CES 2011 Day Two: Speakers $5k to $10k

On the previous day, I noted too many rooms had a prominent glare and a bite to their respective sounds. On Day Two, this was largely gone. Break-in and setup adjustments may have had something to do with this, or I just happened to hit a good streak the on Day Two (mostly different vendors from Day One).

Totem Acoustics has a new line called the Elements Series. I heard the smallest model, a stand-mounted, called “Fire” ($6,000) and can enthusiastically report that it sounded just fantastic at the show. (I assume it will play music even better in a dedicated home system.) As demo’ed…smooth, detailed, robust, dynamic, engaging. Not bad looking, either. The other Elements Series models are “Earth” ($9,000) and “Metal” ($13,000). Maybe designer Vincent Bruzzese is leaving room for one called “Water.”

Focus Audio (Canada) was showing its new FP88SE small floorstanding speaker, a nicely balanced speaker with a fair bit of dynamic punch.

I happened to check back with some of the rooms that had sounded a bit glare-ish on the previous day, and sure enough some of the glare still evident. Show are difficult venues for audio demos, indeed.