CES 2017

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Arcam rPlay Streaming DAC

Though the variations can get confusing, I love all of these compact music networking and streaming devices spawned by the original Sonos products over ten years ago. The rPlay is intended for those who want to add one or more points of audio around their lair, streamed from subscribed services such as Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer, Pandora, or Amazon Prime, or a NAS on the network.

ELAC Discovery Q Music Server

I was quite excited to see the original ELAC Discovery prototype exhibited last year at CES, and AudioStream's Michael Lavorgna favorably reviewed the production model late last year. The original Discovery includes Roon Essentials in the purchase price, which though having a cap of 30,000 tracks, gets you most of the way to a decent collection and streaming experience for a very reasonable $1,099.

Jake Shimabukuro In The DeVore Fidelity Room At The Venetian

What goes up, must go down. So we headed back to the stairs and then down five flights to the 30th floor where John DeVore was set up. We were now in the smallest size room you'll find at the Venetian, but still big enough to fit us all in, like a cozy, plush living room. John keeps his space dark and relaxing too, the emphasis clearly on our sense of hearing. So no flash, and I've tried to keep the brightness in the photos realistic to reflect how this room felt.

Chord Blu MKII CD Transport

An upscaling CD Transport. Yes you read right, this CD transport upscales your discs using, according to Chord, "the power of the new Xilinx XC7A200T FPGA, which has a standout 740 DSP cores, to develop sophisticated WTA (Watts Transient Alignment) filtering and upscaling algorithms which can output digital data at 705.6kHz (16 x CD’s 44.1kHz native resolution)." Whew!

CAT's Bold New Speaker/Sub Duo

There's nothing remotely reticent about California Audio Technology's (CAT's) new CAT MBX 900 Trinity satellite loudspeakers ($50,000/pair) and companion CAT MBX 58 Miramar subwoofers ($50,000/pair). Designed to be used together, their presentation mirrors the strong, driving energy of Brian Barr, founder and CEO of the 27-year old company.

Burmester Phase 3

For those of you who like all of your functions tucked away in a single shiny box, Burmester has a product for you. The main all-in-one 161 Receiver is based on the company's Music Server 151 and the system also includes the B15 speakers (not shown) and the handy empty case that sits below the active electronics. Burmester says the empty case with fold down front door (shown below) is part of the product since their customers don't like clutter and prefer to store extraneous stuff like AppleTV boxes and game consoles out of the way. I realize that probably sounds a bit pretentious to some, but it makes sense to me, since I tend to go out of my way to hide wires and power supplies.

Bel Canto REF600M Monoblocks

It looks pro-school Paul Newman racing-driver cool, especially in black. It puts out 300W into 8 ohms and 600W into 4 ohms, and can deliver a peak output current of 27A. Did I mention each amp weighs only 15.4 pounds? (I could carry both channels home on the subway.)
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