Aurum Acoustics was warmly welcomed at its CES premier, January 8-11 in Las Vegas. Aurum débuted the Integris Active Loudspeaker System and the Integris CDP, CD Player-Preamplifier to CES' global audience. Show-goers were overwhelmingly impressed by the Integris thorough product concepts and its stunning clarity, naturalness and dynamics - we received more than our share of "best of show" responses from attendees. Perhaps equally outstanding is that we accomplished this as first-timers at CES and without the use of any acoustic/room treatment, power conditioning devices, and other add-ons whatsoever.

The Integris CDP was demonstrated in prototype form. It was very widely received and respected as a source component that would enhance most any audiophile's system. We are working hard to add the finishing details and anticipate the first production run being available in spring 2004. There will be some minor cosmetic changes in button layout and chassis cosmetics. We will also be including what we believe will be regarded as one of the finest remote control solutions offered with a high-end audio product: a universal programmable remote system with tremendous flexibility and ease of use. These updates will be publicly revealed at the upcoming Festival Son & Image show in Montreal.

The preliminary data prepared prior to CES (and prior to full prototype testing) hinted that the unit would include DSP-based equalization features, however, in eventual testing we have found that their inclusion and use decreases overall transparency. This may largely be a result of the superb transparency of the unit relative to competing products. We did not activate those features during CES and we will not be including them in the final design. The design will have some facility to add these features if we later devise software that meets our high expectations. However, it is possible that we will need to wait for the development of more powerful processors to get the results we want, so we do not guarantee that an upgrade will be made available. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. We still believe DSP is an area in which we may achieve substantial gains and we will be continuing R&D in that area for possible future products.

The Integris Active Loudspeaker System was demonstrated using two of our own highly customized monoblock-style dual 300B tube amps. The woofer drive was accomplished with an external Bryston PowerPac solid-state amplifier. We also had on static display a prototype single-chassis amplifier that contains all six channels of amplification: this would greatly simplify setup and eliminate a pair of interconnects and reduce power cable requirements from four to just one. The cosmetics of the prototype also more closely match that of the Integris CDP. Response to our intention to make this change was very favorable and it is being worked on to debut for the Montreal show in April. There was one caution advised from people though: "Don't change the sound!" Don't worry - we will ensure that our updates keep our sound quality at the same high level or better.

Aurum Acoustics would like to thank everyone who visited our exhibit room at CES for their support, encouragement and appreciation of true musical sound. We feel that we may have been this year's sleeper hit at CES - we'll have to prepare for much more attention next year!

Below are a few selected links of press coverage and photos:

• 6moons: Srajan Ebaen
• Positive Feedback: Dave Clark and Roger Gordon
• Audiogon
• Audioworld: Kevin Elliott