Mark Levinson's New Middle-Tier Preamplifier
The No.523 features six line-level inputs, a phono preamplifier, and a headphone amplifier (there's a 1/4" jack on the preamp's front panel)
MBL's New N15 Monoblock Amplifier
Jürgen Reis, MBL's lead engineer, was delighted to show me the company's new 560W (into 4 ohms), mono power amplifier, the MBL N15 ($17,800). Slimmer than MBL's reference-line amplifiers, four N15s (for bi-amping) fit into one equipment rack.
Metronome Music Center
French manufacturer Metronome has created a new music server that General Manager Jean Marie Clauzel says is intended for people transitioning from CD to high resolution files. The Music Center is built around a custom built computer and operating system that can handle all PCM data rates and up to double DSD.
Micro Golden Oval from Analysis Plus
"Jake Shimabukuro uses my cabling, and hangs out in our booth at NAMM," said Mark Markel of Analysis Plus. Having just whistled two pieces with Jake, and had the opportunity to marvel at his musicianship and openness to collaboration, I consider that quite an endorsement.
MoFi's Much-Discussed System
Up and down the CES hallways, in line for coffee, and at every dinner, people kept asking, "Did you go to the MoFi room?
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Musician Jake Shimabukuro Joining Stereophile at CES 2017
Stereophile tried something a little different for our CES coverage last year: we brought Graham Nash to the show. This year several new artist names were tossed about, and when Jake Shimabukuro came up we jumped at the chance to bring him to Las Vegas. Jake is a stellar musician, and has turned the ukulele into a respected instrument with his interpretations of classical and modern works, collaborating with a wide range of artists from Yo-Yo Ma to Alan Parsons. He is stunning to watch: If you've never seen or heard him play, check out the videos at the bottom of this story.
NAD M50.2 Digital Music Player
NAD's new music server and network player features WiFi and ethernet networking, 2 USB inputs, Bluetooth AptX along with a CD slot on the front for either ripping or simply playing a disc. Inside are two 2TB hard drives--one for storing music and the other for automatic backup in case the first one fails. There is no DAC inside, so outputs include SPDIF, AES/EBU and optical along with HDMI.
But where things get interesting...
NAD's Master Series M32
The NAD room was populated by a lot of tall men in suitsall of whom seemed dedicated to preserving and enhancing NAD's tradition of offering exceptionally high-value amplification, à la the legendary NAD 3020 integrated amp
Nagra HD DAC Updates
When asked what was new this year, Nagra's Rene LaFlamme motioned me over to the company's HD DAC and noted that there are now two power supply options along with some other smaller changes. LaFlamme stressed that this is not a MKII version, but "just an evolution" of the product and that another update is coming.
New Cables from Wireworld
Wireworld introduced two new cables at CES: its Helicon 16 speaker cables (available in two versions), and Category 8 Ethernet cables (three models)