Day 3: Finishing The Rounds

[MylesBAstor]

Day 3's report kicks off with a mention of some Saturday night after show activities. VPI celebrated their 40th Anniversary with an after hours party in their room where company President Mat Weisfeld made a few announcements. One bit of news was VPI has two new turntables in the pipeline that will be released in the next year. The first new piece will be a new, more entry level turntable (no further details were shared); second, the table that I currently use (VPI’s direct drive Vanquish) will become an official product. The Vanquish will also undergo a few updates this coming February with perhaps the most significant being an update to the motor speed control (coming from the new 40th Anniversary table).

For those into vintage, Harry brought along part of his collection of old tonearms, some of which date back to ‘60s. Sure that you like me will enjoy these pictures!

[MylesBAstor]

Doug White’s The Voice That Is room featured Tidal’s new Vimberg Mino speakers that debuted in the US at the recent RMAF show. The Minos were driven effortlessly by Tidal’s 190 wpc (8 ohms) Impulse stereo amplifier. The rest of the system included Tidal’s reference Preos preamplifier (with DAC and phonostage) and a TW-Akustic Raven AC-1 table/Raven 10.5 arm/Transfiguration Proteus cartridge, Antipodes Audio DX-3 Reference Music server and Skogrand cables.

This room proved the adage not to base any opinions on what you hear on the first day of the show! Unfortunately, as shows get bigger and bigger, no one has the time to visit a roo more than once? Or what about the show attendees who has but a day or two to devote to attending a show?

On Friday, the system sounded uneven and the bass was a bit ill-defined. That was somewhat surprising as Doug routinely gets some of the best sound at every show he exhibits. On Sunday, it was a different system. Inches matter. The new Skogrand cables were burned in a bit. The system was now far more linear and neutral. What really stood out the most among was the system’s many qualities was its low level resolution. Take the Peace in the Valley cut (side 4 version) from Elvis 57. Each member of the Jordanaires should be clearly separated in space as well as tone. Far too many systems congeal the voices and blend the voices so only the baritone voice stands out. Not here. Each singer was distinctively rendered and spread out rather than sounding like one person. Everyone stopped talking when the MOFI reissue of One From The Heart was played. Clearly a message at shows that a show system is doing something special.

[MylesBAstor]

I make no bones about it: horn speakers just aren’t my gig. Yet I recognize that horns represent the Holy Grail for other audiophiles. That said, Sam Wisniewski’s Destination Audio horn Speakers proved very listenable at CAF. The 3-way, $29k Destination Audio Nika horn Speakers from Poland were accompanied by Dan Wright’s Modwright KWA LS300 amplifier and LS 300 preamplifier along with a MacMini with JRiver software and Destination Audio DAC. Rounding out the system were Skogrand Beethoven speaker cables.

What caught my ear here was what the speakers don’t do. The Nikas didn’t have that veiling and brightness commonly heard with horns. Yet the Destination Audio Nikas still had that aliveness and presence that horn lovers oh so treasure.

[ehoove]

I agree some of the best horn speakers I have heard, and I like you am not a horn guy.
Regards,
Jim

[adrianwu]

The problem is not inherent in horn technology, just that it is difficult to get right. Shame Living Voice doesn't participate in the US shows. Everyone should try to hear the Olympian at least once. Full range horn from 50K down to 20Hz. Simply heads and shoulders above anything else I have ever heard (and so is the price !). Classic Audio should sound great too in this show. I am using their field coil drivers and they are amazing. Electrostatic-like transparency and transients with horn dynamics. Horn compression drivers have 10 times less distortion than dynamic drivers by virtue of a much shorter excursion of the diaphragm. They also tend to have much lighter diaphragms and much more powerful magnets, resulting in superior transient response. And not to mention the much higher sensitivity (often 20dB more sensitive), allowing one to use amps that don't employ multiple output devices (parallel output tubes or transistors is my pet peeve since it is impossible to have perfectly matched devices) and to operate in the most linear part of the curve.

[[email protected]]

This room was in my top 3 favorites of the show. Sam said the parts he used to make his dac are not readily available so it will not become a product but it made the 16/44 files he was playing from his Mac mini sound incredible.

[MylesBAstor]

Fritz speakers showcased their $3500 Carrera BE stand mounted speakers at CAF. Dan Wright provided his ModWright KWA 150SE amplifier, LS300 balanced preamplifier and PH9.0 phonostage while Fern and Roby loaned their Montrose table outfitted with the new Hana SL Cartridge. Cabling was courtesy of Zu Audio.

[MylesBAstor]

Sound Insight from Massapequa, Long Island brought along the newest version of their big hybrid planar ribbon/dynamic, open baffle woofer system to CAF. The speaker’s midrange panel runs $17k and goes down to 50 Hz. The diagphram is a bit out the ordinary not using common materials like Mylar. Instead the GTA3r uses a special composite material from Japan that allows the use of copper wiring on the panel. Price on the open baffle woofer system depends on the number of sub woofers; the all out towers arrangement shown at CAF runs $28k. The rest of the system’s electronics consisted of PASS XA 60.8 amplifiers, PASS XS preamplifier and phonostage. A $6800 Semper Sonus TE1 epicyclic drive (rim) Turntable from Portugal outfitted with a Schick tonearm and Lyra Kleos cartridge spun 12-inch black discs. Wiring was provided by Triode Labs.

The sound was much improved over last year. The soundstage was massive yet every instrument’ was precisely separated, layered and located. There was a real magic in the midrange with vocals and the system was very transparent. Definitely some speakers to keep an ear out for!

[tom_hankins]

This room, along with the Tenacious Sounds room with the new TAD speakers and the room using the Sonner bookshelf speakers with Accuphase integrated and Mytek DAC were my top three.
Thanks again Myles for the great pictures and write ups!

[MylesBAstor]

Black Ice Audio, the company formerly known as Jolida Audio, came to CAF 2018 with complete new line of Jim Fosgate designed electronics. Featured in the room were several new pieces including the 20 wpc $1399 Fusion F11 integrated vacuum tube stereo amplifier, the 60 wpc $1999 Fusion F35 Vacuum Tube Stereo integrated amplifier, the $1999 F360 vacuum tube preamplifier, the $1999 Fusion F 159 vacuum tube phono preamplifier (with crosstalk reduction circuitry) and the $2499 Fusion DAC transport. The front-end consisted of a Clearaudio Champion turntable and Benz Glider cartridge and Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Concert Grand speakers. Both integrated amplifiers are balanced differential push-pull designs and the preamplifier comes with equalizer controls.

[spinblackcircle]

Nice to see equipment in the four figure range. I'd bet that setup sounded pretty damn good as well, for the money......

[MylesBAstor]

Salk Audio Source was playing their $5695 Song3 Encores driven by the relatively new 40 wpc $3985 McGary SA1 KT77 based tube amplifier. The front-end consisted of Salk Audio's $2495 StreamPlayer Gen III SE (with Roon and Tidal) paired with an Exogal Comet DAC.

All cables and interconnects were provided by AntiCables. Since it was the last day, I missed hearing the slightly less expensive $4495 in standard finish Salk Song3 (Be: Beryllium; AT=AudioTechnology midrange drivers). It's been a while since heard Jim Salk's offerings and I was impressed with the system's midrange and clarity.

[MylesBAstor]

Dave Slagle of EMIA Audio and his quest to prove the Quad 57s can do bass and dynamics. This year Dave brought an extra pair of stacked Quads (eight ESL 57s in total) to serve as he called them "splash" speakers. The main purpose of the wall facing speakers was to eliminate--or at least greatly reduce--the ESL 57's beaming and head in a vise effect. This all silver wire system proved eminently listenable and while maybe not the last word in dynamics, proved more than up to the task of playing back large scale classical musical pieces such as the new Electric Recording Company's reissue of the EMI recording of Elgar's Cello Concerto with Jacqueline DuPre. Nor could one miss the system's articulation and tonality.

Speaking of the Electric Recording Company. ERC has now branched out into reissuing some jazz classics including the soon to be released Bill Evans Sunday at the Village Vanguard (Dave is holding some of the newer ERC releases). The LPs are being made in limited quantities (150-300 copies, some divided in half between mono and stereo versions). But don't get your hopes up. The Bill Evans release is already sold out. The albums are a touch pricey at around $650 each (or 500 pounds).

[Socrates]

I know Dave--bit of a Fish outa Water in the mainstream, but coughs up some innovative and sonically pleasing statements

good to see him "pushing the envelope"!

Soc

[MylesBAstor]

One of the most enjoyable rooms at the show and the best of the four Tenacious Sounds rooms centered around the new $28,995 Tad E1TX speakers capably supported by the $75K TAD M600 monoblock amplifiers and $40K TAD C600 preamplifier. The analog front-end consisted of a Feickert Firebird turntable and the latest Soundsmith Hyperion V. 2 phono cartridge (note in passing: VPI also used the Peter Ledermann designed Hyperion V.2 and its sound won over a lot of attendees). Audience also debuted its new top-of-the-line Front Row interconnect, speaker and power cables.

Despite their many virtues, TAD speakers always possessed a slight edge that held me at arm's length. Not with these new speakers. The sound was very natural and easy to listen to, yet with scads of resolution. Jonathan Derda from Mobile Fidelity served as master of ceremonies for all three days and served up hit after MOFI hit reissue. In fact, Jonathan turned me onto the MOFI reissue of One from the Heart that sounded so good through the system that I immediately went to the marketplace and bought myself a copy.

[MylesBAstor]

The Audio Company assembled an all out attack on the state-of-the-art in sound once again at CAF 2018. "The Ultimate in Sound" lineup consisted of:

von Schweikert Audio Ultra 11 speakers and V12XS Shockwave subs
2 pairs of Valve Amplification Company Statement 450iQ mono power amplifier
Valve Amplification Company Statement line stage
Valve Amplification Company Statement phonostage
Kronos Pro turntable with SCPS-1 power supply and Air Tight Opus cartridge
Masterbuilt Audio cables and interconnects

I left this room for last and for good reason. I wasn't as enamored by the sound of this room as were some of my reviewer colleagues. To be fair, it's a huge and unenviable task to get a system of this caliber to strut itself in a day or two under audio show conditions.

On the plus side, the sound wasn't as overblown as at past shows. Images, in particular, didn't sound like the Jolly Green Giant. Nor did the system sound as edgy as in past shows. But there was a bit of dynamic reticence. Plus there was definitely something amiss with the analog front-end. Here the low end was ill defined with almost a one note bass. The most damning piece of evidence was the bass was far more extended and tighter with the digital front-end.

[Socrates]

I tend to agree here--Von Schweikert speakers always sound sorta constipated to me, can't say the Kronos TT has impressed much either

maybe that combo just doesn't gel?.

Appreciate the honest reporting on the Show Myles--mere platitudes get boring I feel.

Soc

[MylesBAstor]

Coming up. Final thoughts and favorite rooms.

[Jmwick]

A yeoman's job. Thank you for your extraordinary effort in bringing the show home.

[Skylab]

Yes indeed - LOVE these show reports!!!! Thanks so much for doing them.

[stellavox]

Nice job Myles,

Agree with everything you say - especially as I was there.

[Musica]

Thanks again Myles. Great stuff!!