Day Two at CES and we concentrate on the Specialty Audio section over at the Venetian and Sands convention centre. And the accent is very much on specialty; a plethora of ultra high-end hi-fi brands, demonstrating some deeply luxurious equipment. Of course, this wasn’t on the main halls, but the rooms were well appointed and acoustically fine. It was definitely a hi-fi specialist’s paradise.

The products and the brands were too numerous (and, in most cases, obscure) to mention, but there were still stars to check out. Like the new Anthony Gallo Reference 3.1 loudspeaker, expected to cost a cool $19,000. With seven special CDT tweeters and eight 100mm carbon-fibre midrange units to the front, a dozen 100mm aluminium drivers acting as subwoofer to the rear and a very tall, sexy appearance, this could be the answer to the high-end speaker dream.

Anthony Gallo Reference 3.1

Then, there’s the superb Avantgarde Acoustic, showing off its new Uno Nano speakers, together with its One amp. These were capable of playing Rammstein at maximum threat level.

Avantgarde Acoustic Uno Nano

Perhaps the most exotic speakers on show were the King’s Audio electrostatics. These Chinese-made panel speakers were built to look like Chinese screens and were making unexpectedly good sounds.

King’s Audio panels

Staying with flat panels, Sound Lab (in the Kimber Kable/IsoMike room) must hold the record for having the largest acreage of speaker with four pairs of floor to ceiling speakers (based on the company’s A1 model), each speaker about 3m x 2m. It sounded impressively natural, too, demonstrating IsoMike’s unique SACD college recording programme.

Sounds Lab A-1 panels

But it’s not all speakers. Mastersound’s new range of elegant valve amplifiers sounded charming, Lyndgorf’s latest version of DSP (complete with a new $8,000 set of speakers, however) sounded remarkable and the McIntosh range came with some of the biggest VU meters on the planet (and still sounded refined and elegant).

Mastersound Monoblocks 845

Lyndgorf RP-1 DSP

McIntosh MC1201

Once again, we haven’t even scratched the surface. There’s new products from Wharfedale, Mission and others in the IAG, including Innovations winning Quad electrostatics. There’s all-round high-end madness from MBL. And then there’s the discreet charm of the main hall in the Venetian. Here, we break from Specialty Audio. There wasn’t much home cinema on show (apart from Sling media’s trio of new devices – Tuner, AV and Pro – designed to take the Slingbox concept of handing media over to any source, any place), but did have women in Jacuzzi explaining how mobile phones can be waterproof.

Wharfedale

Mission

MBL

Woman in Jacuzzi