Consumer Electroncs State of the Union

[Wayde]

Hey

I'll be covering a show called SOTU for Audioholics.com this week. I'm geeked to be going to Florida tomorrow!

http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/audioholics-sotu

So, it's the tenth annual trade show which will include various exhibitors, classes and lots of home theater manufacturers strutting their wares like Kenwood, D&M Holdings and others. I'm there to give Audioholics a bit of old fashioned Gonzy Jounralism in the spirit the late Hunter S. Thompson. There will be costumes!

I'll be sure and keep you guys updated on the craziness. I'll even take a camera and a few snaps. If any o you Shacksters are going let me know we'll have to Shack-up! Of course, that's not as intimate as it sounds.

It's dipping into frosty freezing temps at night up here in Waterloo ON and the days are peaking out at about 10 degrees Celsius (50 F) in the sunshine. But Orlando is looking at 30 C! Yikes

I'll get my fill of the sun in about 10 minutes. Hey, I'm a vampire!

I hope to hear some mighty fine sound systems. Exhibitors will be setting up the day before the event and I shold get some nice demos. I'll keep you all posted!

[Sonnie]

We need pictures... lots of pictures...

[Mike P.]

I agree! Trade show pics are always a treat!

[Wayde]

Hey Shacksters. I'm in FL and the sun is peaking out between clouds. It sure beats Buffalo yesterday where it actually snowed as a sendoff.

Last night the exhibitors were getting ready and it was nice to see a show where setup crews and guys that designed the gear were freely mingling with pretty much anybody at the hotel who was inerested. Very unlike a CES where everything is so controlled.

Case in point Emotiva. I don't know a lot about their amps but it sure seemed like exotic equipment with sharp indigo power LEDs and apparently they have power amps going for a mere $800. For mid-fi that's actually a bargain (in my budgetary world that's as close to high-end as I'll ever get).

Well, I have to get going to the show which is about to start. I'll be writing stories on the show at Audioholics and popping by here for smaller tidbits. I look forward to a Sherwood demo where they're supposed to announce a new product. Also DMH is here with Marantz

[Wayde]

I got to see some unreleased goodies.

Probably the most embarrasing for its company is Sherwood Newcastle. Sherwood is the old familiar brand you may remember adorning the dashboards of 70s model Chevys. Newcastle is the companies premeire line.



The R-972 is Sherwood Newcastle's upcoming AVR that includes what the presenter was pitching as this revolutionary new system optimizer.

I admit I've never seen one of these probes with so many probes. But you get the idea if you've ever worked with any of those auto-room setup. He went on about three dimensional space and placing the imaging exactly where you want it. I was under-impressed and the presenter was about as plesant as an itchy rash.

The effect was impressive, moving the 'sweet spot' around the room. But it's really just another glorified DSP, isn't it? I guess we'll see if other manufacturer's are chomping at the bit to include Trinov's processing in their gear. Apparently McIntosh plans to use it in an 8000 receiver.

The biggest joke of Sherwood's setup was the sound quality. Now, I'm not an amp guy... I am skeptical when anyone attributes acoustic quality or coloration to an amp. And the N972 looks and seemed like a perfectly powerful receiver with competent amps. It was just dogged with problems.

He couldn't get the HDMI to do Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD on any of the demos. He blamed the BD player and that may have been the case. But the sound was actually quite bad. The speakers were rather small hsu setup which isn't the best for wowing a large demo room. The acoustics were thin like jam spread accross too much bread. It bordered on annoying at times especially in the next demo room was some awesome sound to behold.

Here's a pic of how prepared Sherwood was with the sound system.



Nice center speaker placement.

I also got to see/hear Marantz's new separates. It's back into the separates market for Marantz. Like I said before, I'm not a huge amp guy but these are beauties! I got to hear them rock the Transformers