SVS is a company that specializes in subwoofers, sold mostly on-line. They had one of the few home theater demos at the Venetian, and the only one that actually used film as a program source. I know, that's tacky in a venue in which 99% of the demos are 2-channel audio, but they did their best.
Later this year, SVS will make its new AS-EQ1 system available. It’s an Audyssey-based bass room equalizer, operates in both the time and frequency domains, and is designed to correct the in-room performance of one or two subwoofers. It is expected to sell for $750.
The M6HT system from Swans is more modest than the 2.3B system described above, but just as classy in its solid wood threads. Unfortunately, however, it was not on demo.
The audience is all ears listening to the flagship home theater system from Swans (more below), via Arcadia of California via Hi-Vi in China. For those who are interested, they were listening to Yanni Live at Mandalay Bay on a multichannel DVD.
This is the system to which the crowd in the above photo were paying rapt attention. Or rather the left and right speakers in that system (my photo of the entire system didn't fare well).
I’ve always said that shots of Antarctica at noon, in summer, made the best program material to demonstrate a flat panel LCD display. LG must be reading UAV.
Amid enough high-end audio components at the Venetian Hotel (the CES venue for specialty audio) to wear down the sternest poker face when confronted with the price tag, the CWT 1000 from T+A Electroakustik (based in Germany, doncha know) produced a sound that almost might justify a per pair price sufficient to buy a nicely equipped Mercedes or BMW. It has six 120mm midranges and a 920mm long electrostatic tweeter, both in side-by-side line arrays, and four 8-inch woofers. There's also a larger CWT 2000 weighing 263 lbs.
Quartet Marketing Group is importing the complete line of T+A products from Germany, including speakers, home theater electronics, and 2-channel products. The rep I spoke to also said they could have sold 2000 of these Ikea
floor lamps, too.
TACT, one of the first companies to offer sophisticated room correction, now adds Dynamic Room Correction. It adjusts the equalization to provide optimum response as you change the setting of the volume control. Older audiophiles might think of it as a sophisticated loudness control. The system will be built into the company's two-channel RCS 2.2 XP processor first, but will ultimately find its way into a redesigned surround pre-pro (now on hold pending the arrival of HDMI 1.3). TACT has also improved its user interface, making it faster to arrive at an optimum target curve.
A proprietary master clock , specially designed disc mechanism, and a rigid, die-cast aluminum chassis are only a few of the reason's why TAD's new D600 CD/SACD (2-channel) CD and (two-channel) SACD disc spinner commands a price of $26,500. Available in spring 2010.
Tom Norton
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