CES & THE Show 2010 • Hot Product

Avalon's new Time speakers ($48,000/pair), which combine dynamic drivers of differing diaphragm materials (a pair of 11" Nomex Kevlar woofers, a concave ceramic midrange, and a concave diamond tweeter), were used in two systems: one with Karan Acoustics electronics, including KA M 1200 mono amps ($57,500/pair)...

...and another with Jeff Rowland electronics. Of course, this raises an obvious question: Which system sounded better? We split our votes here, but we agreed that the Time was adept at portraying space and sounded highly resolving throughout its musical range. We'll avoid making puns with the speaker's name and just say we look forward to another listening session.