2012 CEDIA Show Report

Well another CEDIA show has come and gone. But, this year’s show was an exciting one to be sure. Although it was off to a slow start the first day, things started to really pick up on the second and third days.  The overall attitude from the manufacturers was quite positive. With all the activity at the show and manufacturer enthusiasm, it seems like the economy isn’t as grim as one may be led to believe by the media. People are spending disposable cash on home theater equipment again, and manufacturers are bustling to come out with next generation products to meet their needs. The glut and loss of 3D-centric products that met with "ho-hum" consumer response has also been replaced with some true innovation and products are once again pushing the envelope.  Some of the more mainstream brands are even making a push for high end two-channel as evident by Yamaha's release of their new A-S200 Integrated Amplifier and Marantz spinning records for critical two-channel listening as part of Denon's 11.2 channel AVR-4520CI A/V receiver demo.  Pictured below is the new Marantz SA-11S3 Reference two-channel SACD player.  I was tempted to just walk off with it but it was too well guarded :)

Marantz SA-11S3 Reference SACD Player

My wife and I spent most of my time at the show making new contacts and strengthening old ones while Clint and Andrew were off doing live video coverage. At the same time, we were taking quick pics on our cell phones and uploading them to Facebook. Our Facebook Page has really taken off in the last 6 months and I love the energy from our 6k+ followers. Possibly our favorite comment was “I want to put that in my mouth” when I posted a picture of the new Marantz two-channel SACD player. I think it’s great we can tease and tantalize fellow audioholics with pics of new gear. Going forward, I think that’s just what we’re going to do.

Audioholics Banner Hung above CEDIA Registration Area

CEDIA HiPER & Audioholics

This year, CEDIA decided to take it up a notch by offering High Performance Experience Rooms (aka HiPER rooms). We were proud to be the official media sponsor for this event. CEDIA really went to town promoting us by placing huge banners with our logo all over the convention floor leading folks to the HiPER demo rooms. D&M (Denon, Marantz and Boston Acoustics), McIntosh Labs, Steinway-Lingdorf, Wisdom Audio, and Sonos were some of the exhibitors demoing at the HiPER area.

We are digging this venture and are excited about the tremendous growth potential this has for all parties involved. Imagine an entire hotel full of high end demo rooms at CEDIA. We can.  It’s happening, and Audioholics is bringing it to you!

Gene the Moderator?
That’s right. It was an honor to be asked by CEDIA to moderate one of their workshops. We got to discuss topics ranging from common A/V install mistakes, HDMI issues, calibration tips, etc with some upscale and knowledgeable custom installers. These were great industry pros and we hope to feature some of their wonderful installation systems on our site in the near future.  Stay tuned for a report of this CEDIA workshop session coming soon.

Wireless Streaming Audio & Video

Pioneer
Pioneer was showing off their new HTC Connect feature coming to a Pioneer Blu-ray player near you. In fact, this will be offered as a FREE upgrade to existing BDP-150 owners sometime later this year. What does this do? Well if you have an HTC phone (Sorry, Apple users), it allows you to wirelessly stream your pictures and video (up to 1080p) from your phone to your TV. And, you can do this while still making a call! Pioneer has the exclusive on this feature right now, but you can expect other manufacturers to catch up shortly.

Pioneer’s SMA wireless speakers were also on display. These babies feature lithium powered batteries for long life and great rechargeability. They can create their own Wifi signal to stream audio content from your HTC phone. Pioneer is really adamant about using Wifi over Bluetooth for all of their devices because of the better sound quality. We agree.

WISA
WISA was making big strides at CEDIA. Not only did they have a HUGE banner hung at the main showfloor entrance but they had a killer demo area too. They gave us a full demo of completely wireless Klipsch speaker system in full 96kHz/24 bit TrueHD audio. The sound was great. What blew us away afterwards was when we found out the HD video feed was also transmitted wirelessly too (likely care of a new 60GHz DVDO system). Look for future WISA enabled products from your favorite television, soundbar and/or Blu-ray player manufacturer. Imagine simply plugging in your display or Blu-ray player, then connecting your 5.1 or 7.1 speaker system to power and having everything operate together in harmony. No A/V receiver is needed and there is no complicated setup. WISA is making this a reality and they’ve got a lot of big manufacturers behind them to see this into fruition (ie. Sharp, Polk, Pioneer, Aperion Audio, Klipsch, etc).

Check out our Video Preview of the WISA Booth

App control – Remote Controls are All About the Software!
Want to find the best local restaurant, or know how close a lightning storm is from you? No problem, just download an App on your smartphone and let it do the work for you. Expect the same for home theater devices as more and more companies are building apps to control their products over your home network. If I were a remote manufacturer right now who is shying away from network apps, I’d be worried. Fortunately, most are embracing this new ecosystem. I long for the day I can just walk the house with my iPhone or iPad and control all my audio gear on the fly. Virtually every manufacturer I spoke with told me this is the wave of the future so I may not have to wait too long.

SoundBars

Virtually every manufacturer was spitting out soundbars at CEDIA this year. The two that really stood out for us were from Atlantic Technology and Definitive Technology.

Atlantic Technology PB-235
Atlantic Technology demoed their H-Pass PB-235 soundbar solution with put out impressively rich sound from a pair of 4” woofers and ½” dome tweeters. We demoed this soundbar with the 2009 Star Trek movie which I can’t refrain from criticizing anytime I see it for its poor plot and over usage of lens flare and CGI. After the demo I walked away dazzled not only with the sound of this Atlantic Tech speaker but the fact that the person demoing it apparently had more issues with the Star Trek movie than even I did.  At $899, I can’t imagine a better solution on the market!

Definitive Technology SoloCinema XTR Soundbar
I walked into this demo late just finishing off a great listening experience at the Tannoy sound room. Definitive had a pair of their excellent Studio 65 Monitors on stands along with their new SoloCinema XTR Soundbar and matching subwoofer. They were playing music. I quietly went over to Paul DiComo and asked if we were listening to the Studio Monitors or the Soundbar. To my surprise he answered “the soundbar”. It was that good! On movies, it projected very clear dialogue thanks to the dedicated MTM center channel and a convincingly enveloping surround experience powered by SRS.  The SoloCinema XTR Soundbar retails for $1,999 and comes with a wireless 8” 200 watt powered sub.  What a great product for installations requiring a simple, elegant solution with really good audio performance.

Check out our video of the Definitive SoloCinema XTR Soundbar

Demos

We spent a great deal of time demoing products and were really impressed with virtually everything we heard. 

New Andrew Jones Designed Pioneer Speakers

Pioneer Speakers
You betcha! I never thought I’d ever hear myself say this, but these Pioneer speakers rock! I got to meet Andrew Jones who is quite a legendary audio designer and is the man responsible for the latest speaker designs for TAD, a company also owned by Pioneer. He told me that the same basic design principles he used to develop $70k/pair speakers for TAD were used for these Pioneer speakers. I was skeptical, until he started talking to me more about the parts usage. 8 element crossovers with air core inductors, custom designed waveguide on the tweeter, large ferrite motor structures on the woofers and tweeters and vented pole pieces on the woofers. This is something you don’t find in $1k/pair floorstanding speakers from some Internet direct speaker manufacturers, let alone a speaker costing only $130/ea. Seriously, the SP-FS52 tower speaker retails for only $130/ea and houses three 5-1/4” woofers and a 1” soft dome tweeter. I got to listen to these babies and the sound was rich and clean with plenty of bass extension. It just didn’t make any sense to me and when I added the parts costs in my head it always came out to more than $130/ea. I really believe Pioneer is taking a loss leader approach with this series of products because they are simply too good for the money. You can get an entire 5.1 speaker system from them for around $600!

Granted, their ho-hum cosmetics won’t win any beauty contests but I’d venture to say they would still win a sighted or blind test against their more prestigious, more expensive and prettier competition. This speaker line was one of the highlights of the show for both myself and my wife. I am looking forward to formally reviewing them.

Steinway-Lingdorf
Steinway-Lingdorf showcased their new $500k LS line array speaker system. The sales rep boasted about how the noise floor on their electronics is unsurpassed in the industry. It was way too loud and sibilant for our ears so we had to walk out of the demo only moments after entering it. It had me wondering, if the noise floor was so low, why did they feel compelled to play the demo so loudly?

Denon/Marantz/Boston Acoustics
Denon demoed their new AVR-4520CI 9.2 channel A/V receiver in a full 11.2 channel speaker configuration.  The AVR-4520CI has showed off many of its impressive features such as: multi zone HDMI output - allows you to watch HDTV in 3 zones simultaneously from different sources and InstaPrevue to view up to 8 HD video sources at a time with the ability to swap the main audio or video on the fly. 

The folks at Denon rigged the AVR-4520CI with a Marantz PM-11S3 Integrated amp in “amp” mode as the dedicated main channels to have enough amplification to power all 11 Boston Acoustics speakers.  They then switched over to two-channel mode and gave us a demo on the beautiful Marantz TT-15S1 turntable.  It was a nice demo and really showed off how one could set up a multi channel system that also does justice to critical two-channel listening.

Check our our Video Preview of the new Denon, Marantz and Boston Acoustics gear.

Paradigm/Anthem
Paradigm showed off their 30^th Anniversary tower speaker system powered by their new Anthem Class D M1 amplifier. We were loving the acoustical music from Seal that was being played. The sound was spacious and vocals pinpointing. This was a great demo setup and we thoroughly enjoyed our time listening.

RBH Sound
RBH Sound put on another great demo featuring their premier SX line of speakers and their new SX-1212/R supersized subwoofer. Check out our video preview.

Tannoy
Tannoy showed off their new speakers and subs but the room was too dark for me to take reliable pics of. Suffice it to say, I liked what I heard. The vocals were clear and the sound was well balanced. Their dual sub setup displayed great bass control.

Wrap Up

Well another CEDIA show has come and gone. With all the solid contacts we made at the show, you can expect to see reviews from us on many of these bleeding edge products. Next year CEDIA will be back in Denver and we look forward to all the good eating (I mean product demoing) that will be done over there. Good audio, good food, great friends, what else is needed?