UPDATED After the late afternoon release of several notes from many writers on the TAS staff I updated this posting. The only thing I can say is, "Has another magazine been reading Computer Audiophile?" Read more for all the info.

Chris Martens from The Abso!ute Sound has just published an article about his CES experience with some very affordable products. he concludes the article with some statements about CES and the products he liked. Most notable is his crowning the new Wadia 170 iTransport as the Most Significant New Product. Here is a a great quote from the article.

"Most Important Trend: The high-end community’s wise decision to embrace and not resist the adoption of iPod- and PC-based audio systems. In the end, technologies that stimulate interest in music always work for the greater good, and while high-fidelity sound is important, passion for music must always come first."

Favorite system at CES. It's time to talk about sound & music, no not The Sound of Music. CES was full of great sounding equipment. Walking suite to suite in the Venetian was really a treat. I'm not aligned with some of the other writers who hated CES because of elevator lines or the distance between halls etc... There is arguably nowhere else on Earth an audiophile can experience all of this sound and music. Back to the great sounding equipment. Countless manufacturers put on demonstrations that that really showcased their equipment. My only problem is they were showcasing their equipment. I know that sounds funny. Let me explain. One manufacturer said to me that he was playing Joni Mitchell because her voice hit the crossover point of his speakers perfectly. I'm cool with people who like to listen to equipment as opposed to the music. It just doesn't work for me. I can only hear Patricia Barber and DIana Krall so many times in one week. These artists do have some really good music, but it was too often used to showcase equipment. Some might also say that the manufacturers are there to showcase equipment. OK, point taken. But, the end product of all of this is listening to music, not sound, and selling more of your products to the end consumers. Let's face it people make decisions based on emotion. Does the sound of a female voice hitting right at the crossover point bring out emotion in you? Does listening to a great reissue of James Taylor's Sweet Baby James bring out emotion in you? For me, the James Taylor scenario wins hands down. I wasn't even a big fan of James Taylor before CES. Now I am looking all over for the CD version of what I heard in the McIntosh suite at the Venetian.

The second edition of CES Ramdom Notes is here. It is based on information I gathered at CES and T.H.E. Show. Music servers, memory players, wireless transport/DACs, and a whole bunch of contradictory information.

The high end world in general is finally realizing the potential of music servers. Or, is it the customers who are finally realizing the potential of computer based audio / music servers. What came first the chicken or the egg. Either way this a great thing for consumers and manufacturers. Consumers will enjoy all the benefits of these products and manufacturers will enjoy selling everyone a replacement for their basic disc player. CES was full of music servers with fewer memory players and even less wireless transport/DACs. As expected there were plenty of suites in the Venetian without anything computer based. This is where I often received a certain look from the product representative. This look was not inviting. It was like I was just an Internet "geek" trying to invade the their space. Their comments were much the same. When I told the reps I cover the convergence of high end audio and computers & music servers some said, "You won't find anything here" or gave me a smirk and looked right through me. Oh well, I'm not concerned about these reps. Fortunately it is not them who determines the future of high end audio. I tend to think these manufacturers may be a little scared of what is to come. For the most part everyone else was getting into the game and excited about the new possibilities in high end audio. Reference Recordings being one of them with the release of 24 bit / 176 KHz music. Available first on DVD as wav files followed by online distribution as soon as possible. Another was Hovland, who has been working to really perfect their unit before it is released. Hovland knows how to do things right. Based on the prototype on display I think they will bring to market a product that does what a high end consumer wants. Nothing more, nothing less.

CES 2008 is over so it's time to parse through my notes and translate my "chicken-scratch" into intelligible sentences for the Computer Audiophile readers. Here is the first Random Note based on information I gathered at CES and T.H.E. Show.

The third and final CES 2008 photo gallery is now available. This gallery also contains many photos from T.H.E. Show over at Alexis Park & St. Tropez. The audio equipment at T.H.E. Show was just as good as CES and the environment was a lot less crowded. This allowed more time to talk with manufacturers, sole proprietors, other attendees, etc... As I wrote about earlier, the music for sale at Alexis Park was wonderful. Most of the audiophile quality music vendors were there and they all brought their best-of-the-best recordings to sell. My wallet was a little thinner after leaving T.H.E. Show. I finished up the day at the Venetian taking some time to really enjoy the music on some of my favorite systems and talking to a few people. I spent by far the most time in the McIntosh / Richard Gray's Power Company suite. This system was the most musical and enjoyable system of both shows. I spent quite a bit of time talking to Dick McCarthy, President of Richard Gray's Power Company, about the history of the company, RGPC products, and who exactly is Richard Gray. Dick not only knows RGPC products backwards and forwards he really believes in them. Sure the presidents of every company should believe in their products, but with Dick there was a passion and sense of confidence that wasn't apparent in many other suites at CES. Fortunately I am a RGPC customer so I knew Dick's products backed up his words. While there was a bit of salesmanship in what Dick was saying (he has been a very successful businessman leading other companies as well) it was evident that he was an audiophile first and foremost. Anyway, here are the photos from Day 3 at CES / T.H.E. Show. Please remember that I will go back and put captions by the photos, but I want publish them for everyone to see as soon after the show as possible. So, be patient, if you want to know what a certain piece is or how it sounded send me an email and I'l be happy to let you know. Enjoy the show.

My CES Day 2 High End Audio Photo Gallery is open for your perusal. On the second day of CES I started in the high end audio rooms in the Venetian then moved to the main CES area in the convention center. There were a ton of things going on over there including the auto electronics area. I included some shots of a few neat cars that were on display and some very nice McIntosh car audio equipment. As usual no words, just photos for now, enjoy.

Day 3 was a little different from the first two days. I spent the majority of the day over at T.H.E. Show, then came back to CES. My favorite part of T.H.E. Show was all the music on sale. Nothing like this is available at CES. It was like a dream walking into a huge room full of audiophile quality music. Unless you live in Kansas next to Acoustic Sounds you don't have a local dealer with a selection like this. Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct, Mobile Fidelity, Cisco, Reference Recordings, Elusive Disc and many more were there with hundreds of titles. Personally I liked this room more than any other at the show and there was no sound coming from the room! Needless to say I picked up a few new titles, including some new K2HD releases from First Impression Music. I have heard some great things about the quality of these titles. I look forward to sharing my thoughts on them and how they compare to the original K2 and XRCD releases. Also, Reference Recordings will have their HRx 24/176 music available in a couple weeks. I can't wait for that. For now, I'll leave you with some pictures of all the music.

Well, day 2 of CES 2008 is over and I feel more like week 2 is over. Here are some quick pictures of one of my favorite products of the whole show. Resolution Audio's IXS streaming component. This product is a gem. It streams your iTunes library from your computer into your high end system. In addition Jeff Kalt from Resolution Audio was using the iPod Touch with the Signal application (which I have discussed here before) to control the music selection. This was convergence at its best. A Mac Mini music server combined with a real high end music system controlled by an iPod Touch. Much of the high end audio world is kicking and screaming about moving into the next generation of great sound reproduction. Resolution Audio on the other hand is leading the way with this very smart offering. Resolution Audio knows its place is high end audio and is very smart to leave everything else up to computer companies such as Apple. There is no need to reinvent iTunes or try to incorporate a Mac Mini inside the IXS unit. Plus taking advantage of the iPod touch and Signal is the second smartest thing Resolution Audio did. The resolution Audio people were very nice to talk to and knew their products inside and out. I hope to have more about this wonderful product in the near future.

Without further interruption I present my CES Day 1 High End Audio Photo Gallery. This is only a small percentage of the audiophile equipment here at CES, so there is much more to come. No words, just photos for now, enjoy.

As I mentioned yesterday Wadia has released the iTransport, the first device to "pull" digital audio out of an iPod. This might be the most talked about product around right now. People are saying the difference between the iTransport connected to a quality DAC v. standard CD / DAC combos is almost inaudible. Look at the picture of the iTransport integrated with the Wadia / Halco system. The sound was spectacular to say the least. The iTransport has the same build quality as all the other Wadia products with a full metal chassis etc... After talking to the Wadia guys for awhile it is clear they know what they are doing and where they are going. I wouldn't be surprise to see them create more computer / music server related products and lead the high end audio world into the future. I hope to have a full review of the Wadia iTransport soon. For now these photos will have to suffice. Make sure to check out the special edition iTransport with flames. Pretty cool, but not available in the foreseeable future.