EHX Expo Orlando 2004 Day 1

The EHX Expo 2004 only comprised a tiny fraction of available floor space in this enormous facility, and was nestled in a corner wing on the far side of the building, where over 250 manufactures called home for three days. The 2004 EH Expo had many popular manufacturers including Outlaw, Atlantic Technology, Parasound, Denon, Samsung, Panasonic, Ben Q, Klipsch, Integral, and an assortment of others. But the primary focus of this show was more for the custom installer market than the consumer. This exposed us to many companies which perhaps were not quite as familiar to us common folk. The focus leaned more towards products related to home automation, custom controls and remotes for entire home operation of theater systems, panels, alarms, bulk cable, network storage systems and a great deal more. In fact, many of the popular companies were showing products which were not seen as much at CES, or promoting products in a way that were quite different than CES.

Klipsch-Samsung-Mondial Display
At first, we found it rather odd when we happened upon the Klipsch-Samsung booth for example. Now, don't start any rumors that the two companies are merging, as that was not the case. I assure you, we did ask! Instead, we were told that both companies saw a benefit in joining together on a booth in order to reduce the cost associated with the expenses of the show. In addition, Klipsch provides the speakers to Samsung for their Theater-In-A-Box system as shown in the following picture, so they felt it would be natural for them to join forces in sharing a booth. Along side of Kitsch, also at the same booth, was our old friends from Mon dial, a owned subsidiary of Klipsch. Stay tuned for these guys as there may be some interesting new products coming up this year.

Taking an Energy Break
We enjoyed our meeting with the Marketing Manager of Energy Speaker Systems. For many years, Energy Speakers provided home theater enthusiasts with affordable quality, compact speaker systems known as the Take 5. This year, they have expanded the Take Series Take 5.2 which includes some improvements to the driver and crossover networks. In addition to sporting the Take 5.2 at the show, Energy proudly promoted a few other products including Connoisseur line. We were told that Energy is working on several new products which could be announced in the next couple of months. So why show this stuff at a show for custom installers? Simple, size and cost. Custom installer, by demands of many of their customers, want to provide a quality product, while also minimizing foot-print without compromising performance. Based on our brief interlude with Energy, they seem to do this quite well. Audiophiles should have an opportunity very soon to do a complete theater package review on Energy's products. We are certainly looking forward to this and hope it's the first of many!

The Unknown Soldier
Normally, we don't like posting something that we know so little about, but we couldn't help but post a picture with at least some description in hopes that one day, we may find out who the manufacturer is (we snapped this picture but were unable to wait to speak with a company representative who was otherwsie engaged.) What you're looking at is a PC-based, touch screen control center which can be used to operate your entire home entertainment system, alarm system, and home automation. But I don't think it makes coffee. The volume knob shown here, is actually part of the virtual, fully customizable, touch screen display. While we did have an opportunity to meet with someone at this booth, they did not have any marketing literature or business cards yet. I guess they are a start up company with a great idea and hopefully, a great, bug free product.

Audio Design Associates
The unknown soldier discussed above shared the same booth as Audio Design Associates (ada). It seems there was quite a bit of booth sharing at this show between companies that were not under the same ownership/corporation. Audio Design Associates provides products such as the Suite 16, which performs as an audio entertainment system and also switches your accompanying video components with a simple one touch operation. The Suite 16 paging input can also connect telephone systems that feature paging, room to room paging, or something as simple as a door bell. The main building block of the Suite 16 is the AVP-16 chassis which can house up to three card modules. The audio inputs of your source components are connected to the A-16 audio input module. The P-16 modules accept audio signals from the A-16 then provide switching and pre-amplification for sixteen zones/rooms. The V-16 video switching modules are also mounted into the AVP-16 chassis and route video signals to video display devices. addax also provides keypad controls, amplifiers, phone suites, and believe it or not, a Home Theater 7.1 AV Controller dubbed the Cinema Reference Mach II. Maybe one day, we will have an opportunity to peak under the hood of the Cinema Reference Mach II during a product review.

Parasound
Who says no one makes two-channel analog products anymore? Actually, I thought they were becoming a thing of the past, regretfully so. With so many people wanting more speakers and more surround modes, and more gadgets, several key manufacturers of two-channel analog products have turned to "the dark side" by dropping these lines and going totally multi-channel. I was surprised to find a few companies still offering two-channel products, and even more surprised to find some new innovations in two-channel technology.

This little cutie to the right is a new product offering from Parasound. We found it interesting to see these innovative "little" giants which offer modularized, miniature two-channel analog. Yes, that is a pen in the picture. The amplifier (second down) actually weighs in at a whopping 8-lbs in this tiny package. The rack shown also included a stereo preamplifier, tuner, and get this, a phono preamp. Yes, you heard me, a phone preamp. This dynamite little package is perfect for the Analog Audiophile who is looking for something simple in a bedroom system. Preferably in a second room (not the master bedroom), where you can quietly escape to and enjoy your old King Crimson, Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer or Return to Forever records. For some reason my old album-bands have never made it passt the Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF) and are therefore banned from my primary referenc system, unless the wife is out at the store.

Phoenix Gold
Be on the lookout for these up and comers as they provide some interesting products that will satisfy the custom installer and end user quite nicely. Phoenix Gold offers bracket wall mounted speakers, in-wall speakers, home theater cables, amplifiers, and almost everything you need for a full theater sound package. Their products not only sound great, but will fit nicely near by those thin panel large displays that are becoming more and more affordable. What I found most interesting about their products were the simplicity at which it can be installed, which again is perfect for the custom installer looking to save time.

Lets take their in-wall for example. After cutting your opening in the sheet rock, these in-wall speakers simply clamp into place and are secured with one light push. To uninstall them, all it takes is a standard screw driver to loosen the screws which release the clamps all around. These in-walls include speaker cable binding posts and a fairly sophisticated cross-over along with a directional tweeter. I had a chance to audition these gems at the show and was most impressed by their performance.

If in-walls are not for you and you are still looking for something that doesn't take up a lot of space, blends well with you flat panel display, sounds terrific and is easy to install, once again, Phoenix Gold can deliver. They offer two sizes for main speakers, both of which are configured with in a D'Appolito driver configuration and include a very simple, easy to install, bracket. What's more is that they sound tremendous given their footprint, and they are most affordable to us common folk. Their center channel speaker is similar in design with a metalized silver finish and self mounting bracket. What's also interesting about their products is that they offer both a silver finished and black finished grill cover with their speakers as a standard option. If you get tired of one, you can simply change it to the other at any time.

Phoenix Gold also provides a lengthy list of Home Theater Cables including Component Video Cables. Their claim to fame is that they offer a true 75-ohm RCA connector for their cables. We've heard this before and while it may very well be true, we have our doubts until we can do our own measurements or until they provide us with theirs. In addition to cables, Phoenix Gold also provides SAM Panels, volume controls, speaker selector systems, assembled wall-plates and an assortment of other goodies for the custom install and end user marketplace. Kudos to a fabulous display.