CES 2018 • Awards

hat time flies is no great revelation. We are in Las Vegas for CES, giving out our awards for the best audio products and recordings, and it seems like we were just doing this less than a year ago -- and less than a year before that. The only explanation is that while the audio industry continues to move forward, the products and recordings collectively sustain a level of excellence that seems timeless. Even so, this year's crop of award winners is unique, with one established company shaking up its product hierarchy and two others with products that are new in function or in creation.

Wilson Audio’s Alexx hit the high-end market with all the noise and impact of an avalanche. First there was the muted rumble of the rumors; then the tremors of anticipation as the product drew closer and the first details started to emerge; then the heightened expectation fuelled by the noise of secondhand anecdotal evidence emerged; and finally there was the opportunity to get up close and personal. The Alexx might look vaguely like a MAXX and be roughly the same size, but it carries more illustrious DNA as first cousin to the WAMM Master Chronosonic. This was a big Wilson, but not as we knew it. It doesn’t so much replace the MAXX 3 as usurp the position of the Alexandria XLF. More compact and more elegant, it is engaging and communicative, refined yet powerful, still an iron fist, but in the prettiest velvet glove you ever did see.

Just when loudspeaker designers thought it was safe to get back into the ambitious, full-range game, Wilson’s Alexx has set the standard against which all other efforts will be measured, and it is duly a Product of the Year. Daryl Wilson, company CEO and designer of the Alexx, accepts the award.

And now for something completely different, and nearly new for the audiophile market. Nordost has been winning awards for its cables for many years, but the company's Qkore system debuted in 2017 in a segment of the market that's not exactly stuffed with competition. Qkore addresses the ground plane throughout an audio system, connecting to every electronic component, creating an off ramp for ground noise. In sonic terms, Qkore effected "an opening up of the soundstage similar to what happens with a very good subwoofer, along with a more airy presentation and stronger image outlines," all from chassis that are smaller than cereal boxes.

Meredith Gabor of Nordost accepts the award. We predict that this is only the beginning of the discussion of ground noise -- and the Qkore system.

Last but certainly not least is the fuel that makes the audiophile machine go -- the music. Mobile Fidelity LPs have always been special, given the care and attention to detail with which they are created. But with its One-Step series, MoFi has brought music lovers closer to the source -- with LPs that omit two processes in the standard sequence of pressing LPs and two sets of metal parts as well. Audiophilia is about better -- better equipment leading to a better listening experience. And better is exactly what One-Step is -- a better, more direct process leading to better sound. Jim Davis, owner of Mobile Fidelity (left), and Josh Bizar, the label's marketing director, accept the award that reminds us of the guiding concept of high-end audio.