[azryan]

Wow... where to begin.

Massive audio overload I think.
My wife and I got to hear most of the CES audio rooms in Alexis Park and the T.H.E. SHOW rooms in the San Tropez and the San Remo.

LOTS of very good sounding systems. Very few rooms though bowled me over which was both good and bad depending on how you look at it.

I managed to play 2 reference tracks in many, but not all of the rooms (Particia Barber's 'Blue' and Jeff Buckley's 'Everybody Here Wants You') so that I could get a sense of overall what the entire system+room was doing.

It's VERY hard I think to walk away from hearing so many varibles and then be able to say I liked this or that speaker, or amp, or cable, etc....

While I probably never need to go to the CES again it was cool to go once for the overwhelming experience of it all.

Biggest disapointments first...

Avantguarde.
VERY costly and often raved about even from people who hate horns. I really wanted to hear them and heard several pairs in a few diff. rooms and wasn't impressed with any of them.

They totally failed to reproduce the horns on the Partica Barber track realistically at all which seemed very odd being a horn speaker though the two points probably aren't related.

The sound shifted in an annoying way based on height too, and I'm not sure typical seated height was the best stop either.

Magnepan.

Not that they sounded bad, but they only had their surround speakers up for every channel in an HT config. and playing that overused Diana Krall DVD.
Funny they used dual vertical surrounds for the center chan too instead of their actual center speaker. See... even Magnepan doesn't like their own center speaker! heh

They said they had the true ribbon 3.6's 'somewhere'... but didn't know where. Uh.. ok?

Soundline.

<-edit->.... I think I screwed up. This was the Wisdom room. I guess I got the B-G ribbon using companies names mixed up. Oops!

Very nice large black curtained HT room (converted ballroom), but their DLP projector playing 'Pirates of the Car-' looked horrible. I've never seen a DLP look that bad. I would just turned it off or told people someone damaged it by pouring a soda on it or something.

The sound was ok but nothing that floored me at all and a really costly system so I was sad about that.

Again... there's only so much to say about a system that I didn't really flip out over 'cuz it 'might' have sounded MUCH better in a diff. set-up or diff. gear, diff. recording etc...

Case in point...

Pass Labs.

Met HarleyMYK at the show (who was a real nice cool guy BTW. We chatted for a while before we even know eachother's handle and that we both post on AC) and he was REALLY impressed with the Pass room so my wife and I made sure to go there next.

Nelson Pass and another Pass rep were the only ones in the room yet totally ingnored us the whole time like were were ghosts.

They were playing an old vinyl of 'I don't know what' but it it sounded like a lot of the vinyl there did... smooth, but with pops and crackle, etc...

The volume was modest and the sound was unimpressive to us. The blue LEDs in the ribbon tweeters were slick looking.

I'm 100% sure HarleyMYK heard some totally diff. music there though so I can't disagree with his glowing impression of the room.

So what were the high points?

Well... there certainly were a lot of really good sounding systems. I left feeling there's certainly more than one way to skin a recording.

The Usher room was pretty special we thought and fantastic looking cabinets and wood finishes. Great value looks and performance.

The Theil room was huge and next to the main lobby at Alexis Park and heard some 2 chan. and we were certainly happy with what were heard there and a look inside their impressive cabinet and driver construction.

Gilmore Audio.

Hands down the ugliest speakers ever made but damn if they didn't sound very good.
Their B-G 75" like planar is actually their own design and 1/3rd the weight of the B-G planar so more effi and faster (or so they tell me).
Their flat cone dipole woofers were very impressive too. Tight and clean and blended in perfectly. The flat cone looks like silver bubble wrap though. Like the sunscreen in my car.

I could never live with those looks. Just beat with an ugly stick awful.

Beautiful, huge Atma-sphere (I think) tube amps on the front end too. Very nice.

Tenor and Lumenwhite both had beautiful tube amps mated to stunning Accuton based speakers.

Both outstanding. VERY costly though.

Tyler Acoustic's speakers were GREAT. Really good price points too compared to most companies.
Wild 'Carpathian' burl-like veener on his $16K huge tower speakers. Apparently it's man-made but it's real wood. You normally only can buy burl veneer made up of little squares of it that really would look goofy on a LARGE speaker, but this stuff was all one pattern. Killer.

That system sucked us in. Awesome.
Really nice guy and his wife too. Pretty much let us play anything and ask anything. More than happy to explain anything.

The VMPS room was very good.
Very detailed and smooth.

Brian was a real nice guy (BTW... anyone wants to get him a X-Mas or B-Day gift I think CD-R's would be a good choice! heh).
Met John Casler for about 4 seconds. Seemed nice -as he didn't kill me or anything despite us having argued here more than once. hehe

Was nearly blinded by the Ampzilla's designer's Lime green suit (Teal I think the next day).

I'm not sure I was convinced by the Trinural processor. I don't really know though?

It seemed to work correctly -sending most of the info to the center RM-30 but then I was pretty much just staring at the sound coming out of that speaker the whole time which seemed to me like it pulled me out of the illusion of an 'invisible performance'.

I'm not a fan of pretty much any center speaker though so others might totally disagree with my perception of that TriP deal.

I wish I could have listened with the lights out to 'see' just how the imaging really performed.

I could much easier tell on most 2-chan. systems which ones imaged so-so and which were sharp or the few that were really razor sharp and seemed to have nothing to do with the speakers that were playign them.

I wasn't wildly impressed with the sound of the front end. I'd heard so many stellar tube amps from most rooms that day and none struck me as colored or undynamic or rolled off, but all seemed just a step above even the best solid state amps in any room.

I can't say 'best sound of the show'- most of those were FAAAAR more expencive though, but I certainly give the RM-30's themselves a thumbs up!
 
Great speakers and outstanding value. The signal you send them is what they'll sound like so it's up to you what they do I think.

Not that cones and domes can't do what planars can IMO. I certainly heard a lot of fantastic sounding conventional speakers, but it takes the best drivers or a lot of them to do what those planars can do without trying.

Standing up w/ the top end dulling down quite a bit is the only quirk to the design IMO. I expected that though and certainly many people won't mind that at all 'cuz when they sit down they'll be hearing some outstanding audio if that's what you send those speakers.

Oh... and I told the guys at Inner Sound to go to VMPS's room and review their speakers. They said they'd go check them out (they hadn't heard of VMPS) so maybe Brian C. or John C. or someone can tell me if those guys ever showed up there?
I'm betting they never went.

Someone from S'Phile was in the VMPS room when I went back there with Inner Sound's card and I told that guy too that they better review VMPS and mentioned there's a conspiracy theory online about S'Phile intentionally ignoring companies like VMPS so if they don't review them I think I'll consider them sell outs. We'll see what happens.

I told them "No more Musical Fidelity reviews too!" -only to get a free issue the next day and damn if there wasn't an f'in' M.F. review in there!!?!?! Jeez!

Brian let me play several tracks and was really nice. Many rooms didn't let you play your own music or at best they controlled the equip. and the volume (read: too quiet). Brian pretty much let me 'go for it'.

His wife (wife right? Same last name but I didn't get to ask?) was very nice too.

The $16K planar/woofer Piegas sounded very good, but man that's really expencive. Not worth it IMO.

The $8.5K Quad 989's which S'Phile seems to think is in many ways one of the best speakers in the world sounded to me... good. Very detailed. A nice soft performance. Tight, fairly deepish bass for that little squarish electrostatic. I think I heard sharper clearer top end detail form other systems. Might have been Quad's front end too though.
You never know what you think you know I guess.

I'm not sure how loud they'll play of how dynamic but I wasn't thrilled.

Jeff Rowland's room (MAN is he TALL!) was playing the new Focal (pronounced foCAL not FOcal like I thought -according to a Focal rep at the conventuon center) Nova Utopias hooked to Rowland's $6.5K ICEpower monoblocks.

They were playing something very light and very low volume and sounded totally unimpressive but that wasn't a real test right?

I went back another day and got to listen to my Patricia Barber track on them and at higher volume -but still not as loud as I would have liked (they controlled the remote).

Sounded nice, smooth, clean and decent imaging. Really for the price and rep. of Focal and Rowland I wanted to be knocked out but I wasn't.

It wasn't that the sound was flawed so much as I've heard as good or better on much cheaper gear.
Not that I'm saying I know any of these audio systems inside and out from a having heard them for a little while at this show.
I do think I got a good overall impression of what's out there though and add it up to all the Hi Fi shop set-ups I've heard and other people's systems.

I still feel for most things online brands (which weren't hardly represented here) are easily the best way to go to get the most quality/performance for the bling bling. heh

The Final room next to Adire had their new LARGE electrostatics in a surround set up. Very big  stuff for a small room.

I noticed they got a CES TechTV finalist award (I never saw who else got an award or who was even entered).
When I was there they were playing the DTS DVD of the Eagles live. Sounded good. Hard to say much more but again... not thrilled or anything.

At the convention center I saw/heard these electrostatics from a brand called Wraith. They don't need to be powered by the wall though only by speaker wire. I'm not sure how that works.
They claim really wide range and high db levels. I'll have to look those up. They sounded good (man, that's the typical phrase for me hey?).

Only playing with a DVD in an HT system so hard to tell too much -yet again.

It was easy to get burnt out from listening to so much stuff all day, every day. So many very good systems yet I still felt "Yep, very good sounding... but not a big deal though."
I'm pretty jaded I guess?

One of the biggest shocks (beyond my anti-tube feelings being thrown out the window)... was the MBL room.

WOW!
I thought in person those demented looking speakers would be even uglier in person and that they couldn't possibly sound that good.
Wrong and wrong.

Both my wife and I thought they actually looked pretty cool in person. Like some wild mad scientist project or a wild art sculpture. 'Steampunk'-ish looking.

I still don't see the need for them to be omnipoles but when sitting centered they sounded great and the dynamics and top to bottom power was a highlight of the show.

My ref. tracks sounded about as good as I've ever heard them and the MBL guy played two wild drum solos from I guess some 80's band called Man O' War. One track was called 'Today is a good day to die' Both from the same CD I think he said though.
I'm gonna try to find it 'cuz it REALLY showed off just how loud and dynamic a system needs to be to make a drum recording sound totally real.

These did it. Awesome.

I only can mark down the room for the omnipole 'wash of sound' when off center and I think the list price of the whole system was like ~$115K so 'value' was um... not so hot. hehe

So what did I think was the best of the show?

The Epiphany room in the San Remo -and I bet most people didn't even hear it (incl. HarleyMYK who I told it was a 'must hear'. Why didn't you go there man? No time?).

They did have the advantage that only a few other rooms had in that they were in a very large room. Black curtains on all sides so room damage was very low.

That had to be a much tougher issue in the typical hotel room that most systems were in, but even then many rooms had little or no room treatments.
That was a big suprise I thought.

VMPS had some of the most room treatments, making a dead end and live end config.

Overall... I think most rooms were playing at very easy to play volumes.

Few amps were pushed more than a Watt or two and many speakers that might have fallen apart at loud volumes sounded very nice at modest db's.
Also many speakers that sounded so-so might have shined at loud volumes so again... bottom line... hard to say a whole lot about anything really.

The only other room in that San Remo spot I think was the Halcro room with Wilson speakers in a WAY too wide spaced surround set-up where even when sitting optimally front and center, each speaker seems to be playing on it's own without connecting to the others to make a seamless soundstage.

There were a ton of chairs in that room though so I'm sure they didn't try to set it up for a single person getting perfect sound. Pity though.

Anyway...

The new Epiphany speakers and the Edge Audio amps were amazing.

The imaging was the sharpest of the show and the dynamics, zero dist. at any level, and grand soundstage were damn near flawless.

The only thing I could say is that while the Edge amps were amazing and probably dead accurate... I still felt the need for that extra hint of emotion from the tube amps of some other rooms. Hard to describe the diff. though.

I wouldn't call it a coloration that I wanted 'cuz it's such a subtle thing that adds realism not takes you further from it.

Very expencive though not wildly expencive speakers and VERY costly front end so not the value that VMPS was, but that mid-line Epiphany really struck my wife and I as being very very Alpha like -which we were both very happy to find.

I had no idea if our own system was going to be just crushed by lots of systems, or any systems, or esp. compared to these Danny Richie designed woofer/planar line sources as he designed the Alphas which are certainly 'cousins' to these Epiphany's.

Danny said the middle model doesn't play quite as low as the Alphas though but is even faster/more detailed on the woofer section. I didn't notice more speed/detail but I'm sure he's telling it like it is having designed both and I'm sure directly A/B'ed the two.

Danny was a great guy as was Gary Dodd who was there too. We got to talk a lot about all sorts of audio topics. A great time!
Got to hear the Epiphany's pushed loud after the show was over on Fri. too so we were very lucky to be in on that.

Metallica's Black studio album played at live concert levels. Holy crap was it clean and distortion free!

I need a much better front end to do that... but at even loud (but not LOUD or SUPER LOUD) levels I'm still happy with my cheap system at home so I'm happy to come home from all this and not feel like I'm nowhere near these megapriced systems.

I DO want to be able to do what Danny did there though at those volumesm and am fighting the urge to buy Gary Dodd's 120W monoblocks despite being pretty damn sure they'd floor me and are probably the best value tube amps I've ever heard of.

AZ's just too hot for tubes... but these are such a great price, and powerful, and amazing sounding (according to Gary and Danny who I totally trust)... I'm so torn!
The lifetime warr., VERY low tube replacement cost, yet tey say pretty long tube life are no small things either.
Damn! I never wanted tube amps and now I'm lusting after them. Crap.

Hmmm... what else...

Adire's room had some great new drivers. A MASSSSSIVE motor system for an unfinished monster sub driver.

Onix's room had the cool new Emotiva  pre/pro and amps (pronounced emoTIva not eMOtiva like I wrongly guessed). Their new Ref. tower speaker was fantastic with Onix 2-chan. int. amps
Sean P. was a cool guy. Really nice and very open about pouring out all the info I demanded from him. hehe

So big thumbs up to many AC forum brands. You all kicked ass!

What else...
F' vinyl. I don't think I ever want it. Some stellat looking turntables though. Like many tube amps -certainly works of art.

Sadly.... -thumbs up to tube amps. (Gary Dodd will be the one making my amps for SURE if I decide to follow that 'glowing' path).

LOUD is what really shows off the diff. in speakers and most never played loud to tell a whole lot.

Hmm.... SO many things I heard I probably only told half of everything but can't think of anything more. I took lots of notes but it's all still a mess. hehe

Hope this's been interesting to people who weren't there. You missed out, but probably not nearly as much as you might think so be happy with your own system. Trust your ears too.

I played my Ref. tracks a few hours after I got home and was more than happy even after hearing millions of dollars of damn near every high end audio 'thingy' in existence so that's the good and bad of it.

[JohnR]

Nice report! I read the whole thing  

[F-100]

Quick , fast and straight to the point . I like that.
Thanks Azryan

[vpolineni]

great writeup azryan,
out of curiousity, what thiel speakers were being played?

[bubba966]

Metallica's Black studio album played at live concert levels. Holy crap was it clean and distortion free!

I need a much better front end to do that... but at even loud (but not LOUD or SUPER LOUD) levels I'm still happy with my cheap system at home so I'm happy to come home from all this and not feel like I'm nowhere near these megapriced systems.

I DO want to be able to do what Danny did there though at those volumesm and am fighting the urge to buy Gary Dodd's 120W monoblocks despite being pretty damn sure they'd floor me and are probably the best value tube amps I've ever heard of.

Sounds like you got the same treatment that I did at VSAC. Danny cranked the shit out of Metallica on the A/V-3's. I was terribly impressed by both the Dodd gear (120w mono's & pre) and the A/V-3's.

And I think I'd agree that if I was to go for tubes, it'd probably be Dodd. Not that I could afford 7 120w Dodd monos...

[BikeWNC]

Thanks Ryan!  I now feel like I went to the CES.  

I have a Dodd 50w amp and want to tell you it is sweet!  120w of monoblock tube power would be awesome if you can stand the heat.  Danny says the 50w drives the Alphas very well.  Of course if you want concert level sound you probably need the 120s.  

Andy

[zybar]

Can anybody tell me where I can find info about these 120 watt monos?

I just went to the GR webpage and they only list 60 watt stereo amp.

Thanks,

GW

[BikeWNC]

There is a bit of info here on AC in the GR Research forum.  Do a search for Dodd Audio there.  Other than that you need to give Gary a call when he gets back from CES.  I also think they got a good passing mention on 6moons.com or was it EnjoyThe Music.com?

Andy

[James Romeyn]

Many thanks for a great report.  I also read your entire post.  I was happy to have the similar experience of being pleased with my system when I returned from my last CES.

[Rob Babcock]

I bet that rig cost more than Manowar earned in the whole decade of the 80's!

[wshuff]

I remember when I saw this thread I thought that those amps were about the coolest things I'd ever seen.  So here you go, Zybar.  Here's the thread about the Dodd 120 mono blocks with some cool pics.


http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=3960

Oh yeah, nice writeup.  You should get a press pass next year because that's the most comprehensive review I've seen of the exhibitors at CES.  Now, if you only had a camera...

Cheers!  I give it two drinks.

[bubba966]

I remember when I saw this thread I thought that those amps were about the coolest things I'd ever seen.  So here you go, Zybar.  Here's the thread about the Dodd 120 mono blocks with some cool pics.

And the pics do them no justice. They're much, much nicer in person...

[Hantra]

Great write-up man.  

The $16K planar/woofer Piegas sounded very good, but man that's really expencive. Not worth it IMO.

With the Euro the way it is, they'll probably be MORE money next year.  Sucks. . .  

I agree with the Quad 989 thing.  And I have to tell you that Quads sound like whatever amp they are with.  I heard some 989's with the Halcro stereo amp, and I was about to rush out and buy a pair of 989's.  Then I heard them with other amps, and I realized that it wasn't the Quads I was hearing.

Thanks for the coverage. . .

[mcrespo71]

I agree with the Quad 989 thing. And I have to tell you that Quads sound like whatever amp they are with. I heard some 989's with the Halcro stereo amp, and I was about to rush out and buy a pair of 989's. Then I heard them with other amps, and I realized that it wasn't the Quads I was hearing.

Isn't this what most speaker designers aspire to- total neutrality (i.e., you don't hear the speaker colorations, etc., but rather hear what is upstream).

[John Casler]

Hey AZ,

Great write up!

Nice to meet you finally, sorry I didn't get any more time to talk.

I agree with most of your assessments too, including hearing the "best of show" after walking through the doors after getting back home.

It's amazing what working your own system and room can do to get the best sound.

Did you hear the PipeDreams?  $60,000!!!!  

And I do have to say they sounded great.  I had them play a couple of my "reference cuts" and they did image quite well and had a large soundstage, (but can I say this and not commit "high end blasphemy"?) my 626Rs sound better, more detailed, more involving, but just not as deep

Next year I'm going to plan on all 4-5 days and really see everyone and everything.

As soon as I get a few minutes I'll try and post some impressions I had of a few rooms and brands.

Again, nice meeting you and I'll see you next year (wait till you all see what Brian has up his sleeve for 2005)

Yep, I smell BOS again  

[HarleyMYK]

Great to meet you and Mrs. AZ, too.  Very funny the way we started chatting before we realized we were both from this board.  Especially since I did not talk to anyone else hardly at the show that I did not know.

I so ran out of time.  I really wanted to get over and see the Edge - Epiphany both.  However, that would have meant leaving the Alexis Park, going to the shuttle bus, registering for T.H.E. Show, and taking the shuttle bus back to Alexis.  As it was, I did not see most of the rooms at the Alexis Park (missed Thiel, Vandersteen, Pipedreams, etc.).

Pass did let me play my demo cut and play it as loud as I wanted.  We gradually upped the volume until it was way too loud for the room.  The Rushmores still sounded great, but the room was bouncing sound all over.  I wished they had treated it.  I can imaging it would be nothing special if they were playing some scratchy vinyl at low volume.  Maybe when you are old and grey like me they will treat you better (just kidding).

For sure let me and Mrs. HarleyMYK know if you are ever coming out to the L.A. area.

Happy listening!

[MaxCast]

Great write up, Ryan!

[bhiggins]

Thanks for an informative and entertaining recap of the show.

[azryan]

Thanks to everyone who actually read all the stuff I wrote. Honestly... I could have written a lot more but what a long post as it was. hehe
(when will someone give ME an award for 'most long-winded poster!?! hehe)

vpolineni,

I'm pretty sure we listened to the Theil 2.4's. There were other speakers set up on the other end of the large room though. Other people might have heard those too, or instead. All the Theil should have a similar character though I'd say.

A large open room I think is a big advantage that most room didn't have (though they could have 'erased' the walls with treatments but most didn't do hardly anything??).

I think (but not totally sure) they were using Theta front end too? Man... I forget.

bubba966,

Heheh... good to hear that similar Danny/Metallica story. hehe

Certainly NOTHING like the tepid light classical/jazz stuff most people played in most rooms (incl. Epiphany's) which really only tells you if a system sounds 'nice and pretty', not if it can rattle your filling loose without making your ears bleed in the process. heheh

Looks like Enjoy the Music and Secrets of HT's sites both have up CES pics and their takes on assorted stuff there so people might want to check that out too.

HarleyMYK,

Great pics!
Our camera didn't have enough light in the rooms to take anything. I've gotta step into this century and get a dang digital cam!! Glad you had one!
Thanks for the invite too. Same here if you're in Phx.

Wish I coulda been in the Pass room when you were (i'm still amazed that they didn't even look at us. The only room that was like that AND the only one that was empty when we walked in. weird).
I think that's a BIG thing with people's opinions... I bet most people pretty much would feel mostly the same about most stuff we heard BUT... when I went to this or that room I heard something totally diff. from what someone else probably heard -making the biggest diff. in our impressions (or that's my current crackpot theory?).

I'm seeing the opinions of diff. people who went to the CES looking VERY diff. in many cases. I really don't think people's ears or opinions are THAT diff. though.
wild.

If someone went into the MBL room and heard some of the live Fleetwood Mac they were playing then left they'd probably think "Ok sound and crazy prices." I wasn't sure the highs were that good even.
That drum solo at live levels was a whole 'nother ballgame though, and when I played my ref. tracks I said... "Nope... the highs ARE pretty damn good."

Hell... I'm in-between high end front ends right now in my own system but I keep going back and forth about every other day with this Sony 2000ES dig. amp Rec. thinking-
"Man... it really is very close to those very high end systems" to-

"The hell it is! The highs are just not right on this thing. Brittle and harsh. I need a 'real' DAC and to get a killer amp again." (which I think will be the Ack dAck! or SN tubeDAC and Gary Dodd's tube monoblocks or Ric Shultz ICEpower amps).

zybar,

Gary Dodd told me he's making new ones at a new price. I'm not sure what I should really say about them, but I'm SURE you'll flip if he tells you what he told me.

I guess you can call him or go through Danny Richie at GR Research to get in touch with Gary.
He'd like to have his own web site up but he seems to not have any interest in messing with that. He just likes building stellar amps for sickeningly cheap prices. I chose not to do anything to try to convince him to change his ways. hehe

Rob,

"-I bet that rig cost more than Manowar earned in the whole decade of the 80's!-"

Hehehe... I hadn't thought of that! It's funny on it's own, but EXTRA funny in that it's probably totally true! heheh

Has anyone even heard of them? I've gotta hear those drum solos on my system! I need a new front end first thatdoesn't fall apart that those HIGH volumes.

wshuff,

Thanks for the 'press' comment. I think that would be a fun job. I'd love to have interviewed a lot of these designers and really get a better shot at hearing their systems.

I did hit Jeff Rowland with a good question -"Your new amps use the really efficient digtial ICEpower chips right?-"

"Yeah"

"So why the need for the MASSIVE heat sinks on these models? Do they really get that hot?"

I can't quote exactly what he said but it was pretty much -'Yeah, they're just for looks really.' To match the look of his previous monster solid state amps -that actually need the heat sinks. hehe

And looking at the super tiny ICEpower monoblocks w/ no external heat sinks (though the case itself probably is one) says the same thing.

I asked him too if he thought the ICEpower modules were fragile like Klaus at Odyssey said they are and Jeff said he's sold hundreds of them already and 'no, they're not fragile at all.'

John Casler,

"-Did you hear the PipeDreams? $60,000!!!!-"

Dang! No... and I MEANT to. Did you hear that they went under 2 weeks ago? Did they mention anything about that?
I thought they wouldn't even be in their room. crap.

I think for 'store brand' speakers the FAR cheaper Epiphany line sources and massive dual 18" subs should easily better the niche Pipedreams used to have. I hope they managed to pick up some dealers at the show.

I wanted to hear Levinson's Red Rose tube amps and speakers too but they broke up before the show too.
Someone from that group had their own similar cone/true ribbon speakers there though. Sounded.... ok. Not terribly detailed which seems to make no sense being a ribbon looking much like the Raven 2 (though they said it was their own).

"-Next year I'm going to plan on all 4-5 days and really see everyone and everything.-
-Again, nice meeting you and I'll see you next year (wait till you all see what Brian has up his sleeve for 2005)-"

Good to meet you too. Sorry it was just a hand shake and a "Hey!".

I don't think I'm going again though. My wife and I both got pretty burnt out listening to so much stuff in so many rooms (drove out to the Valley of Fire State Park on the last day. VERY cool and had missed going the last 2 times we went to Vegas).

Anyway... wish you could just walk into a room and throw in a CD and sit dead center and listen but it took a long time to get that or didn't get that at all in many rooms (understandably though).

[gld]

Hey AZ what a nice report on the CES, I read it all. BTW
I will be getting a site soon. And then I will be in big
trouble. It was nice to meet and enjoy the company of you both
I hope we get to do so again sometime.
 Gary