CES & THE Show 2014 • Hot Product

Constellation Audio debuted two new products at CES, both clad in the company's immaculate signature metalwork.

The Hercules 2 (above) is a power amplifier that is internally very similar to the original Hercules, but it replaces that design's upright form with a more conventional shape -- conventional, that is, except for its size, which is easily in the extreme category at a good 24" deep and 260 pounds. You can buy the amp in either stereo or mono form with the former delivering 500 watts a side and the latter twice that. In either instance the price is $90,000 per unit.

The Argo is rather more approachable both in size and price. It's a 125Wpc, $20,000 integrated amp that is half of a Centaur power amp with the circuitry from an Argo preamp. The volume control, however, is a stepped resistive ladder rather than the LDR design in the original Argo, which produces too much heat for an integrated amp.