The SECRETS CEDIA 2009 Team is reporting in the CAVE.....do join us for all the latest news and pictures from the floor.....Joining John and Cynthia are Piero Gabucci, Adrian Wittenberg, Chris Eberle, Chris Heinonen, Jim Clements and Jim Milton.......

Jim Clements reports.....I really enjoyed the scale and spectacle of my first day at the 2009 CEDIA Expo. The Georgia World Congress Center is an excellent venue for this type of event. My mission is to track down and report on gear that might be assembled into affordable systems. This includes source components, receivers, satellite speakers, subwoofers and accesories.

Join us in the CAVE

Builder's Showcase Home featuring Paradigm and other vendors just added......

More from Piero Gabucci.......

Another CES has come and gone. Although attendance was down, some would say that the people who did come really had business to conduct and that the quality of meetings being conducted was of a higher caliber for all manufacturers.

The primary buzz at the show centered on HDTV and the advent of 240 Hz refresh rates from all the majors, Sony, LG, Toshiba and Samsung in their new LCD and plasma sets. The 240 Hz refresh rate is demonstrable in the ability to produce a picture that is clearer and more defined when fast motion objects and very detailed still frames such as a test pattern are panned across the screen. Samsung had an excellent display of three monitors comparing 60, 120 and 240 Hz refresh rates and it is clear this technology works.

Tags: CES Show Reports

So I guess I jumped the gun when I said CES was packed.  (For my personal taste, more then 5 people in a room is enough) It was only packed according to who had the latest model of whatever was on display. CES 2009 will definitely show lower numbers of attendees than in the past.  But one thing is for sure. Home Theater and the latest electronics have a niche in the economy.

We are taking a different approach on our CES 2009 Show Report.  We have asked our team to spend their time on overall impressions of the developments in hometheater and audio technology, take pictures along the way, and identify the best products for our review team over the next few months.

Tags: CES Show Reports

This year was the first time at the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival for secrets writers Chris Groppi and Rick Schmidt. Unlike many of the other trade focused shows, the RMAF is open to the public. Both manufacturers and retailers show products here, and displays are focused on listening demonstrations. This year, there were more than 160 display rooms each usually showing equipment from several manufacturers. Rooms were from both retailers as well as manufacturers and distributors, with a wide range of equipment from around the world. All the big hitters were here, plus many companies we had never heard of.

In addtion to the rooms, seminars on topics ranging from turntable setup to digital recording technologies are offered. This is an intimate show, focused on 2 channel audio, and everyone has a chance to see every room. The show was great fun for both of us!

Tags: Show Reports

The Audio Engineering Society (AES) 125th Convention met in San Francisco, California, October 2-5, 2008, at the Moscone Convention Center. Unlike CES, which is oriented towards the display of consumer electronics products, the AES meeting is a scientific one, where the goal is to present papers on audio topics. The subjects included Audio Coding, Analysis and Synthesis of Sound, Loudspeaker Design, Spatial Perception, Psychoacoustics, Audio DSP, and other things. This is the first AES I have attended (Ross Jones joined me for the day), and although we did not attend any paper presentations, we did get a chance to browse the exhibits.

Tags: Show Reports