It's 10:12 PM as I write this, and I have about 30 minutes
of mental daylight left to this day. Going to a show like CEDIA is difficult enough for
someone like me, who doesn't sleep well in hotels beds, but it's doubly so because of the
way we do our show coverage -- posting it each morning after working until our brains shut
down the night before. Of all the things we do to post our live daily coverage –
editing pictures, creating HTML pages, writing captions -- the popup links we embed in the text are the
most time-consuming. Each is a small piece of code that has to be written just
right or the links don't work. But this feature allows us to post larger pictures than the
main pages can accommodate, so we endure -- well past 10:00 every night.
Marc auditions some home-theater seating.
What I took away from CEDIA this year is the knowledge that
high-end audio seems to be going strong. The number of strictly two-channel products was
certainly not huge – CEDIA is, after all, a show dedicated to home theater and custom
installation -- but there was a stereo presence, and some market segments, like analog playback, are stronger than they've been in years.
Modern life is dominated by newer, better consumer electronics, but it's an especially
good time to be an old-fashioned audiophile right now.
***
I don't know if you can call it a bona fide trend
yet, but it appears that good ol' two-channel playback is making a comeback, years after
multichannel SACD and DVD-A were supposed to spell its demise. In addition to seeing two new turntables at CEDIA -- a show dedicated to home
theater and custom installation -- we have also seen many new products aimed squarely at
those interested in no more than two channels of music, and we even caught wind of a new
LP-reissue program that will make lovers of classic jazz swoon. Maybe being an audiophile
is what's making a comeback.
The Cambridge Audio TT50: $679 complete!
On the video side of things, projectors and flat-panel
displays continue to improve and cost less money. We saw sub-$10,000 projectors from
Panasonic and Samsung whose video image would make the best installations from five years
ago look very dated. This is a highly volatile product segment that you have to treat like
computer hardware: You jump in when you need to, knowing full well that whatever you buy
will be eclipsed in a matter of months by a less costly model.
It's rather peculiar that turntables and high-definition
video projectors are hot products at the same time in 2007.
***
Two things I can always expect from CEDIA: the main
exhibit hall will be absolutely packed as the show opens, and the people at Sony will
debut so many interesting and innovative new products that they will have a mini show of
their own. This year, Sony impressed us with new Blu-Ray
Disc players, projectors, and media servers, but the "Incredibly Small 5.1 Home
Theater System," the DAV-1S10W ($799), might be the best product of them all. The
speakers are tiny -- the drivers are about the size of silver dollars -- and the
player/processor/amplifier has a plethora of features, including video upscaling.
The X-2 Series 2 in sport blue.
But if I'm being honest, I have to admit that the product
that interested me most was a latest-greatest version of a speaker I've reviewed. I can't
wait to hear the new Alexandria X-2 Series 2
($148,000/pair) and see what David Wilson and his engineering team have wrought. The X-2
is the most significant product I've reviewed in my dozen years of writing audio reviews,
and Wilson Audio's track record for improvements should make hearing the X-2 Series 2
quite an experience. Expect some reportage later in the year as we get to hear the new
X-2s -- and determine if "the best" can get even better. [www.wilsonaudio.com]
