JL AUDIO: The International CES, Las Vegas 2014
I have been chums with the American JL Audio company for many, many years. It is one of those true long term transatlantic relationships. I have a few of these. There are some folks you may not speak to for an age but they know you and have had dealings with you and are just there when you have something to talk to them about. A bloke who put his job on the line when on a press trip to Japan, just to make sure the journalists were not thwarted in getting essential photographs, does not recall doing that all these years later but I was deeply impressed at the time. Steve Crawford was the man, well over ten years ago and is now the top chap at Alpine of the USA! Another bloke called Brian Tally was imported by the precursor to Armour Automotive, to build a crazy pick up truck install for Kicker UK. He was with Kicker in the USA for a bit longer but now works for the outfit that distributes the GEC stuff in the USA called Jasco. You know, Thomas ‘˜light bulb’ Edison’s little enterprise? Well, the accounts he deals with in the USA are worth some $45m a year now.
And between the guys (well, mostly girls) at PRPR and the CEA folks treating me like a VIP, and Brian Tally taking me out to dinner with his UK distributor (thus adroitly making this a proper business expense UK distributor and UK journalist after all) at the most amazingly odd place for the top end quality in a gently bonkers casino, (reviewed here: link ) I was also a guest at some other posh do’s in town at the same time.
This was even more nutty than the Rockford Fosgate thing at the Hard Rock. For I had to go to the Palms resort. I cab over there and it is the ‘˜Fantasy Tower’ I need.. floor THIRTY TWO!
It slowly sinks in as my ears pop and wibble as I gain altitude in the lift shaft, that I am going to a High Rollers floor. A land of comped ten-to-twenty-five grand a night duplex penthouses, that turn out to have individual suspended infinity pools behind thick Plexiglas walls, yet open to the sky, several hundred feet up, with an unparalleled view of the Strip. They also come complete with your own bar and barman! And waiting staff feeding your guests! Well, JL’s did.
I met my old mucker Todd Ramsey there, who was looking better than he did five years back I told him he was looking like his dad back then and he was not thrilled! He runs a consultancy, doing training for JL Audio as a contractor. (Website is link) Imagine a market big enough to enable that to be something you could do HERE! But Steve Turrisi was the chap to corner as he is a passionate and knowledgeable bloke and best of all knows exactly when to tell me to shut the heck up, so he can get a word in edgeways. I think he is a diamond geezer!
Mr. Turrisi had some truly gnarly stuff to relate and it was about the home stuff as well as the car and even Marine, which is an increasingly big deal for them. Incidentally, the top marine dudes for JL Audio down in the Have-Yachts zone would be like Huets The In Car Specialists in the Bright-Helmstone Upon-Sea area – actually. Although they simply must get a website sorted and buy the domain of ‘Huets Marine’ to plop it under, I feel.
First we saw the new less than wallet crushing home E Sub which is still a monster for UK living rooms.
And the home-crushing big boy ones
Then, we had the new version of the XD amp line up explained, although I only just got this myself, I understood that it means a truly wide selection of amplifiers to pick from, allowing maximum versatility for installers and vendors.
And we saw the new eight inch 8W1v3 driver and it looks to be a cult in the making. You read it here first.
After this and with apologies to the land locked and the not-have-motor-boats, which is pretty much most of us, we saw the marine stuff. Mostly for fresh water use on monstrous continental-scale lakes where wakeboarding or riding the wake of your own towing boat and doing jumps and stunts thereupon is a big thing.
Here is the longest video of clips I ever compiled and I hope the JL Audio fans amongst you will approve. The WHALE in the room is the penthouse itself, which does get mentioned. For now, here is the video. The music in the background was a live musician.
But in case you could not wait to see that crazy view, here is just a minute or so from the 32nd floor of penthouses with infinity pools, far high above the city of Las Vegas! A million thanks to JL Audio for my evening invitation that finally got me to see the inside, first hand, of one of these high roller suites.
Vegas, Baby!
And for the heck of it, those pics above as a slide show gallery:
link
Still more yet to come, from Sin City and the International CES 2014