Loudspeakers

By Steven Stone

When it comes to high-end loudspeakers, flat panel displays are the devil. Ask any competent speaker designer and they will admit, off the record, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to deliver state-of-the-art performance when a speaker is shoved up against, or into a wall. Given the futility of the task, why did almost every speaker company introduce at least one in-wall or on-wall speaker at CES? M-O-N-E-Y. Just as car buyers have clamored for unsafe and uneconomical SUVs, home theater consumers have demanded in-wall and on-wall speakers to flank their flat-panel displays. Since I'm not a big fan of products that by their very nature deliver mediocre performance, I pay little attention to in-wall and on-wall speakers. You can correctly assume they will not figure into my report on the best and brightest new speakers at CES.

Compared to past years, CES 2006 delivered far fewer exciting new home theater speaker systems. In four days I heard less than a dozen surround speaker demos of note. Some, such as the DTS and Dolby demos were more about their particular encoding and delivery systems than about speakers. Others, such as the Meridian or Runco theaters, concentrated on the entire home theater system. I heard very few surround sound demos showcasing new products I hadn't already seen at CEDIA. The exceptions were Revel's F52 ($6498 pr.) and C52 ($2499 ea.) and Snell's C7 ($2500 ea.). Both of these similarly priced speakers sounded more than decent. But demos in hotel rooms usually only reveal noticeable flaws, not whether a speaker is truly great. Both preliminary demos certainly whetted my appetite for longer auditions of these speaker systems. I plan to arm wrestle Tom Norton for whichever system comes out first.

Snell C7

I'm more than a little bit in awe of all the heroic late night CES blogging by Ultimate AV writers. I am, by my nature, an anti-blogger. I take very few notes at the show and try not to think about it for the first several days back in the real world. I figure I'll remember what was important and forget the rest. Simple, yes?

Using these criteria, CES 2006 ranks for me as the least interesting CES in a decade. It was simply the "calm before the next format wars" show. Both Blu-ray and HD DVD are determined to be the next big thing. If they insist on a shoot-out, both will suffer mortal wounds. Stupid? You, bet. Avoidable? Quite possibly. Consumers, in their infinite wisdom, will probably wait on the sidelines for a sure winner while both formats bleed to death.

But I'm supposed to be writing about speakers. Besides the new Revels and Snells, Thiel's new CS3.7 was the most noteworthy new high-end design. Even with only a silent prototype Jim Thiel's speaker made a big noise. With pie plate or hubcap-like cone construction (one writer inquired whether spinners would be a custom option) the CS3.7 promises more of what Thiel speakers are known for – superb dynamic acuity and harmonic accuracy. Price? To be announced. Delivery date? Also TBA. Sort of like Blu-ray and HD DVD.

The most exciting home theater speaker demo at CES wasn't even about speakers, but headphones. Smyth Research (pronounced Smith), who I've written about in the past, finally decided that instead of waiting for an enlightened mass-market manufacturer to incorporate their proprietary surround sound speaker modeling technology into a new generation of products, they would build their own consumer product. They unveiled the new $3000 SVS (Smyth Virtual Surround) Realiser 6.1 headphone processor system. With enough internal memory storage to hold up to eight personalized data sets, as well as external storage via SD card media, the SVS Realiser has dual headphone outputs with dual head-tracking capabilities so two users can simultaneously enjoy virtual surround. Of all the virtual surround systems I've tried, the Smyth system is the only one that works well. Part of its allure stems from its ability to sample a room and duplicate its sonic signature via headphones. Once the Smyth system measures and stores the room it can be downloaded to an SD card and transferred to any other SVS Realiser 6.1. Imagine the opportunity to enjoy any great home theater space! If Tom Norton and I both had SVS Realiser processors we could trade SD cards and listen to each other's speaker systems. How great would that be? I'm eagerly awaiting a review sample, which should arrive by late summer.

The second most exciting surround sound demo I heard at CES also wasn't from a conventional speaker system. ZVOX has developed a powered, single-box surround speaker system that uses simple phase cues to emulate surround. Designed by EPI founder Winslow Burhoe, the portable ZVOX mini system ($199, bag $49.95, rechargeable battery $49.99) and the larger ZVOX 325 home system ($299.99) both have built-in subwoofers, so they actually are full range systems. For on-location, near-field environments and compact small-room home theaters where setting up rear speakers is impossible, the ZVOX systems look like elegant sonic solutions.

Although I was mightily disappointed by this year's CES, it renews my enthusiasm…for CEDIA. By September the format cold war will either have exploded into a live fire event or been resolved by an enlightened truce. Either way I expect to see far more in the way of interesting new home theater speaker products in one hall at the mile-high city than at all the various venues at this year's CES.