CES 2013 - Las Vegas, USA

Crystal Cable has a new Arabesque model -- the Absolute Arabesque! This loudspeaker features monocrystal cabling throughout, including the wiring on the transformer part of the ribbon tweeter, and within the crossover network. The Absolute Arabesque also has biwireable speaker inputs and improved midrange woofers. Crystal Cable decided to offer this new model (the original is still available) due to the development project the company undertook for the Absolute Dream cable line. The price of the Absolute Arabesque is $90,000/pr., and it is available now.

The EMM Labs XDS1 V2 integrated digital player has five digital inputs, including USB. All inputs support 24-bit/192kHz resolution, and the USB input also accepts DSD. The transport supports CD and SACD playback. The XDS1's price is $25,000.

PSB used CES 2013 to introduce the M4U 1 headphones, which are similar in appearance and sound to the M4U 2s, but are a purely passive design (the 2s have built-in amplification, plus noise-canceling circuitry) and cost $100 less: $299.

Audio-Technica introduced three new open-air headphones. Pictured from left to right: the $299.95 ATH-AD900x, $199.95 ATH-AD700x, and $169.95 ATH-AD500x. They all feature high-power magnets and copper-clad aluminum wire (CCAW) voice-coil technology for wide frequency response. The premium-quality components offer progressively finer levels of sound quality as you move up the product line. All three models are expected to be available in April 2013.

The Beyerdynamic Tesla T 90 headphones are the company's latest addition to their high-performance Tesla products, and the first open-air design in the line. This model features the Tesla transducer with a ring magnet and comfortable earpads made of a premium velvet microfiber. The T 90 is priced at $679 and is available now.

The HiFiMAN HM-901 is their new portable music player. It uses two Sabre ES9018 32-bit DACs for conversion and a stepped potentiometer for volume control. It will play back most lossless audio formats, including Apple Lossless, and has digital input and output capabilities. The HM-901 is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2013 at a price of $999.

NuForce has added several components to their Home Reference series of products. Pictured from top to bottom are the UDH-100 USB DAC and headphone amp, HAP-100 preamplifier and headphone amp, and the 100Wpc STA-100 stereo power amp. They are priced at $649, $595, and $695, respectively. The UDH-100 is a USB-only DAC. The HAP-100 has four sets of RCA inputs and one set of RCA outputs. The volume control features a switched-resistor ladder using premium, low-noise, thin-film resistors so that only a single resistor is ever in the signal path. The UDH-100 and HAP-100 are available now. The STA-100 will be available later this month.

Last year Samsung displayed a Blu-ray player and powered speaker system with an iPod dock that both featured vacuum tubes. Samsung used the tagline, “Feel the new era of sound from vacuum tubes.” Well, that era continues with . . .

. . . this year's introduction of a soundbar that incorporates tubes. Although the company rep was helpful, there was little information about the product, as it was an unnamed prototype. What we did learn was that the tubed soundbar comes with a wireless subwoofer.

Harmonic Resolution Systems introduced the solid-maple RXR rack -- their lowest-priced rack to date. The price of the three-level RXR is $3000 without shelves (two racks are shown in the photo: one with shelves, one without). Each R1X shelf (as shown) adds $1295 to the price (three would be needed for the three-shelf RXR shown).

Vandersteen Audio is now in the amplifier business, or at least it will be soon. The M7-HPA is made to drive, specifically, the mid and high range of a pair of loudspeakers, as it has a built-in high-pass crossover. This mono amplifier has . . .

. . . a liquid-cooled tube input stage and a solid-state output stage. The circuitry is suspended inside the chassis, decoupling it from the vibration-prone outside environment. As for application, the company's Model Sevens would rely on their built-in subwoofer amplifier for the bass, and a pair of M7-HPAs would drive the mids and highs. The price is expected to be between $30k and $40k per pair when they become available in about six months.

Raidho Acoustics of Denmark played their new D-1 ($28,000 including stands) stand-mount loudspeaker, which features a woofer that is unique because . . .

. . . it is made with a 10-micron-thick coating of diamond on a ceramic core. We are not aware of any other woofer that is constructed of similar materials. The driver's color is black because 50 percent of the coating is actually graphite.

The Bel Canto C7R receiver is priced at $2995 and comes with five digital inputs (including 24/96 USB), an FM tuner, a phono stage, and a single pair of analog RCA inputs. The power output is 70Wpc into 8 ohms and 120Wpc into 4 ohms.

T+A showcased two new flagship products as part of their HV (High Voltage) series. Priced at $16,000, the PA 3000 HV integrated amplifier boasts mirror-image symmetry throughout its solid-aluminum chassis. Power output is rated at 300Wpc/500Wpc into 8/4 ohms, respectively, when supplied with a 240V input. The PA 3000 HV will be available in the spring of 2013. The second product in the series . . .

. . . is the MP 3000 HV multi-source player/streamer priced at $12,600. Sharing the same aluminum chassis as the PA 3000 HV, the MP 3000 HV makes use of "state-of-the-art analog output stages" featuring fully symmetrical construction. It also uses two completely separate galvanically isolated power supplies housed on each side of the chassis. The MP 3000 HV sports quadruple 32-bit digital-to-analog converters per channel and multiple decoupling points for the disc mechanism.

While Esoteric has upgraded their C-03 preamplifier to the C-03x ($13,499, not pictured), they also released a new top-of-the-line preamp: the C-02. It features a fully balanced, dual-mono compartmentalized design with five separate transformers. It weighs a whopping 71 pounds. The C-02 utilizes QVCS (quad volume control system) and HCLD (high current-capacity line driver) technologies. There are three sets of RCA inputs and two sets of XLR inputs, along with two sets of RCA outputs and two sets of XLR outputs. A phono module (MM and MC) will be released in the future. The C-02 is priced at $23,499. 

The Krell Foundation is the company's latest surround-sound processor that, in addition to the usual amount of audio processing found onboard most processors, also features Krell's Automatic Room Equalization System (ARES) EQ. It has ten HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs that utilize Audio Return Channel (ARC) -- a feature that enables the receiving display device to send audio back to the processor through the HDMI cable. The Foundation is expected to be available at the end of March with a price of $6500.

Rockport Technologies introduced the Atria loudspeaker, now the company's entry-level offering. This beautiful three-way floorstander features a 6" midrange and 9" woofer designed by company president and resident design guru Andy Payor. The tweeter is a 1" beryllium dome. The Atria is priced at $21,500/pr.