by Mark Waldrep

The annual CES (Consumer Electronics Show), the gadget-fest put on by the Consumer Electronics Association took place in Las Vegas at the start of the new year and for the first time in a long time I got to experience a good part of it. In the past, my wife and I have been stationed behind a table showing off the latest AIX Records releases and selling a few boxes of our HD Surround music titles. Since the tax officials and the show management closed off the possibility of selling directly to attendees, we've passed on participating in the show. I miss the time spent meeting new HD Audio fans and connecting with existing customers, but the economics just didn't make sense if we can't sell our wares. So I spent my couple days at the show wandering around the rooms of the Venetian hotel. Most of the high end audio equipment manufacturers have booths on the lower floors or suites upstairs to show off the latest state-of-the-art hardware, cables, amps and speakers...even turntables! I was on the prowl for music servers...especially machines that could handle HD Audio. By HD Audio, I mean digital systems that can reproduce PCM files at 96 kHz/24-bits or better. For the most part, the companies demonstrating their systems at the Venetian haven't yet given up on CDs and two-channel delivery. There were plenty of vendors using vinyl and exotic turntables playing 180 gram discs through two-channel tube amplification into the latest speaker models. And, of course, there were plenty of CD being played using upsampling to squeeze every last bit of fidelity out of SD recordings. I was particularly impressed with the system that Bob Stuart showed me in his suite...Meridian always manages to do a really great job of engineering to the highest degree of sonic perfection. They've even got the F80 "boombox" in  a variety of Ferrari approved colors that will blow you away. The sound was amazing! But my quest was to find a company that understands the future of high fidelity and is willing to take the leap and build something that bridges the world of spinning discs and digital delivery of REAL HD soundfiles. The folks at Slim Devices put out the Squeeze Box a couple of years ago and have sold a lot of them. They actually got an award from Stereophile magazine for the "most innovative" component. It's cool and headed in the right direction but I'm not sure the computer should be a required piece of the music delivery chain. Even their new Transporter, which can accommodate 96 kHz/24-bit stereo PCM audio, needs the computer and your Internet service to deliver music. It's currently among the best options for consumers using iTrax.com downloaded tracks. But it still can only handle stereo programming...and I'm very much an advocate of surround sound. The more immersive the listening experience the better as far as I'm concerned. I proceeded down the hall on one of the higher floors of the Venetian and came into the room where Sonneteer was demonstrating their new (very new...like as in just completed) music server. They call it the Morpheus Music Centre. A very attractive box with a load of features. It will do wireless, Internet, music from your phone and memory sticks and a few more. But could it handle HD Audio. One of the engineers in the room told me that the hardware would support 96/24 but he had never tried any content at that rate. Since there was no way to get to iTrax.com...the test would have to wait until later. Magico LLC also had a computer based music server in their room and I offered up a DVD-ROM disc full of native 96/24 stereo content. They had put the system together to demonstrate high end stereo playback on their speakers. It was based on a Vista powered MCE into a Pacific Microsonics HD-2 processor and onward to the amp and speakers.The MCE model is certainly one that I endorse. They had even managed to get the Lynx sound card working with the unit...very impressive. But sadly...not multichannel. Then I went to the Belaggio to meet with the CEO and CTO of Olive Media Systems. Finally, someone that really understands the world of dedicated music servers. More on my 2 hour meeting with them in the next installment.