USB DONE RIGHT: Two magic boxes that let computer audio ...

No, it’s not the New York
harbor, but the Las Vegas
skyline…specifically the
front of the New York New
York hotel-casino. The US economy
being what it is, there isn’t much new in
the way of fresh constructions in Vegas,
and so the old ones are the best.
Vegas is still ailing, and a quick tour
confirms it. The abandoned skeletons of
partly-built casinos remain abandoned
for the third year in a row. The shopping
area of the CityCenter, which was new
two years ago, remains a ghost town,
with rooms aplenty available even during
CES. You still don’t need to phone ahead
for a table at a good restaurant. A giant
condominium complex which, last year,
was awaiting its finishing touches, is still
awaiting them. Unemployment remains
high, but my hotel has a special wicket
where you can cash your paycheck! At
the end of the Strip, the Sahara, once the
venue for CES high end audio, is boarded
up. Just beyond are stores offering to buy
your furniture for cash.
16 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
Features
Vegas 2012
by Gerard Rejskind
What is thriving in Vegas is the
prostitution trade, actually illegal in
Clark County, but right out in the open.
In previous years, the people handing
out sex workers’ business cards on the
Strip had phone numbers on their shirts.
Now they bear huge QR codes on the
back. Aim your smartphone at a code,
and you’re instantly connected to the
dispatch office of “Girls That (sic) Want
to Meet You.”
But of course Vegas is one thing, CES
is another. Not only has the number of
exhibitors at CES shrunk over the past
decade, but even large companies are —
but for a few exceptions — taking smaller
spaces and sending fewer people. The
world’s biggest consumer electronics
company, Apple, doesn’t come to CES
and never has, and Microsoft announced
that 2012 would be its final appearance
(but that it would still “strongly support”
CES, whatever that means). However
CEA, which organizes the show, has
been busy recruiting new exhibitors for
countless new sections. The “iLounge”
section (for Apple-themed products)
tripled in size. There was now a section
for “green products.” There was a
“Eureka” section for particularly bright
ideas. And there was a PMA (Photo
Marketing Association) section with
cameras and such.
Three of the new sections were at the
Venetian, the same venue as high end
audio, and the crowds were larger than
ever. Fortunately the Adult Entertainment
Expo (aka the porno show), which
normally occupies the east end of the
Sands complex, moved to the Riviera,
which had also been the venue for high
end audio once upon a time.
Most of the high end exhibits were
in the Venetian tower, whose rooms are
more or less suited to serious listening.
Some exhibitors prefer the much larger
rooms of the convention centre, though
they are, to put it bluntly, dreadful.
That’s because they’re not real rooms,
but partitioned sections of ballrooms,
nearly cube-shaped, with walls that are
little better than cardboard. This year
many of those awful rooms had been
reserved for meetings. One large room
was used as overflow for the press centre.
Oh yes…the press. It’s been clear for
a while that the press situation was out
of control. Audiophiles used to crash
CES by printing up business cards
showing they were “consultants,” but
as journalists or bloggers they have it
better, they get in free, and can even