Surveying the soundscape.

A Stroll through The Meadows: It wasn't the coldest CES I've experienced. I recall one year when ice formed on standing water along the side streets of Las Vegas. But the January 2005 show will live in my memory as the most bone-chilling. The continual rain and fleeting snow can take credit. Dampness pushed the chill to one's very core.

For the first couple of days, I was one of very few people hardy enough to traverse the grounds of the Alexis Park hotel where the audio specialist exhibitors hold forth. Others favored the fully climate-controlled environment, bright lights, and hoopla in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

As I made my annual Alexis Park treks, I got the impression (unconfirmed by any official statistics) that there were fewer exhibitors there as well as fewer visitors. Sixteen separate two-story complexes house the various displays at the site. This year the upper floor suites in particular seemed less populated than usual.

But that's okay, because I got a further impression (again unconfirmed) that the any loss in "specialty audio" exhibitors consisted mainly of companies of a ten-percent fringe that hopes to turn a quirk into a concept and maybe even into a product.

Among this year's product presentations, I noted with pleasure a more comfortable integration of home theater into the audio mainstream. HT isn't the NEW BIG THING any more, after all.

And it was gratifying to see and hear an increase in music-oriented content in the home theater demo suites. Enough presenters took that approach to allow me to feel fully justified in quietly slipping away from those who insisted on impressing their guests with all-too-timely death and destruction movie content. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was heavily favored in the offending rooms, by the way.

The big deal all around the CES this year was wireless, including everything from radio broadcasts (remember Marconi?) to Wi-Fi, both public and private.

Will Radio Kill the Video Star? Let's start with wireless as radio, specifically satellite radio. For an unreconstructed music fan and audio junkie, it's glorious to witness two-channel music delivery being the hottest technology ticket around. How hot is it? Well, I'm starting to get spam promotional email that's using the hook of offering a free Sirius or XM set to try to get me take a peek inside. (I haven't.)

It's appropriate that in the great tradition of American duality, satellite radio comes in two flavors. And the hardware that supports each is, so far, totally incompatible with the other's service. It's kind of like mobile phone systems. You're bound to your machine's provider, and if you get your satellite system as part of a new vehicle purchase, the choice will be made for you. And you'll probably be perfectly satisfied with whichever you get.

There are differences in content, however, and a potential subscriber who can make a choice would do well to visit the Sirius and XM Radio websites (www.sirius.com and www.xmradio.com) to check out the channel listings and sample the playlists.

XM even has an online-only subscription for a couple of bucks a month less than its satellite-based feed. So if you're mainly interested in a home service and your computer is ready to send audio to your music system (more on that later), you're good to go.

XM's big push at the show (they were on convention center main floor, of course) was the Delphi MyFi portable XM receiver. Its $350 MSRP is costly by Delphi/XM standards. The SkyFi2 tuner, for example, retails for about $130. But before you can use the SkyFi2, you have to add either a home or car kit. Those sell for about $70 each. And maybe you'd like an FM modulator to beam the received XM audio to a home or car FM receiver. That's $25 more. So for a fairly complete SkyFi2 setup, you're spending $295.

The MyFi package includes all the accessories I mentioned above plus headphones, belt clip, and carrying case. Since the MyFi promises features that are simply unavailable in the SkyFi2 or any other XM or Sirius satellite radio tuner (internal antenna, 5 hour recording capacity among them), the $350 cost suddenly doesn't seem so out of line with other offerings.

Delphi/XM will be sending out a MyFi loaner, which I'll take on a cross-country road trip. I'll let you know how it works out.

The other radio development surprised me. I'd thought that the internet radio craze had totally crashed and burned, but I hadn't been looking (or listening). I was misled by events back in the spring of 2001 (PC World called it an internet radio meltdown). At that point the hardware side of the idea totally went away taking out stand-alone internet radio devices by Kerbango (I still have the T-shirt), AudioRamp, and even Philips.

The year I picked up the Kerbango T-shirt at CES, I also came away with a CD-ROM of software needed to get to Live365, a sort of internet radio clearing house. It gave it a try. The user interface was a mess and the stations it delivered were a mishmash of professional and amateur "broadcasts." I soon uninstalled it and figured that Live365 went away when the hardware faded.

At this CES, however, I picked up a press release from AudioFeast. "Reigniting Radio" is their catch phrase and they're doing it with internet radio stations that still do exist in considerable quantity. AudioFeast does what I'd seen at Live365, but with a twist. AudioFeast automatically loads up your portable MP3 player with its offerings for time-shifted, away-from-the-computer listening. There are catches, of course, even aside from the subscription fee. (That starts at a fairly nominal $2.99 a month for music-only if you pay for a year up front.)

The first is that you must use a compatible player. You can choose from various iRiver, Rio, and Creative Labs models, some with street prices well under $100 as long as (second catch) you don't want to get the music feeds. If you aren't satisfied with "news, sports, and entertainment only," you'll need one of the newer iRiver models. They start at prices a bit over $100 (128 Mb) and go to $270 or so for the models with a gigabyte of storage. All this is on the AudioFeast website (www.audiofeast.com).

The third catch is that the music doesn't stick around forever and there are limitations on how you may listen to it. Depending on how you count them up, that's four or five catches.

The music downloads last for 14 days only. You can fast forward past songs you don't like but only 5 times in an hour. You can go back and listen again to a song but only after a 3-hour waiting period.

While taking a deeper look online at the AudioFeast offerings (they range from Beatles-A-Rama through eBay Radio and on to Whisperings Solo Piano Radio), I found the Live365 is indeed alive and running along offering online listening and limited MP3 player saving. The Live365 offerings include many of the same internet stations that AudioFeast has on its list.

Live365 promotes a paid VIP subscription which guarantees access to everything it carries. Without that you may get a "we're full" message when trying to hook up with certain very popular services. Once again, check the website (www.live365.com) for details.

I've grown totally disenchanted with the plethora of products that use wireless networking to feed media from a computer to an audio or home theater system. My careful scrutiny at past shows hooked me up with a series of products that ranged from inconvenient to bothersome to unworkable. So I gave that general category of product only the slightest glance this year.

Wireless in Gaza: More promising, in my view, were products that replace traditional cables with high definition wireless digital links. Consider the possibilities.

You could use the wireless link to set up a secondary system in a remote room of the house. All you'd need is a pair of speakers and an integrated amplifier. (Remember, the wireless links carry signals but don't supply power.) Actually, if you have a preamp with dual main outputs, you could make do with a power amp in the remote location, but then you'd lose volume control at the subordinate system.

An obvious application would be using the wireless link to feed surround systems. Again, you'd have to take level control and power into consideration.

A less obvious use would be to use the wireless link to get signals to a powered subwoofer. I've been told that there's some benefit to having the subwoofer closer to the listening area than to the main system in front. Go wireless to avoid running a signal cable around the room.

I might actually try this for myself in my vacation home. If I do, I'll be sure to pass along any observations.

I'll now pass along the names of two companies that turn out digital wireless links with somewhat differing configurations and prices.

The first is Sonneteer, which produces the Bard line of wireless devices. For the purposes described above, you'd consider the BardOne and possibly the BardThree. The BardOne (about $600) is a transmit/ receive set. Plug line level signals into the transmitter and pick them off of the receiver. The BardThree (US price not available at the show; costs 400 pounds in the UK) is a receiver only, but also packs a 25 wpc amplifier with level control into the unit. It plugs directly into a wall outlet.

The BardOne units are circular in form and about 110 mm in diameter. They look like little flying saucers--very sharp design. The BardThree is a 120 mm by 65 mm box with rounded edges that give it a surprisingly sleek look. Check out the visuals at the Sonneteer website (www.sonneteer.co.uk/bard).

Firebird Sounds' digital wireless links are much more utilitarian looking. The resemble computer networking devices more than audio gear, but the quality of construction appeared to me to be very high and the performance was impressive. Firebird was showing their wireless capability by using wireless digital amplifiers built into speaker bases. They also make amplifiers with the digital wireless receiving links built in and even a powered subwoofer which receives wireless signals.

A couple of months after the CES finds Firebird Sounds working out details of pricing for an expected April 2005 availability. The first releases will be the paired transmit/receive modules, projected to sell for under $200 for the pair, and the transmit module paired with the digital amplifier. That combo is projected to sell for about $600. Check in at the Firebird/Phoenix website (www.hometheater2u.com) and you can sign up for a monthly email update on developments.

Drainpipes Keep Falling on my Head: While I'm mentioning websites, here's another pair to check out. Start at the Acoustical Art site (www.acousticalart.com). The company works to "merge ... acoustic technology and installation art." Their products are fancified variations of a PVC drainpipe speaker project I recall from the old Speaker Builder magazine. Of course I had to give a listen.

The sound of the Flow systems didn't match their visual impact or conversation-starting ability (not to mention their $999 each price). My advice: if you like the industrial PVC look for your mini-speakers, get some basic speaker design tips and cobble up your own. My experience has been that the woodworking part of speaker construction is the most problematic. Buying nearly ready-made enclosures at your local hardware store is a neat way to sidestep that problem. After all, it worked (sort of) for Acoustical Arts.

A Real Bodice-ripper: In the side room at the Blue Circle suite, Gilbert Yeung cranked up the fun content of his recurring Music Pumps and Music Purse display. (The Music Pumps are a pair of moderate power monoblock amplifiers housed in a pair of size 11.5 ladies' dress heels. The Music Purse is a preamp built into a matching handbag. They are made by Blue Circle but marketed exclusively by Classic Pumps: www.classicpumps.com.)

Whenever I'd seen the products before, they were sitting out on a table or trunk. This time Mr. Yeung brought in a clothes tree to hold a padded hanger with a flowered mini-sundress. Then he placed the pumps at the bottom and draped the purse over the hanger along with the dress. A pair of Anthony Gallo's softball-sized Nucleus Micro speakers filled out the bodice of the sundress.

Novelty outshone audio performance in this presentation, too. That's not usually the case. When people stop to chuckle at the sight of electronics-laden wardrobe accoutrements (as I did the first time I saw the Music Pumps and Music Purse displayed), they end up marveling at the sound quality that emanates from them. But since the Gallo Micros were laboring without benefit of woofer support, this time the sonic presentation fell a bit short of impeccable.

Back in Black: I did find the impeccable available in the Vandersteen suite. My on-site notes sum up the experience delivered by the new Vandersteen Quatro as "delicacy through strength." Vandersteen's preliminary information sheet on the Quatro says it's a "time and phase correct full-range loudspeaker." I can attest to the fullness of the range. A pair of 8-inch long throw subwoofer drivers in each enclosure driven by built-in 300 watt amplifiers gives the Quatro systems a usable response down to 24 Hz.

The additional Quatro driver complement comprises a 6.5-inch woofer, a 4.5-inch midrange, and a 1-inch ceramic coated alloy dome tweeter in each enclosure. That tweeter reproduces frequencies up to 30 kHz. The crossover slopes are a gentle 6 dB per octave which implies simplicity of crossover design and undoubtedly contributes to the phase and time correctness of the Quatro system.

Whatever technology can take credit, the Quatro sound was one of the few at the show that impelled me to take a seat and listen uncritically, simply enjoying the music. I must also admit to enjoying the look of the Quatro. The skinny (and ultimately phony) Vandersteen box has become dated. The Model 5 truncated pyramid was somewhat garish from the first, to my eye, and out of character for Vandersteen.

The sleeker shape of the Quatro gently updates the "caps and wrap" visual statement of previous Vandersteens. But how about wrap color choices? Basic black is classic and all, but not appropriate for every room.

There's more from the show to tell about. Check back next time.

The Onus on the Bonus: Bonus tracks with alternate takes that weren't on the original LP issues of pop and jazz recordings have value, but only when they're discreetly tacked on at the end of a CD reissue. Too often the alternate version is slammed right in the middle of the program, following the master take of that same work. This disrupts proper communication of the artists' intentions to today's listeners. In support of this contention, here's a bit from Richard Cook's "Blue Note Records the Biography."

"[Horace] Silver's albums were outstanding because they worked as ALBUMS.... Silver was fashioning balanced, cogent programmes of music, matched together for the forty minutes of a typical LP duration. It was more than just a question of dropping in the obligatory ballad or blues: without surrendering any of the variety he put into pace and colour, Silver saw to it that the music had a consistency of flow."

--TK