JPS Labs CES 2001

CES 2001 JPS Labs Show Report

Welcome to our annual show report. As always, we try to give a glimpse of the show from our humble corner of the world. As always, please hover your mouse pointer over the pictures for a more informative description. Hope you enjoy your visit...

<<<Front Welcome! We even had a lit sign above the door. This is Vegas! door>>>

This year JPS showed with Avlar Research Loudspeakers and Grand Prix Audio Racks, 2 new exciting manufacturers to join high-end audio/video. Combined with top shelf equipment from the likes of Krell, Theta, and Seleco, the results in this room were stunning.

Avlar was showing their brand new Maestro loudspeakers ( www.avlarresearch.com ). Shown are aluminum (no wonder they sound so good with our cables:) and birds-eye maple, with more available optional finishes and grilles, even stainless steel... Cool...

Front loadspeaker with brushed aluminum finish Rear channel showing birdseye maple...

Their patented thin film ribbon tweeter technology sounded excellent, open, fast, and detailed with all types of music and at any volume. When a good DVD movie was played, such as clips available on the latest DTS sampler DVD, the ability of the loudspeakers to produce almost unlimited clean volume and stunning low end bass resolution was amazing; If you've never been in a submarine being pounded by depth charges, you should have visited this serious demo room! Best at the show if I do say so myself...

The Front Three! Note how manly (man-like outside the US) the cables look from this angle... Close-up of center channel loudspeaker

Close-up and up front...

The center channel (atop custom carbon fiber stands courtesy of Grand Prix Audio) is a serious piece of furniture, not to mention a perfect match for the main speakers. In certain installations behind fabric walls, this full range center can also be used in multiples for a complete surround effect. Many options are available, including studio and theater professional models (they're at the NAMM show as I type this...).

THE Avlar Men... <<<Jerry and Jack of AVLAR<<<

The loudspeakers' cabinets were designed by a California sculptor (I did not write down the name- ask Avlar) to exhibit both form and function. Its curved shapes and lack of any parallel surfaces even front to back adds rigidity and sonic purity unavailable in most cabinet designs.

Now this is a crossover! Krell designed electronic crossover

You may want to give Avlar Research Loudspeakers a call to find out more about this new and exciting loudspeaker manufacturer and its technologies. The tweeter technology alone is like nothing else available...

Panoramic view... panoramic view too...

Amplification and front end equipment by Krell and Theta respectively. As this was an electronically crossed over system (the speakers have no internal passive crossover components, and so each driver is wired directly to each amp channel with JPS Labs finest Superconductor 2 NC Series speaker cables of course...), a total of 10 channels of Krell amplification and 5 pairs of speaker cables were used.

Man, all this for one tweeter... One of the Krell monoblock amps

Thetas fine 96/24 David DVD/CD player and Casablanca pre/processor provided the tunes and video.

Gorgeous rack loaded with Theta

Theta source components and Grand Prix Audios Tuned Suspension Equipment Rack.

The main rack by Grand Prix Audio was designed by a former race car engineer suspension design expert ( www.grandprixaudio.com ). Not only does it look very cool and modern with its carbon fiber members (expensive stuff!), stainless steel posts and thick acrylic shelves, but it also acts as an amazingly good vibration dampener for the gear, dramatically improving the sound of even the best components placed on top of it; way cool! What else would you expect from a grand prix race car designer?

Rack and components

The whole system was wired from head to toe with JPS Labs finest interconnects, speaker cables, power cords, video cabling, and accessories. Superconductor 2 Balanced XLR interconnects tied together all 10 channels (plus 10 channels of electronic crossovers in between), and as mentioned earlier Superconductor 2 NC Series speaker cables finished the job to the loudspeakers. The rooms AC power was wired directly to the mains (and paid for in union dues I can assure you) with JPS Labs Power AC cable. Power AC Outlet Centers fanned out over the room in 8 meter lengths to flawlessly provide power to all the gear through Power AC, Digital AC, Analog AC, Video AC, and Kaptovator AC cords onto their respective equipment. No conditioning needed, just clean, pure, direct power to the big amps, with our specialty AC cords isolating the digital, analog, and video gear from talking to each other and screwing up the perfectly balanced sound and vivid video.

Notice the little sign by the big amp?

UltraConductor S-video ran from the DVD sources to the processor and into the scaler, and a custom JPS Labs 15 pin VGA cable( 5 full size coaxials in one cable jacket - not lossy miniature coaxials as in most all the rest) ran from the scaler on the rack to the ceiling mounted Seleco DLP projector with a Video AC cord providing noise-free power. Excellent full screen video quality was obviously mating with a world class audio system.

Meet the cable jungle- Its not nearly as bad as it looks:)...

<<<The heart of any system--- CABLES!!!

When particular attention is paid to the importance of using the finest cabling within even a modest system, particularly with the long runs necessary in such installations, the contrast compared to a system wired with lesser cabling can go from a system 'that's pretty good' to one with 'WOW!'. No hum, no noise, no pale video artifacts or grain; nothing but dynamic, ultra low level detailed music and movies with a lifelike presence in sight and sound that only the real thing can compare to.

As one of our visitors from abroad standing next to me summed it up after a 15 minute demo: "You know, it doesn't matter what country or culture you are from, you can appreciate the quality in this room."

Some of our distinguished visitors who traveled far to see all the goodies...

Joe from JPS in-between Asian visitors... <<<Mr. Cai and Mr. Chuang from China