Hello Friends, VSA partnered with Audio Power Labs (APL) at the Venetian Hotel in room 30-229. APL designs and builds tube amps with interesting ideas based on radio transmission technology. Our joint venture paired their 50TNT ($47,500/pr) mono block amps (using 572B tubes in Class-A topology outputting 50 watts) with our VR-5 Anniversary Mk2 ($30,000 to $38,000 depending on country) which we debuted at RMAF in October. If the comments made by room visitors are credible, we had one of the best sounding rooms at the Venetian. Although I don't want to mention his name until his official CES Show Report is published, a major reviewer at one of the big US print magazines told me that our room was "his favorite, with the largest and most believable sound stage and musicality that was stunning." I felt that we had dynamite bass and treble extension as well, with explosive dynamics and very tight bass. The system components included the Eera Tentation CD player ($12,000), Audio Research Ref 5 preamp ($8,750), Master-Built Signature I/C's ($4,200/pr) and speaker cables ($6,000/pr). Larry Greenhill of Stereophile, who was assigned to cover expensive amplifiers, spent quite a bit of time in our room and was visibly impressed. Hopefully, there will be further coverage as writers get back home and launch their impressions on their sites.
Over at THE Show at the Flamingo, George Warren of Precision Sound was demo'ing his affordable-but-excellent turntable with Jolida tube gear and our VR-35 Export Deluxe's in room 4031. Traffic at THE Show was virtually non existent, so we don't expect to see much press from that venue. However, George's turntable is really great and the pure analog/tube sound was amazing at the reasonable price of the system (under $20,000).
