in-depth_ harman luxury audio at ces 2016 - inside ci
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posted on Friday, 22nd January 2016 by Geny Caloisi Hifi Highend CES 2016
Home Articles Indepth: Harman Luxury Audio at CES 2016
INDEPTH: HARMAN LUXURY AUDIOAT CES 2016
Having out grown CES halls for the third year running, Harman's Luxury Audio division went solo at theHard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas to showcase its full range of products and brands. What better excuse totake a closer look at what's upcoming from its iconic brands?
As soon as you stood by the HiFi area of the ‘Harman Wold’ exhibition, all eyes were on the attractivered, white and blue JBL highend limited edition speakers. Inspired by the automotive industry, thesecome in seven flavours: Rosso Corsa, Sapphire Blue, Polar White, British racing green, Tungstensilver, Gloss Black, and JBL orange. You can get a pair for $62k (£43K).
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A recent addition to the company’s range of homeaudio speakers, the JBL 4367, was on show on adeep blue shade. The speakers use drivers and design elements from JBL’s professional M2 MasterReference monitor. The 4367 was launched in November 2015 and it comes with a D2 compressiondriver that delivers extended highfrequency response to 40 kHz with extremely low distortion.
To illustrate what goes inside the speakers, Harman had deconstructed JBL’s D2430K Dualdiaphragm/Dual voicecoil compression diver (pictured below).
Mark Levison Harman has taken amplifiers to the next level. Harman’s Mark Levison range of amplifiers and preamplifiers are not justblack boxes that you might want to tuck away somewhere. The clean lines of its aluminium 6000series are completed withbeautiful and pleasing to the touch press buttons and knobs.
Expected to be available from May this year, the Mark Levinson 526 DualMonaural Preamplifier hashighresolution Digital to Analogue Convertor (DAC) and integrated phono stage, which will allow you touse a turntable and listen to your favourite LPs. It also comes with Harman ClariFi music restorationtechnology.
The Mark Levinson 526 offers highresolution digital decoding up to 24bit 192kHz from PCM anddoublespeed Direct Stream Digital (DSD). It has six digital audio inputs including asynchronous USB,AES/EBU balanced, optical and coaxial and digital audio.
Also on the Mark Levison range, is the 519 that can be used for music libraries containing older orlower resolution content, because it uses Harman’s ClariFi music restoration technology, whichrebuilds musicality and detail lost in the compression process. The 519, expected to be shipping byJuly 2016, can be used as a home hub integrating TV, Spotify, it can be accessed via bluetooth usingiOS or Android apps.
Appointments Wireless Epson AWE Europe OLED Smart home Trade Networkaudio lighting Design Karmaav Streaming Loudspeakers Wyrestorm HDBaseT Events Highend Habitech Broadcast Invision UK High Res Audio Dolby Atmos
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Revel Concerta 2 Harman was showing its new line on the Revel speakers range, the Concerta2. This entrylevelspeaker series includes two floor standing models, a bookshelf monitor, a centre channel, a surroundand a subwoofer.
Jim Garrett, Director of Marketing and Product Management, Harman said, “The Concerta2 Series is anupgrade on our original Concerta offering but what’s special about it is that it incorporates technologiesand materials that are directly drawn from our Performa3 loudspeakers. The sleek design is also to benoted with its white finishing and magnetic front covers."
Concerta2 Series loudspeakers employ a 1inch aluminium tweeter with an integral phase ring, derivedfrom Revel's Performa3 Series, to deliver detailed and transparent highfrequency response. Thetweeters are mated to a new, patented fourthgeneration Acoustic Lens Waveguide that optimizes theblend between the tweeter and woofers and improves offaxis performance for smoother, moreconsistent performance over a wide listening area.
The newly designed woofers feature aluminium cones that help keep distortion to a minimum byimproving rigidity without increasing mass. The result is transducers that behave like ideal pistonsthroughout their operating range.
Every Revel Concerta2 model is designed using computeroptimized driver positioning and crossovernetwork integration, resulting in optimised performance with accurate imaging and a lifelike, expansivesoundstage or surroundsound environment for music and movies.
Harman’s Revel brand was founded in 1996, so this year it will be celebrating its 20th anniversary.
The showcase for its HiFi area was Harman’s sound demo room which provided the most amazingmusic experience. You could almost touch the sound; such was the vibrancy of the demo. Music took a
4th dimension; the only thing missing was a hologram of the artist or the orchestra, and you would betransported to that moment in time. I have to confess, I had to have a little dance too, and I wasn’talone.
Kardon Omni+ From its Lifestyle Division, Harman introduced the Kardon Omni+, a WiFi enabled HD home audiosystem that delivers vibrant HiDefinition sound. The wireless Kardon Omni+ can access all musiclibraries on the majority of streaming services including Google Cast for Audio, Spotify Connect, as wellas other key services like MixRadio, Deezer, Qobuz and Tidal in addition to stored local content on anydevice accessible via the Harman Kardon Controller app.
The Harman Kardon Omni+ offers true lossless highdefinition music streaming (24bit/192KHz) for asuperior audio experience at higher resolution than a CD, allowing for a listening experience thatdelivers more clarity and the detailed nuances of a performance.
The Omni+ line supports quick setup, including Apple WAC, and it also supports Bluetooth and auxiliaryaudio inputs that can be restreamed to any Omni speaker in the home. And with the Link button, musicfollows consumers from room to room at the touch of a button.
Other Harman products that draw attention were: the portable JBL speakers, such as the Pulse 2speaker, which was introduced at CES, with its funky LED light; the blue tooth enabled JBL control X,which is weather resistant and ideal for outdoor, especially in a fetching shade of red; and the JBLArena series of architectural products.
We will not go into the incar wonders or the awesome headphone line that Harman was presenting,but we will say that we had our minds blown away after having experienced the quality and range thiscompany has to offer.
Harman Luxury Audio is distributed by KarmaAV. For more stories about KarmaAV's product porfolio,visit our partner page here.
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Geny CaloisiGeny Caloisi is an accomplishedtechnology journalist who hasworked in a variety of AVindustry publications.
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