RM/X was 2003. finalist for “Best of CES” Award in Hi-End audio category
Other finalists were Trinaural Processor from Spread Spectrum Technologies (won the award), and Swan Diva 2.2 loudspeakers ($68.000 but received no votes from judges as finalist).
Trinaural processor won the “Best of CES 2003″ playing within a system with RM/X.
CES 2003 Story
Of the three finalists two came from our booth and were the speakers and electronics of our demo. The 3rd finalist received no votes from the judges. A judge told me that they were placed in considerable difficulty about the trophy, but since our speaker had won last year the award went to Jim’s processor, which I demoed many times 2 vs 3 channel for the judges who came to the booth. In any case we were competing against ourselves, not the rest of the exhibitors, and the award represents the sound of the booth, an inextricable combination of processor driving speaker, and speaker playing the output of the processor.
The speakers had very little playing time (3 hrs) before being unpacked in the booth, thus the relatively poor sound on setup day. Sound improved daily until Sunday which visitors who heard will never forget, so stunning was the presentation.
I set up a bypass by using a second very good source (Krell transport, Pass Labs DAC, Bolder IC’s, total about $16.000) to drive the unbalanced inputs of the four Ampzillas, which had switchable balanced or unbalanced inputs. The second source was the Philips CD1000 player which I got at Good Guys for $599, connected to the line level inputs of the rebuilt 27year old Thaedra (GAS Thaedra solid state preamplifier), which drove the Trinaual processor, whose left and center and right outputs were connected via XLR cables to the balanced inputs of five Ampzilla 2000′s.
As you can see the two channel setup had every advantage but could not approach the magical sound quality of the processor (which alters the L and R signals and derives the center algebraically in the analog domain).
- Brian Cheney
Lightning strikes twice – sort of.
Last year, Brian Cheney (of VMPS) won this award for his magnificent RM-40 ribbon loudspeaker. Hopefully in some small part being powered by the mighty Ampzilla2000 amplifiers. Again this year we shared the exhibit space. We had the full Trinaural system up and running. Actually, virtually the entire system was my concept (except the CD players). I had a souped up Thaedra (with new cards-shades of the new upcoming Thaedra2000) driving the Trinaural Processor which in turn drove six Ampzilla2000 amps. This combination drove the new VMPS Elixir loudspeaker which was also my concept design. More on that in a moment. Needless to say, the sound was beyond belief. Never in my career have I ever used “snake oil phrases” but I must say that even I, the ultimate skeptic, was truly blown away. And obviously so were all the judges. The object of audio reproduction is to make the system “disappear” and have just the close to true holographic presentation. In my entire career, I can only remember three occasions where I experienced something close to this. But this was the whole enchilada. I can surely tell you that once you experience the trinaural processor, you will NEVER go back to stereo again.
In my judgment however, the real hero of this endeavor is Brian Cheney. Last year at CES, at one of our dinners, I sketched out a complete set of drawings (on my favorite napkins of course) for this new speaker. I told Brian that THIS is what he should develop for the following year. Not only did he break the bank with this effort, his brilliance has created without any shadow of a doubt, the finest loudspeaker that has ever been created. Brian surely deserves the credit for being the absolute most brilliant loudspeaker designer on the planet. I can just see all the crocodile tears from all the others. BOO HOO. You may have to get in a long line as his entire first production run was sold out. If you want Nirvana folks, three of these ELIXIR loudspeakers in my Trinaural setup will surely send you there.
- James Bongiorno