CES 2012

Here's a closeup of the two tubes (or at least the only ones that are visible) in Samsung's tube-input HTiB.

When have you last seen a Home Theater in a Box that uses vacuum tubes in its AV receiver section? Samsung has one in its 6730W home theater system&$151;flat panel available separately! It sounded warmer and more pleasant than it had any right to in an open space, though of course tubes alone are no panacea. No price available as yet, but it's the first HTiB I've found at least interesting. The tubes are in the receiver's input stages; the output is solid state. Samsung is also offering some one-piece, two-channel iPod (and Android) docs with vacuum tube inputs.

Even the most dialed-in, industry-savvy tech writer misses a thing or two along the way, and Sonic Emotion is a company that’s been totally off my radar. (In my defense, they’re only now trying to break into the U.S. consumer market.) The company’s technology, Sonic Emotion Absolute 3D, is supposed provide “all listeners an immersive 3D sound experience from a single device - regardless of their positioning in the room, device location and room dimensions - using any input format...” Despite the fact that that is indeed quite a claim, during a demo this afternoon the folks at Sonic Emotion quickly proved they’re more than just talk. Using an AudioSource S3D60 and a variety of demo material, the presenter quickly convinced the group of us jaded press people that the technology actually does provide a very impressive 3D sonic expansion of two-channel sources from a single box. According to Sonic Emotion, the technology is not room-dependent (as some other simulated surround devices are). The effect was quite good, and it was stable regardless of where I stood in the demo area. Look for more products incorporating Sonic Emotion technology coming later this year.

HiFiMAN invited numerous journalists to a press conference this morning, fed them a standard hotel buffet breakfast, and then explained why the company uses planar drivers in their over-the-ear headphones. EiC Rob Sabin shows why he will never be able to have a second career as a fashion model in the picture above - but the smile on his face does indicate the fact that the HE-400 over-the-ear headphones ($399) sounded pretty darn good. One benefit of the planar driver is that it does not require high voltages as an electrostatic driver would, which means its easier to drive with portable audio devices.

One more step along the road to the eventual domination of the human race by robots is the creation of cute little baby seal robots that are supposed to soothe lonely and ill people’s feelings and make them feel that something actually cares about and loves them. Of course, it’s just a dang robot with no feelings or real fur. I know just posting this has put me on the robot empire’s hit list. I will definitely be keeping a close eye on my iRobot Roomba from now on...

As Dynaudio's first wireless speaker, the Xeo stays right up to date with a significant CES 2012 trend. Getting that capability with the usual sweet Dynaudio sound will cost you $4500/pair for the floorstander or $2300/pair for the stand-mount. However, if you add additional pairs, you can reduce those speaker prices by the $350 cost of the transmitter/receiver kit. The signal is uncompressed, naturally.

Really good sound was heard in the DeVore Fidelity room. That's all we have to say. Isn't that enough?