Vivid Audio, Luxman, Shunyata Research, The Tape Project

It seems like we’re rarely blown away on the first day of CES, as most audio systems need some additional tweaking and warm-up time. But this year we have an exception: The room hosted by Vivid Audio, Shunyata Research, The Tape Project and Luxman was amazingly good. The new Vivid Audio G1 Giya loudspeakers from South Africa (price to be announced) played with striking clarity and an openness that was uncanny. Source components switched back and forth from the Luxman DU-80 SACD/DVD-A player to a Studer A80 playback deck. The master tapes from The Tape Project were the most amazing: the scale and energy of the piano being played was near perfect. The Vivid speakers were driven to realistic levels by the Luxman B-1000f monoblock amplifiers ($46,000 per pair) and the C-800f preamplifier ($16,000). Rounding out the system were the newest interconnects and cables (code named "Sky") from Shunyata Research, along with Shunyata power cords and Hydra V-Ray power conditioners. [www.shunyata.com]