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Big apologies for a little delay in getting this out. I had several other conferences after CEDIA and some vacation. But now I'm sick in bed :roll: so I've got a minute to finally get this posted.
Good CEDIA this year. Wasn't the best, but all in all I'd say it was a good one. Maybe about the same as last year in many aspects, perhaps a bit more economic and business optimism from attendees and exhibitors. I'm definitely looking forward to Denver next year as a better location, hopefully more participation, and always hoping for big breaks in new products and technologies. This year, many prominent companies did not exhibit (Panasonic, AVAD distribution, THX,, etc) while a few others came back that had been absent in previous years.
Parasound originally was not on the list to exhibit, and didn't make most final literature either. However, they apparently got a small booth at a late time, and did in fact exhibit. This seemed to turn out VERY well for them, with a lot of unexpected conference interest.
KEF also continued their strong partnership with Parasound. They had the same setup as last year, with their flagship Blade speakers driven by a Halo JC2, "prototype" Halo CD 1 player, and a pair of Halo JC1 amps. If this isn't your dream setup, then either (1) it's REALLY close, or (2) there's something wrong with you.
This year they also added a laptop streaming MP3 through a USB DAC that actually sounded quite good. And check out the massive cables on this rack.
KEF also showed a 50th Anniversary speaker model run by ZCustom gear.
Let's see...
WAIT a second... WHAT IS THAT???
Ah yes! We now get ZCustom gear from Parasound offered in silver! That's pretty cool. Notice that the silver models won't have the rackmount ears on them. They're more intended for being a small stack of gear for an office or such, which I definitely can appreciate, as I have a "Zetup" in my own office myself. I'll stick with my black Zcustom gear, though. Now this was at Parasound's actual booth:
A new 4-channel amp in the Zcustom line. And this amp is actually Class D digital, a bit of a new move for Parasound, but something that definitely seems to have a place in a compact half-rack application. Also displayed:
The all-silver stack does look good. But, what do my eyes see in that stack, 2nd from the bottom? Ah yes, a new zDAC! Now, we definitely need to do some testing and get some reviews on this product. But this doesn't seem to be a unit to quickly overlook and disregard as "just another piece of gear", particularly if being packaged in its small Zcustom case is deceiving. The Parasound techs tell me that this actually uses the DAC from the upcoming Halo CD 1, which would be amazing to get that kind of high-end equipment in this type of gear.
Here's the back of that Zstack. You can see on the zDAC, that in addition to the optical, coax, and USB inputs, and the expected RCA outputs, Parasound actually put a pair of balanced XLR output jacks. When I asked about this, the Parasound guys told me, "well, we figured with this kind of high-end equipment, we pretty much had to", even though there isn't any other XLR jacks in the Zcustom stack. I, for one, am thrilled about this. This means that I can put one or more small zDAC's into my full home A/V equipment rack, hook it up to my other Halo gear with balanced XLR cables, and get (likely) reference-grade audio performance (and here's the kicker) FOR NOWHERE NEAR A BOUTIQUE COST. Very exciting. Add a zDAC and zCD to my small office "Zetup" stack, and I anticipate I'll have an office system that plays digital media FAR better than most full-size systems. Will we also see a Halo DAC? Ummmmm... very possibly.
Note in that picture that Parasound did display an example front panel of what the Halo gear will look like in the black option. This looked pretty slick. It's a brushed black aluminum, not a gloss piano black. Since Parasound has put out an official press release on the black Halo option, we can talk about it now.
Lastly, they were also showing the Halo CD 1. When I asked when this was coming to market, there was a frustrated purse of the lips, and an answer of "sooner than you think". Apparently, a programmer has been trying to schedule getting the final kinks worked out, and the delays have been quite a source of frustration to many. Just as soon as that happens, it should finally get pushed out the door! I know this unit's being hotly anticipated by those who still love to listen to their CD's.
What else? New models coming in the future. Revisions to other existing models. Stay tuned.
Good CEDIA this year. Wasn't the best, but all in all I'd say it was a good one. Maybe about the same as last year in many aspects, perhaps a bit more economic and business optimism from attendees and exhibitors. I'm definitely looking forward to Denver next year as a better location, hopefully more participation, and always hoping for big breaks in new products and technologies. This year, many prominent companies did not exhibit (Panasonic, AVAD distribution, THX,, etc) while a few others came back that had been absent in previous years.
Parasound originally was not on the list to exhibit, and didn't make most final literature either. However, they apparently got a small booth at a late time, and did in fact exhibit. This seemed to turn out VERY well for them, with a lot of unexpected conference interest.
KEF also continued their strong partnership with Parasound. They had the same setup as last year, with their flagship Blade speakers driven by a Halo JC2, "prototype" Halo CD 1 player, and a pair of Halo JC1 amps. If this isn't your dream setup, then either (1) it's REALLY close, or (2) there's something wrong with you.
This year they also added a laptop streaming MP3 through a USB DAC that actually sounded quite good. And check out the massive cables on this rack.KEF also showed a 50th Anniversary speaker model run by ZCustom gear.
Let's see...
WAIT a second... WHAT IS THAT???
Ah yes! We now get ZCustom gear from Parasound offered in silver! That's pretty cool. Notice that the silver models won't have the rackmount ears on them. They're more intended for being a small stack of gear for an office or such, which I definitely can appreciate, as I have a "Zetup" in my own office myself. I'll stick with my black Zcustom gear, though. Now this was at Parasound's actual booth:
A new 4-channel amp in the Zcustom line. And this amp is actually Class D digital, a bit of a new move for Parasound, but something that definitely seems to have a place in a compact half-rack application. Also displayed:
The all-silver stack does look good. But, what do my eyes see in that stack, 2nd from the bottom? Ah yes, a new zDAC! Now, we definitely need to do some testing and get some reviews on this product. But this doesn't seem to be a unit to quickly overlook and disregard as "just another piece of gear", particularly if being packaged in its small Zcustom case is deceiving. The Parasound techs tell me that this actually uses the DAC from the upcoming Halo CD 1, which would be amazing to get that kind of high-end equipment in this type of gear.
Here's the back of that Zstack. You can see on the zDAC, that in addition to the optical, coax, and USB inputs, and the expected RCA outputs, Parasound actually put a pair of balanced XLR output jacks. When I asked about this, the Parasound guys told me, "well, we figured with this kind of high-end equipment, we pretty much had to", even though there isn't any other XLR jacks in the Zcustom stack. I, for one, am thrilled about this. This means that I can put one or more small zDAC's into my full home A/V equipment rack, hook it up to my other Halo gear with balanced XLR cables, and get (likely) reference-grade audio performance (and here's the kicker) FOR NOWHERE NEAR A BOUTIQUE COST. Very exciting. Add a zDAC and zCD to my small office "Zetup" stack, and I anticipate I'll have an office system that plays digital media FAR better than most full-size systems. Will we also see a Halo DAC? Ummmmm... very possibly.
Note in that picture that Parasound did display an example front panel of what the Halo gear will look like in the black option. This looked pretty slick. It's a brushed black aluminum, not a gloss piano black. Since Parasound has put out an official press release on the black Halo option, we can talk about it now.
Lastly, they were also showing the Halo CD 1. When I asked when this was coming to market, there was a frustrated purse of the lips, and an answer of "sooner than you think". Apparently, a programmer has been trying to schedule getting the final kinks worked out, and the delays have been quite a source of frustration to many. Just as soon as that happens, it should finally get pushed out the door! I know this unit's being hotly anticipated by those who still love to listen to their CD's.
What else? New models coming in the future. Revisions to other existing models. Stay tuned.
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