CES: Las Vegas - The morning of the 11th of January, Las Vegas hosted late breakfast and check out times for 10s of thousands of Engineers, sales reps and marketing folk as the 2010 CES show flies off in to the distant sun.
CES this year was dominated by news of 3DTV and ebook readers whilst nearly every journalist jumped on to these band wagons the rest of the show's exhibits were lost or should I say hidden by the fog of it all. The best of the show is generally away from the 'flash in the pan' media frenzy and often a better guide to what will change our lives over the next few years.
What caught my eye, were things like the Adidas miCoach, a device to aide runners and joggers to measure their performance, and the prevelance of internet connected devices. Internet radio going in to cars, as announced by Ford, could be the sounding of the last bell for DAB for instance.
Of course the high end audio area, at the Venetian Towers is of Particular interest to us and, as we have already reported,
Sonneteer, the British luxury music systems maker, were true to form in bringing new ideas to the show with their ultra quiet Morpheus Server, to match their Morpheus Music Centre. Also showing off that their products will be available in a wide range of colours to special order. The server was shown both in black and a sumptuous Burgundy, red.
Needless to say, Sonneteer, though at the luxury end of the home entertainment electronics market have been internet connected for quite sometime now.
Penaudio, the high end luxury loudspeaker manufacturer from Finland were accompanying Sonneteer this year with the launch of their Ambient range of speakers in its Series 2 form. As one enters the show suite, one finds it laid out as a typical home with a dining room area in the upper level and a living room area below over looking the Las Vegas Strip. Two systems were on display both being served by a Sonneteer Morpheus server and a music Centre driving a pair of Serenades from The Penaudio Classic range in the living area and a pair of Red Chronos from the Ambient in the dining area. The Penaudio Ambient range, as mentioned, has been tweaked up market by using better drive units and a dusting of Sami Pentilla (their chief designer and founder) magic. These will be available in three standard colour, but much like the Sonneteer range, the customer can request other colours which will be available at a premium to the standard price.
Not neglecting their analogue roots, Sonneteer were also demonstrating the Sedley Phono stage which was on show in one of their USA distributor,
May Audio's eight show rooms at CES where is was singing merrily to the tune of a Roksan Turntable and a London Decca Cartridge and using
Gut Wire cables. The Sedley, now globally renowned for its musical abilities and unmatched flexibility is also available with a USB connection. We have linked to a couple of recent reviews in our pages in the past from
UHF and
Audio Audition.
Back home and catching up on sleep, we look forward to 2010 with optimism. Roll on CES 2011.
The Sonneteer Morpheus Music Centre has come of age and acquired a family. It has its own stand, a Server which rips and stores music and, courtesy of Reciva the internet radio people, an App that will remotely control all functions on all the Morpheus units you may have in your home.
