CES 2013

Clearaudio debuted the new $3000 Performance turntable/tonearm combo at CES 2013.

Constellation, a consortium of designers headed up by industry veteran Peter Madnick introduced the long awaited Perseus phono preamplifier designed by the legendary John Curl who says this is his best yet phono preamplifier.

Bob Graham introduced the new Phantom Elite tonearm at CES 2013 mounted on the eye-catching $85,000 Air Force One turntable he is distributing in the United States (currently under review). The 'table is designed by legendary Micro-Seiki creator Hideaki Nishikawa, with whom I had a long and productive chat at the show about the design.

This is a photo of Touraj Moghaddam's $35,000 Vertere tonearm. You can see the built-in cueing light in the head shell but you can't see the details of the complex machining and unique bearing system that does not use gimbals or any sort of pivot point (s).

Franc Kuzma's new Stabi M turntable, shown with his 4 Point tonearm, continues the designer's descent into blackness, physically and, it's assumed sonically. With the exception of his handsome Stabi XL and perhaps the smaller "pipe bomb" Stabi S turntable, both of which are finished in brass, the Slovenia-based designer has kept things dark and pebbly.

McIntosh introduced a new prototype turntable built to the company's specs by Clearaudio.