CEDIA Expo 2009 Atlanta – Cambridge Audio’s first Blu-ray
player, new in-room and in-wall speakers from Focal, curved-front speakers from
Mordaunt-Short, and new products from YBA Design and Micromega will turn up at
the CEDIA Expo booth of importer/distributor Audio Plus Services of Champlain,
N.Y.
New Cambridge Audio products include the brand’s first
Blu-ray player, a Profile 2.0 universal model with playback of DVD-Audio and
SACD discs at a suggested $899. The Azur 650BD universal Blu-ray player decodes
all Blu-ray surround formats, comes with dedicated DACs for both two-channel
and multichannel outputs, and features a “pure audio mode” that shuts down all
video processing for music-disc performance.
Another new Cambridge product, the $1,699-suggested Azur
650R A/V receiver, is rated at 7×100 watts. New AVR features for the brand
include decoding of all Blu-ray surround formats, lip-sync adjustment, auto
room setup with supplied microphone and analog video transcoding to HDMI. It
also features pure analog stereo direct mode.
For its part, speaker maker Focal will turn up with multiple
in-room and in-wall models in its next generation Electra Be II Series. All
feature a redesigned Beryllium tweeter that delivers greater power handling,
enabling the crossover point to be shifted down to 2kHz to improve imaging.
Three new in-room models are the bookshelf 1008 Be, at a suggested $4,995/pair,
and two three-way floorstanders, the 1028 Be and 1038 Be. Also new: the IW1002 in-wall/on-wall
model in a sealed MDF enclosure. It features Beryllium tweeter and proprietary sandwich-W
midrange/ bass driver. The in-room models are shipping, and the in-wall/on-wall
model is due in October. Additional details were unavailable.
Another brand, France’s Micromega, offers stereo and home
theater electronics, and at the show it will exhibit the recently shipped $2,495
AP180 amp/preamp/surround processor. It comes with built-in 3×180-watt
amplifier and is designed as an add-on to two-channel audiophile systems.
In the Mordaunt-Short section of the booth, the Performance
2 high-performance bookshelf model at $4,500/pair will debut. It’s positioned
as a no-compromise loudspeaker. For the mid market, Mordaunt-Short’s Aviano
series of speakers with curved front baffles will be displayed. Aviano,
intended for music and movie applications, consists of two bookshelf speakers,
two floorstanders, a center channel and two subwoofers. They are currently
available.
In the YBA Design section, the audiophile company will show
its first DAC for PCs and Macs. The WD202 DAC features 24-bit/192kHz up-sampling
with jitter reducing precision re-clocking. Inputs include USB, coax, Toslink,
AES/EBU. Outputs include RCA, XLR and coax.
Audio Plus’s other brands include DreamVision, Incognito,
Kanto, Pathos, Perfect Vu and Solid Tech.
