A brief report on CES 2010 by Kevin Hayes

The annual Consumer Electronics Show was held in Las Vegas from January 7-10, 2010, and it was quite an event from VAC's perspective. Firstly, attendance, at least in the high end audio sector, was noticeably up from the past year. Secondly, orders for VAC equipment were dramatically higher than we have seen in recent years.

Nearly a ton of VAC components were sent from the factory to CES, and our instruments are known to have been present in five systems.

Our 'official' room was 30-209 in The Venetian Towers, which we again had the pleasure of sharing with Eli and Ofra Gershman of Gershman Acoustics, who had brought along their fabulous Black Swan and Avant Garde loudspeakers, as well as their new line of continuously cast cables. We powered these with the new VAC Statement 440 Monoblocks and the Signature Mk IIa Preamplifier. Our Canadian distributor, Angie Lisi of Audio Pathways, spoke with Oracle, who kindly lent us their new Delphi Mk VI turntable, fitted with SME arm and Oracle cartridge, which delivered absolutely stunning sound. CD and SACD discs were played on an Accuphase DP88. Gershman also had their nifty and affordable Sonogram speakers playing in the Manley room downstairs.

Writing for the TAS website, Jonathan Valin selected the Gershman/VAC combination as a "Contender for Best of the Show".

Room 30-209

Ofra Gershman models one of their new cables. You have to love her!

KingSound in room 30-121 featured the Renaissance Mk III Preamplifier and a Phi 200 amplifier powering their Prince II loudspeakers. The Princes were equipped with the new VAC Royal Power Supplies, which gives new spark to these excellent speakers (see Doug Schroeder's review of the Kings in DaGoGo for a discussion of the VAC supplies, and also the mention in the March 2010 DaGoGo review of the VAC Signature Mk II Preamplifier: "As would be expected, the fingerprints of the master are all over these devices. The King rose from superb to state-of-the-art sound under the influence of the VAC “Royal Power Supply”. That’s pretty much how it goes with VAC gear – whatever it is connected to sounds about as good as it’s going to get!").

Room 30-121

Room 30-122 saw a Signature Mk IIa Preamplifier and a pair of Phi 200 amplifiers in mono connection driving various King speakers, including the prototype King II. Some of the systems used the VAC Royal Power Supply, while others had integral ac arrangements.

Room 30-122

Down in the ballroom area (Venetian Veronese 2401B), a new cable company called NVS Sound made a credible debut with a pair of VAC Phi 200 amplifiers operating as monoblocks into a pair of YG Acoustics loudspeakers. This interesting young company and their earnest young founder, Nathan, were brought to our attention by Rich Schultz of Virtual Dynamics fame.

Lastly, a VAC Renaissance Mk III Preamplifier spent a day or so on loan to The Lotus Group (30-319) when a pressing need arose. I personally heard this preamp go into Joe Cohen's system and wow! What a difference it made to the sound presented by their unique Granada speakers, which are based around field coil Feastrex drivers running nearly full range.

Being a busy show, it was mostly work for myself and my Über Technician, Brent Meyer, so not that many other systems were auditioned in detail. We did notice quite a bit of sound that we judged to be bad, perhaps more than usual. That said, one must recognize that a hotel room might not be an ideal environment, and that a hasty set up does not always result in an optimal performance. As one reviewer commented, bad sound at a show does not necessarily mean a bad product. Fortunately, our equipment performed as intended and sounded great, particularly with the Gershman Black Swan (always a favorite) and the King Prince II.

Leaving the show site one evening, we made our annual pilgrimage to the KrispyKreme store at the Excaliber. In years past this has been a location where those tempting creations were made and served hot, but sadly it was converted about six months ago to a regular retail outlet (no more 'HOT' sign). While there, Brent was nearly caught and eaten by a giant (but cute) ravening woman, as seen in the photo below.

As always, we were fortunate to run into many fine people in the high end industry, including Steve Hoffman, A.J. Conti (Basis), Jon Schaeffer (Wadia), Bill Conrad and Lew Johnson, Robert Lee (Acoustic Zen), Matt Waldron (Escalante Design), Mike Oltz, Dave & Carol Clark (Positive Feedback), Clement Perry (Stereo Times), Arnie Balgavis (The Audiophile Voice), Ross Wagner (The Audiophile Voice & Stereo Times), Dick Olsher, Jonathan Valin (The Absolute Sound), Ken Kessler (Home Theater Review), Bob Kehn (Audio Image LTD), Jay Kaufman (Audio Revelation), Lincoln Chen, Steve Rochlin (Enjoy the Music, from which VAC has been absent for a while), Jacques Riendeau (Oracle), Richard Bird (Rives & Talon), and so many more. It is a privilege and pleasure to know these folks. Come to think of it, it is a privilege and a pleasure to know and serve those of you who own or are considering a VAC instrument.

Lastly, many of you may know that I have a keen, if sometimes offbeat, sense of the absurd, which accounts for the following photograph; while driving through Las Vegas on Saturday night I spotted a building which, from this particular angle, appeared to be labeled simply and proudly "UM". I found that amusing.

"UM"

Respectfully submitted,

Kevin Hayes, President & Designer, VAC

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