Hi-fi is alive and well at CES

Gary Krakow Columnist • E-mail

LAS VEGAS - Years ago, the Consumer Electronics Show was a showcase for the best consumer electronics products of the day — televisions, radios and hi-fi equipment.

Plenty has changed in the past twenty years. Now CES is a huge trade show whose main focus is on computers, computer-related products and services and of course television and radio — only now that’s high-definition TV and satellite radio.

Hi-fi is still around but is now more of a show within a show. The huge companies still show off their products at the Las Vegas Convention Center with all the other industries. But now, manufacturers show off their high-end audio — great sounding, expensive equipment — in small hotel rooms, often times miles away from everything else. That’s where some of the most interesting sounds can be heard in all of Las Vegas.

Everywhere you look at CES there are items of all shapes and sizes that attach in some way to an iPod. I won’t be talking about any of them.

On the other hand, there are plenty of items being displayed which stress the highest quality sound reproduction available.

One name famous for sound reproduction for nearly 60 years is Klipsch. These days they make all sorts of products — including their own nifty looking items that deal with iPods. They also remember their roots.

Klipsch With a few updates and modifications, the Klipschorn has been in production for 60 years.

Klipsch was founded after World War II by Paul W. Klipsch who decided it was necessary to create the perfect loudspeaker. The large speaker he designed in 1946, named the Klipschorn, is still in production. So are some of the other high-efficiency (you don’t need much power to make lots of music) loudspeakers he designed over the years.

I had a chance to see the totally revamped Heritage line of speakers: A great sounding La Scala II, the newly refined Heresy III and the return after 15 years of the Cornwall — now dubbed the Cornwall III.

These speakers are big, heavy and sound pretty great. Expect prices to be on the heavy side too. I’m hoping to make a pilgrimage to Klipsch this spring to hear these legendary speakers and report back to you on how they sound.

I heard some absolutely amazing sounds out of a speaker from Japanese manufacturer Murata. The company specializes in super-tweeters which are drivers that recreate sounds that can't really be heard but can add realistic-sounding ambience back into the sound reproduction chain.

But, I was most impressed with their ES301 speaker system which consists of a ceramic tweeter/midrange driver and 3 woofers. The speakers have a unique isolation system which allows the entire wooden enclosure to balance on an interior metal pole.

The ES301s produced some of the best sound I heard in Las Vegas. The Muratas are priced at $10,000 for the pair.

Polk Audio Polk's SoundBar surround speaker, just below the screen, creates a believable illusion.

The folks from Polk Audio were demonstrating an interesting speaker but of a totally different design.  Their 42-inch long SurroundBar mounts beneath your TV. As you’re sitting and watching, the system simulates a 5-channel surround sound environment from a single speaker.

I promise not to bore you with how it’s done. Let's just say the system sounded pretty convincing despite the super noisy environment on the convention floor.

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