CES & THE Show 2012 • Hot Product

It doesn't take any great perceptive abilities to notice the proliferation of big, expensive speakers, and CES provides the perfect venue for showing off new ones. Among the many on sonic display in Las Vegas, one of the few that showed promise commensurate with its size and cost was the Venture Ultimate Reference, which uses Venture-designed and -manufactured graphite-composite drivers and Venture's own wire. Venture amps drove the speakers, producing a soundscape that was immense in all dimensions and, moreover, believable -- likely due to the acute image placement. There was also impressive speed and suppleness, the speakers revealing all manner of musical detail with rare insight but never turning hard-edged or sounding exaggerated. One demo cut featuring a solo singer and chorus was the highlight of the show for the way it arranged life-sized performers in space.

As for the price, the Ultimate Reference costs $139,500 per pair, but smaller, less expensive Venture speakers were used in two other systems, and their sound was similar in many ways to that of their bigger sibling, although lacking the ultimate scale of the Ultimate Reference.