I’m like a kid in a candy shop right now, keeping my eyes peeled for updates coming in from Vegas where the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show is happening. I’m going to keep this blog updated throughout the next week with notable updates – so check back regularly. I’ll continue to post on Twitter, and put the products which are almost here in NZ on Facebook. EXCITING!

THX adds certification for compact speaker systems

THX launched a certification program for compact speakers intended for use in small rooms. Though small speakers perform better than flat-panel TV speakers, the sound quality of existing small speakers varies widely because of limitations imposed by their small size, THX said. Certification standards will ensure consistent quality and raise customer confidence, THX explained. More Information

Paradigm E1, E2m and E3m earbuds

The new sub-brand from Paradigm, SHIFT has a powered Atom which isn’t far away, but also on the way are three earbuds, each range sonically matched to the Monitor, Studio and Signature range of speakers. I gotta get me some E3m’s to match the sound of my Sig’s at home! More Information

New HDMI Spec Due In 2nd Half

Just when you thought HDMI specs had settled down now that 3D capable plus Internet (i.e. 1.4) is the standard, along comes talk of a new HDMI standard to allow for higher resolution video. If your telly can only display 1080p (1920 x 1080) then I wouldn’t be too worried, am guessing this will be for 4K displays (4096 x 2048 or there abouts) and more, so no need to hold off purchasing an AV Receiver because of this! More Information

Bond Series to be released on Blu-ray

20th Century Fox has confirmed it will officially launch the entire James Bond movie collection on Blu-ray tomorrow. Nothing more to add really, not sure if there will be a box set or just indivudual movies. Just think, all the action, clichés and of course bond girls in High Def.

**Update, it looks like it will be a box set**

Cambridge Audio 851A & 851C – Watch Video from CES

The 840C was one of our favourite products to ever come out of the Cambridge Audio stable, just announced and very soon to be available in NZ comes the updated 851C DAC & up-sampling CD player. Complete with level control for direct connection to power amps, I know for one this is going to be on my personal list for a permanent placement in the Hifi. Also announced is the matching 851A Integrated Amplifier, More Information

Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6 – Watch video from CES

For those want a high performance music streamer, combined with digital inputs for use as an external DAC to upgrade that CD player or connect your other digital sources. This looks hot! More Information

Jamo M360 speakers

Jamo has gone back to its roots with a stunning new Danish design. It’s because of products like this that we love having Jamo as a part of our product range, there is nothing quite like it and Jamo know how to produce stunning designs that perform sonically too. More Information

Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100 – Watch video from CES

Following on from the new DacMagic Plus that launched recently, around April we should have the new DacMagic 100. It looks to be a cut down version of the Plus designed to match the ID100, without the preamp, headphone amp, digital filters and balanced outputs. More Information

Earlier this year I was excited by the announcement of a proper Hifi show in Melbourne. I say proper because it was at the Marriot hotel where each brand had their own room so you could actually listen to the gear on display – vs the type of trade show where everyone is setup in a big room competing for who can go the loudest.

So myself and a couple of mates (Jared and Marty) went off to Melbourne for a weekend away.  We arrived blurry eyed from the early flight at the show on the Friday afternoon and were greeted with a large queue, so we went to the bar for a while, as we thought that was a good way to start.

The queue quickly dispersed and we were on our way. We knew we weren’t going to be the majority demographic at the show (all three of us are under 30, just) but we were still surprised to be greeted with “What are you doing here, you look too normal” in one room, funny but true. Having said that on the Saturday it was nice to see a mixed crowd but still skewing very male.

The range of gear on display was impressive and I’ve put a bunch of photos up on Facebook. There were some very impressive demonstrations and really nice gear on show. Some rooms were obviously not the ideal setup due to the size of the room vs the size of the speakers on display, but everyone made the best of what they had which was evident by the generous amount of room treatment in some rooms.

What was starting to drive us insane was the music. I don’t get it, I really don’t. The reason for Hifi is to get more out of the music you love, but most rooms insisted on playing “Audiophile” recordings which mainly consist of terrible covers of songs that were good in their original form or unoriginal Jazz. Also, a lot of the music playing was very simple that actually didn’t push the gear on display and would sound pretty good on a modest system. It was on rare occasion that you stumbled across a room playing music that people would actually sit down and listen too in the real world.

If high end audio wants to survive and gain the interest of a new market segment we need to change. I know I’m generalisation as some companies get it but the majority seem so obsessed with the gear they forget what the real task at hand is, replicating music (not just sound) as good as it can be replicated in one’s home.

We went into one room, and the dealer was complaining “We lost our box of cds so we had to go down to JB Hifi and we couldn’t find anything, sorry we only have a couple of discs”. I don’t think I need to point out how ridiculous this statement is. Although, contradicting that he actually then put on James Blake but proceeded to apologise that it was “all I could find”.

OK I’m ranting a bit here, but just one more thing on the music. If you follow me on Facebook you will have seen the What Hifi article I posted on Vinyl sales being up 40% on last year. Here were the top selling records from last year on Vinyl:

1. ‘The King Of Limbs’ – Radiohead
2. ‘21’ – Adele
3. ‘Different Gear Still Speeding’ – Beady Eye
4. ‘Suck It And See’ – Arctic Monkeys
5. ‘Let England Shake’ – PJ Harvey
6. ‘Bon Iver’ – Bon Iver
7. ‘Submarine (Ost)’ – Alex Turner
8. ‘Director’s Cut’ – Kate Bush
9. ‘Build A Rocket Boys’ – Elbow
10. ‘Nevermind’ – Nirvana

I wonder how many of these artists were played over the course of the show? When we visited Aaron Speakers they had Thom York’s solo album on but I know they were the exception. So if we “Audiophiles” love vinyl so much, and think its the best way to consume music, who are the people out their buying vinyl as it wasn’t this group? Why aren’t we trying to capture this market and turn them into overweight socially questionable audiophiles?  But seriously, if we want the audio market to survive, we need to show music lovers how their music can be even better. We need to demonstrate music, not gear.

OK enough ranting, Best in Show.

For me, the Cabasse room had the most “impressive” display, they had a drum track on that a blind man would have sworn was someone drumming live in the room, the transient response was incredible.  Just the active speakers are $129,000AU a pair, which makes them out of range for someone like myself. All the same I would have liked to have spent some time with this system listening to a range of music styles.

Bowers and Wilkins 802D and Classe
The B&W room was Jared’s pick of the show, the wonderful 802D’s powered by 600W Classe monoblocks, the sound was clear without being harsh, vocals floated and imaged just right. This is probably the system that I would most want to live with out of everything at the show. Although, I would have loved to hear the Jamo R909‘s on the Classe rig as a comparison as the Jamo room was not the best setup (The room was too small and the 909′s need space to breathe) and I know from our own demo room they sound much better than they did at the show.

Whatmough and Moon
Marty’s favourite were the Australian Whatmough speakers powered by Moon. The Moon components are stunning and obviously had the sonic prowess to match. What I loved about this system as that while the floorstanders are big, they aren’t stupid big. And they sounded wonderful on a simple two component setup – just the Moon Integrated amp and matching CD player. While this is still an expensive system, you’re talking 30K for everything here which is not in the realms of crazyness. Everything was just right on this system, treble detailed but not bright, full clear midrange and deep, full yet tight bass. The drivers worked hard, but with large voice coils in the custom drivers this was all part of the design.

Other notable mentions
On the home theatre side of things, the Paradigm/Anthem/JVC room had the clear advantage with their room, and the sound was amazing, even if the JVC rep couldn’t figure out how to turn the mighty Paradigm SUB-1 on, so I had to leave a little disapointed and still not knowing what this beast sounds like.

The Magneplanar 3.7′s are incredible for vocals, acoustic and jazz music. So while not a do it all kind of speaker, for some people these would be heaven. Sonus Faber impressed and I would have loved to hear the Stradivari Homage in a bigger less crowded room. The new DacMagic Plus from Cambridge Audio is a winner, building on the success of the famous DacMagic it has upgraded internals as well as a built-in preamp. The Castle Richmond Annivesary speakers are going to be something special, these will be available here soon!

All in all Melbourne was great, and it was fantastic to hear some speakers I would otherwise not be able to hear. Massive thanks to all the effort that went into organising this show, I hope all involved deemed it a success!

For more photos, head on over to the gallery on Facebook