CES 2015

This is one of the smallest boxes I've seen that handles both streaming and conversion, and the price is tiny to match: $249. The BurrBrown chip inside handles up to 32/384 via USB and there are also analog RCA outputs on back. Though not listed in the catalog, there is a filter switch on the display unit.

Pro-Ject also has another new streamer that didn't make it to the show called the Stream BOX S. It will include UPnP and DLNA ethernet and WiFi connectivity to your network and support app control of your streams. No pricing yet, but should show up near the middle of the year.

With its forthcoming BHK Signature 250 amplifier ($7500), PS Audio's Paul McGowan (above) has stepped outside his own self-imposed price point box. By inviting his longtime friend and colleague, Bascom H. King (Constellation, Infinity, Infinity class-A, Conrad-Johnson, and Marantz), to create his magnum opus without regard to price, his goal was to make, in his own words, "one of the top five amplifiers in the world."

Speaker designer Paul Barton is not known for coming up with new models willy-nilly, so a new model that represents a potential advance in sound quality—rather than just meeting a particular price point—is a significant event. The new speaker is the T3 ($7500/pair), and represents collaboration with a different overseas manufacturing facility than earlier models like the T2.

The Sound Organisation's Barnaby Fry (left), David Carr (center), and Sally Goff (right) had ever reason to smile as they showed off a rack claimed to offer the fastest, quietest, and most dynamic and spacious presentation of all Quadraspire racks.

With the demise of the iPod, the number of high quality portable players has jumped. Case in point are these two new players from Questyle. Both play DSD and Double DSD files along with about a dozen PCM formats up to 24/192. The players also feature the company's unique "current mode" headphone amplification.

Rega introduced its first low-output moving-coil cartridge, the Apheta, in 2006, but it got mixed reviews, due to a high-frequency peak at the top of the audioband. Rega showed the Apheta 2 ($1895) at CES, mounted on the vestigial RP10 turntable. The Apheta 2 has benefited from some serious production engineering and has a lower moving mass, the latter moving the treble peak higher, to 18kHz or so.

Unfortunately The Beast was not in their room when I visited MSB, and only showed up later, so I asked MSB's Vince Galbo to send me some photos. MSB is the North American distributor for the Swiss-built The Beast.