CES 2018 • Best of Show

Not all of the best sound during CES was at the Venetian, home to the show's high-performance-audio exhibits. As usual, dCS took a room across the street at the Mirage, assembling a system of familiar brands in a larger space that was also more sonically challenging, because of all of the hard, reflective surfaces. But once again, the sonic outcome spoke for itself, the system being in almost every way the best we heard during the show.

A 300Wpc D'Agostino Progression stereo amp ($22,000) drove Wilson Audio Sasha Series 2 speakers ($33,950 per pair) in a gorgeous, stealthy satin obsidian-black finish that made the speakers look like they would be undetectable by radar.

The preamp was a D'Agostino Progression ($22,000), and the source was one of the limited-edition dCS Vivaldi One all-in-one units ($80,000) in a mirror finish, although a Rossini clock ($7500) was also in use. Cables and power distribution were from Transparent Audio's Reference line, and the racks were Harmonic Resolution Systems VXR models ($22,950 each plus extra for the bases).

This system walked such a fine line between in-room presence and on-recording space that we could play any of our demo cuts and hear them at their very best. But, once again, it was John Quick of dCS who played the choicest music from his seemingly inexhaustible supply of computer files.

This certainly wasn't a budget-priced system, but neither the speakers nor the electronics were the top of the line either. Together they proved once again that you don't have to go all out in terms of cost to achieve all-out sound.