear. They also sounded exceptionally clean with good bass extension and sparkling highs. Availability would be mid-year.

Technics was at the Convention Center with some of their Premium and Reference line components which we’ve seen and heard at previous shows but one of the surprises they had was the announcement of a new direct drive turntable. I half-jokingly refer to it as the “son-of-SL1200-on-steroids!” The new SL 1200G pulls a lot of design and heritage from it’s well-loved ancestor but adds several construction and technical improvements. Some of them a heavy cast brass and aluminum platter, a thick and well damped aluminum chassis, microprocessor controlled direct drive system, and a choice between aluminum and magnesium tonearms. Price is TBD and availability begins mid-year.

Dropped by the Beyerdynamic booth at the convention center to check out their new T5p closed back and T1 gen2 open back headphones. Both units feature the Tesla transducer and are manufactured in Germany. The T5p is efficient enough that it ran off my iPhone easily and sounded very enjoyable. The T1 gen 2 has a 600 ohm impedance and needs a good amp to take advantage of it’s abilities. Thankfully, the fine folks at “Beyer” were only too happy to oblige! Each headphone features detachable cords and an optional balanced harness is available also. Each set of cans retails for $1099.00 respectively.

Dropped by the Light Harmonic room and was intrigued by a modestly sized portable DAC. Capable of decoding DSD and with available balanced output it drove the Sennheiser headphones I was wearing while hooked to my iPhone. Step up your portable experience for just $400.00.

Jim sitting down to sample the flagship BeoLab 90 loudspeakers.

$17k Mark Levinson 519 Audio player

Getting the Mark Levinson low down on the 526 preamplifier

Mark Levinson 585 integrated amplifier

Mark Levinson monaural 536 amplifier

Bryston BMM phono preamplifier

Inside of Bryston BDA-3 converter $3495

Bryson cubed amplifier series

The guts of Pass Labs Xs Phono

Pass Labs Xs Phono

Pass Labs headphone amp

Take a seat Definitive Technology W studio wireless

Definitive Technology wall

Gary Dayton of Bryston is seen in this video talking about the brand new BDA-3 DAC. This highly anticipated new release is like the DAC to end all DAC’s. It has the ability to accept any signal on the market and it even includes multiple HDMI inputs as well as an HDMI out for video passthrough. Bryston is currently clearing a major pre order backlog but units are now shipping.

HIFIMAN had this working prototype of their upcoming electrostatic headphones with accompanying tube amplifier. I had a chance to listen to this set up and was taken aback by its natural frequency balance and ability to retrieve fine details in the music. Pricing TBD.

Darbee Vision was showing this working prototype of a 4K video processing algorithm at CES 2016. This video features Aaron Spann giving a quick rundown on this upcoming product. I did not think you could improve on 4K video but I was sorely mistaken. The improvement in the image was immediately apparent and was even obvious to me on the laptop I am using. I am not sure if this will be visible after uploading to the internet, but trust me – it’s the real deal. 

Here is another shot of the RBH beryllium driver headphones. The first one I uploaded lost res.

RBH was also showing a pair of sweet little powered desktop monitors. These are scheduled to be released in 2016. They are Bluetooth, USB, optical and analog inputs. 

Like so many other brands, RBH is now offering headphones in their lineup. The HP-2’s shown here are dynamic drivers with beryllium diaphragms. Closed back design. They were light weight and very comfortable with a sound that was both dynamic and lush. They are definitely worth a listen

Only in Las Vegas.

Arcam announced a brand new stereo DAC at CES 2016. It has the latest ESS DAC chips along with Bluetooth Aptx. Also has an included volume control and headphone amp. 

These are the new Dali Opticon 8’s. I have a short video on these that I will post later on. They have the line’s unique tweeter array and wood pulp cones. Beautifully finished, these speakers sounds very dynamic, airy and lively in the demo I heard.