LAS VEGAS—CES is packed with audio vendors, from start-ups trying to get a leg in the door to high-fidelity companies pushing multi-thousand-dollar speaker systems and everything in between. Trying to see everything is an exercise in futility, but I did my best to see a wide variety of exciting new audio technologies and products. Here are my thoughts—and photos—from every hands-on I had during my quick visit.







Able Planet

Kevin Semcken, CEO of Able Planet, showed off an impressive new lineup of headphones—the most impressive of which was the Able Planet NC1150. Visually, there's not much to it—it's a typical black-and-silver noise-canceling look with very little flourish—except some carbon fiber trim on the earcups. Its performance, however, is impressive. The noise cancellation did a laudable job in the noisy restaurant we met at in the Venetian, but what floored me most was the audio performance: Simply put, these headphones sound awesome. And at high volumes, they did not distort on deep bass tracks—always a good test of a headphone's drivers, but especially impressive here because Able Planet does not use digital signal processing to lower the bass frequencies at high volumes as many headphones do today. These are a great choice for the audiophile who wants noise cancellation—we can't wait to get them in for review. The NC1150 is available for $349.99 now.

Semcken was also very excited about a new product, the Able Planet Personal Sound Amp, that will help the hearing impaired. It is far less expensive than typical hearing aides—about $900 versus $3000-5000—and it is a tiny earpiece that is largely hidden from view. Merely cupping your hand over your ear resets the hearing mode of the device (there are four modes total), which adjusts what frequencies it boosts and cuts to help you hear depending on your environment. Semcken thinks it is the future of hearing for the impaired—and he claims hearing aid manufacturers are quite nervous. (Perhaps lawsuit-level nervous.)

Monster



Monster Cable officially changed its corporate name to simply: Monster. For the second year in a row, there were no Beats by Dr. Dre-related announcements at the event, but amongst the slew of new, often celebrity-endorsed products highlighted by CEO Noel Lee was the Inspiration, a fashionable, noise-canceling pair of circumaural (around-the-ear) headphones, pictured here. The headphones actually debuted at New York's 2011 fashion week, but they were launched at CES 2012. Available in titanium, white, and silver, the Inspiration's headband is removable and replaceable with all sorts of interesting options. Each headband is $29.95, and the range is from the subtly cool, like reptile skin—to the Gaga-esque ridiculous, with some featuring feathers protruding seven inches high off the band itself. The Inspiration is $249.95 for the standard over-ear and $199.95 for the on-ear Inspiration Lite version geared towards women. How will they sound? And will the noise cancellation be able to compete with industry leader Bose? It was way too loud and crowded at the event and on the showroom floor to get a sense—but rest assured, PCMag will be testing them out in the near future. Also announced: Monster Micro—a "high definition portable speaker and speakerphone"—a very small portable stereo speaker armed with Bluetooth streaming and a removable and replaceable grille. It's also armed with different "voices" (one British accent, one possibly Jamaican accent, and a slew of others that can be downloaded) that guide you through pairing phones—it will be $249 MSRP.

Fraunhofer



You may have heard of Fraunhofer; maybe not. All this German company did was invent the MP3 and AAC codecs that basically rule the world of digital music. Fraunhofer's Matthias Rose showed off a new plug-in for consumer level home recording studios that use programs like GarageBand. It is the consumer version of the Pro-level, $450 plug-in, Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec, that's used by recording studios and mastering houses, especially, across the country. It allows users to monitor the current state of their multitrack mix as it will sound when exported in a variety of different codecs and bit-rates. In other words, you can hear how the lossless, hi-fidelity mix you have in your recording software will sound as a low bitrate MP3 file, or a mid-range AAC, etc, immediately, while you're still mixing. You never have to export any mixes as files in order to hear them as they will eventually sound—it's a highly accurate preview that saves pro engineers—and now home studios, alike—a boatload of time. No word on pricing or availability for the codec, which will also be released by Sonnox, but Rose says to expect it soon. He also demoed an excellent new codec that could be implemented by broadcasters like the BBC and television manufacturers in the not-too-distant future that allows viewers to quite effectively adjust the dialogue of a broadcast in comparison to, say, crowd noise or background music. This requires a special codec to be used by the broadcaster and a special decoder to be planted in the television…so, maybe next year we could actually see it in products. If so, I can't wait to turn Joe Buck and Tim McCarver way, way down during the World Series.

AKG



In the past, AKG's primary focus has always been recording-oriented gear, like studio headphone monitors and microphones. At CES, however, AKG is also taking on Bose, offering a more visually-striking alternative to the Able Planet NC1150 and Bose's industry standard QuietComfort options. The $349.95 K 495 NC is a beautifully designed pair, with brushed metal and leather earcups that are heavily padded. A quick listen on the show-floor provided a glimpse at what they sound like—the response featured robust low-end, but it was pretty hard to tell how they sounded overall or how well the noise cancellation circuitry worked. We look forward to testing them out in the PCMag Labs soon. Available now, the K 495 NC ships with a carrying case, two detachable audio cables, a USB charging cable and a flight adapter. AKG also showed off a less expensive, less large on-ear noise canceling option, the $249.95 K 490 NC, also available now.

Klipsch



Klipsch showed off their stunning new designs for home audio—the Klipsch Stadium and the Klisch Console. The Stadium was a mock-up that was not operational, but it looks like a very powerful, attractive home audio design. The Console, however, definitely stole the show. It is massive, and it's a throwback to the 50s, 60s and 70s, when consoles for the living room, which had radios, turntables, and speakers built-in, were the norm. Klipsch's modern take on the console includes thunderous 2.1 audio and Apple's AirPlay. The powerful audio comes courtesy of 1.75-inch titanium dome tweeters, 10-inch woofers, and 12-inch woven fiberglass subwoofer drivers. The system is basically furniture as well as speaker— a large television would look nice sitting on top of it. The Console is coming in late 2012, as is the Stadium, pricing is still be worked out, but let's just say: not cheap, folks. (It's looking like $1500-1700 for the Stadium and $6000-8000 for the Console.)

Sennheiser



Paradigm



In the high-fidelity audio suites at the Venetian, Paradigm, the venerable Canadian high-fidelity speaker manufacturer, showed off the company's first ever earphone line for consumers. The Paradigm Shift line features the e1 ($49.99), e2m ($99.99), and e3m ($129.99)—the "m" models have mobile phone controls. I got a demo and walked with a pair of the Paradigm Shift e3m, which offers a nice, clean mid-to-high frequency performance, rich bass, and some serious power—along with cross-platform single button call controls and a mic for mobile devices. As a fan (and owner) of Paradigm's beloved Mini Monitor home stereo speakers, I can't wait to give the e3m a closer listen. All three pairs are available now—check out PCMag later in the month for a full review.

Audioengine



Think of it as AirPlay for audiophiles. Audioengine's new D2 Premium 24-bit Wireless DAC consists of a transmitter and a receiver that connects to your speakers or stereo system. The digital-to-analog converter is based on the high-end Burr-Brown PCM1792, and the system includes optical and analog outputs. It connects to Macs and PCs, but there are no drivers to install, no software, no screens on the devices themselves, no way to operate the playback with a phone—it's a simple plug-and-play solution. The stream is bit-perfect 24/96 PCM over-the-air transmission—in other words, it's basically lossless quality, and the stream almost never interrupts. This is purely for people who are obsessed with sound quality—it's convenience factor is significantly lower than AirPlay or Bluetooth streaming devices, but it's definitely a strong option for the audiophile looking to get rid of a few more cables. The D2 transmitter and receiver, available now, are sold together for $599—and more receivers can be added for different rooms or components.

Blue Microphones



Blue Microphones debuted the Spark Digital—it's a digital version of the pre-existing analog Spark microphone. Both versions sell for $199.99, but the Spark Digital records directly to the iPad via 30-pin connector or directly to your computer via USB. It's armed with a headphone jack for direct monitoring, a shock-mount stand, and two filter modes for easy switching between warmer and crisper sounds. In the nascent iPad recording category, the Blue Spark Digital is probably the best dedicated microphone for iOS we've seen thus far.

Altec Lansing



Hot on the heels of the inAir 5000 AirPlay unveling in 2011, Altec Lansing unveiled yet another wireless audio dock at CES 2012, the Live 5000 Wi-Fi. This one looks and sounds nearly identical to the Altec Lansing inAir 5000. The difference? The Live 5000 Wi-Fi, operates outside of the Airplay landscape and streams audio from your home library and Internet-based services via an Altec-designed app. The app allows users to use multiple docks throughout the house and assign music to different queues and play music in different zones, pulling from, say, Pandora and Spotify one song and your laptop the next. All of the controlling is done via mobile devices—the app works for both iOS and Android—and multiple users can adjust the queue simultaneously, provided everyone has downloaded the app on their phone or tablet and everyone's on the same Wi-Fi network. The Live 5000 Wi-Fi dock will be available this summer for $499.95, but my first impressions: It sounds quite powerful, and industry vets like Sonos now have some serious competition.

Edifier



It's easy to laugh off artistic audio designs as all looks, no performance, but Edifier doesn't fit that stereotype. The company showed off some ridiculously cool-looking stereo speakers that might as well have been stolen off the set of a Tim Burton film. Available in a dazzling array of bright colors, like the red shown here, the Spinnaker is a 2.2 system—each speaker has a down-firing 25Watt subwoofer built-in, in addition to an 8Watt tweeter and a 9Watt mid-range driver. They sounded pretty powerful during the demo, and they can connect via 3.5mm cable to a computer or mobile device, or they can stream audio via Bluetooth. Look for them in March for $299, when PCMag can give them a fairer listen than the CES show-floor provided.

Sony



Sony's new line of XBA in-ear earphones is the company's first foray into balanced armature designs. This is not terribly groundbreaking for the audio world, as balanced armature earphones have been around for years, and Sony is only now catching up to the trend. However, Sony did break some new ground in the active noise cancellation earphones realm. The Digital Noise Canceling XBA-NC85D is the first in-ear pair to feature "boxless" noise cancellation, meaning all the circuitry is contained in the earpieces themselves. There is an inline control compartment, but gone is the awkward shirt-clip compartment that has previously been a part of every model of in-ear noise canceling earphones from every manufacturer, and the system uses a miniature, rechargeable battery to keep everything compact. PCMag looks forward to testing the new earphones, which cost $499 and are available in February.

Behringer



Finally, somehow I missed my chance to demo the Behringer iNuke Boom, a 10,000Watt, 8-by-4 foot, 700-pound iPod/iPhone dock/publicity stunt. I bet it was loud. If you have room in your house for one, maybe there's room in your budget, as well: It's a mere $29,999.99.