Capital Audiofest Day 1: Looking for the WIFI Connection

[MylesBAstor]

Mother Nature did here damndest to throw a monkey wrench into the works. A major storm swept through the East Coast/DC area on Thursday night with a lightning strike hitting the hotel and taking out the electrical system, elevator service and the Wifi (not good for the digital people unless they luckily brought a hard drive; very few bring CDs nowadays). Luckily by the time I arrived late Friday morning the hotel had restored power and people were slowly getting their Wifi working again.

CAF 2019 took another huge leap forward jumping from 65 rooms last year to a robust bountiful 85 rooms in 2019. Even more importantly, the "quality" of the rooms continued to grow and I lost track of the number of new product debuts or first time North American showings at CAF 2019. This jump in exhibitors resulted in the addition of another full floor of exhibit rooms to this years' show. Yet despite the jump in exhibitors, CAF 2019 managed to maintain its friendly, meet and greet, cordial, laid back atmosphere. During the course of the show, in fact, I ran into several manufacturers in the hallways who weren't exhibiting who were very impressed with the show and plan to exhibit here next year.

[MylesBAstor]

VPI debuted the updated version of their top-of-the-line Vanquish supertable, outboard power supply (seen under the table in the pics; don't make the mistake like some nitwits elsewhere on the net of confusing the outboard table power supply with a two piece phonostage!), Vanquish phonostage and integrated stand at this years' Capital AudioFest.

The latest version of the Vanquish table is a complete redesign from top to bottom, not the least being making the table look more like a finished product (Funny never thought mine looked unfinished.)

To being with the plinth is fashioned from a much heavier Aluminum-stainless steel sandwich. A much heavier, stiffer and non-resonant armboard was also designed for the new turntable. The Vanquish direct-drive motor uses a new coreless, cogless design. The direct drive motor and platter is then magnetically coupled to a second platter dropping the table's noise floor by a highly respectable 10 dB. The table's outboard power supply has also been redesigned by Mike Bettinger and among other things comes with vastly updated chokes. Don't be fooled by some nitwits elsewhere on the web into mistaking the table's outboard power supply for a two piece phonostage. The table's power supply sits on the first shelf under the table and VPI's new phonostage sits on the shelf underneath the power supply.

The table comes with a new 14-inch version of the Fatboy arm. In the latest arm, Harry has done away with the looped wire coming out of the tonearm into a Lenco box and goes direct out through the bottom of the board to the phonostage. The Atlas, Harry Weisfeld's current favorite cartridge (and mine too) was mounted in the 14-inch arm in the KEF Muon room next door without any offset. A vdh Crimson Black was mounted in one of the arms.

The rest of Merrill Audio electronics including Merrill's top 118 amplifier, Christine linestage and Jens phonostage. The speakers were Gary Koh's Genesis Advanced Technologies $320K Quartet with Supersub speakers (price includes control module and power supply). Cabling was provided by Nordost.

[MylesBAstor]

VPI also showed the latest version of their new Vanquish table next door. The system consisted of here KEF Muon speakers (seen a couple of years ago at CAF) powered by the Krell's 300 wpc Duo 300XD iBias amplifiers. Nordost Odin 2 wiring was also in abundance here as was next door. The Odin 2 is crazy expensive but the phono cable was amazing sounding at the VPI house!

[MylesBAstor]

Credo speakers from Switzerland (first seen in the US at the recent Axpona show) were paired with Meitner electronics and the "finished" version (no air feet and outboard speed control) of the VPI Vanquish table plus 12-inch gimballed Fatboy arm that sees use in my system. The VPI arm was outfitted with DS Audio's W1 optical cartridge along with the new Meitner version of the preamplifier/equalizer (first seen at RMAF).

[MylesBAstor]

I don't know why Tidal speakers and electronics don't get more love. The speakers almost always sound--not to mention look--great at shows and says something about their ability to integrate into even the most difficult and challenging listening environments! The speakers are super transparent, linear and revealing. Tidal speakers always throw a huge stage; bass like any speaker is dependent upon setup. My biggest quibble is that sometimes I hear the tweeter outshining the rest of the speaker.

The system began with the Touraj's top-of-the-line Vertere Acoustic RG-1 Magic Groove table and arm feeding Tidal's Preos Preamplifier with DAC and phonostage connected to Tidal's Ferrios monoblock amplifiers with connected together with Black Cat cables. Electronics and turntables sat on German Ictra stands. Tidal's new 20th Anniversary speakers (basically the same as the original with a few minor internal hookup changes) sounded absolutely effortless and transient attack was rendered without any hangover or blurring. Doug White, owner of "The Voice That Is," changed over to the Dietrich Brakemaier's Acoustical Systems Aquilar tonearm on Day 2 but I unfortunately didn't get a chance to revisit the room.

[MylesBAstor]

Robin Wyatt/Robyatt Audio brought along as usual his Ken McCollum modified Quad 57s electrostatic speakers. The left speaker, unfortunately, developed some issues with an internal board that needed to be replaced. I did get a chance to relisten on Sunday but wasn't convinced the issue had been totally resolved.

The system consisted of the $6000 Electrostatic Solutions Quad 57s, the $19,000 Butler Monads monoblock amplifiers, the $6000 Mytek Manhattan II with phonostage, a one-off, plinthless version of the $15,000 VPI HW-40 direct drive turntable, the $9950 Schroder SQ Reference tonearm, the $4850 Schroder BA tonearm, the $7500 Miyajima Destiny with bamboo cantilever stereo cartridge, the flagship $3350 Miyajima Infinity mono cartridge and Finley Audio interconnects, speaker cables and power cords. The table and electronics sat in Wax Rax stands.

One item that caught my eye in Robin's room was the $1350 Metal Mat CU190 platter mat. This turntable platter mat is an exact copy down to the exact micro-proportions of Copper, Zinc and Tin of the old and highly desired Micro Seiki gun metal (a type of bronze) platter. Plus they are guaranteed to be flat.

[MylesBAstor]

Command Performance in Falls Church, Virginia displayed John Devore's new top-of-the-line $88,900 Devore Fidelity Orangutan/Reference speakers. (These were the same, but finished version, of the speakers that so caught my ear at Axpona 2018.) The rest of the system consisted of Luxman electronics including the new retro look $19,995 C-1000 preamplifier and $20,995 8 wpc SE MQ-300B power amplifier (based on the old MB-300) and $6495 EQ-500 vacuum tube phono equalizer amplifier. Record playback duties were handled by the $18,195 J. Sikora MAX table from Poland outfitted with either a $6995J. Sikora KV-12 VTA or $6800 Kuzma 4-point tonearm. A $9995 Koestu Onyx Platinum cartridge was mounted in the J. Sikora arm and a $10,449 Ortofon Anna Diamond in the Kuzma arm. The system was cabled from top to bottom with Transparent cables.

Sound is fickle and the speakers/system just didn't live up to the promise heard at Axpona. The room certainly wasn't helping as it sounded like a giant reverb chamber. The midrange didn't have the previously heard almost magical palpability or harmonic sweetness. Nor did the speakers totally disappear like before and cross that imaginary boundary between reproduced and live performance.

[MylesBAstor]

ESD Acoustics from China and Greg Beron of United Home Audio from the nearby Metro DC area teamed up this year at CAF. ESD debuted their new $52,270 Crane floor standing horn speakers powered by Aesthetix's $28,000 Atlas Eclipse 300 wpc hybrid monoblock amplifiers. The zero feedback top-of-the-line Eclipses use a 6SN7 in the voltage gain stage within the context of zero feedback, fully complimentary, balanced bridge design. The rest of the system consisted of Aesthetix Audio's $25,000 Metis preamplifier and United Home Audio's latest $30,000 Ultima4 OPS-DC tape deck. I just love how Greg is always searching for ways--down to being able to turn the meter lights off--to extract more out of his tape machines! Cabling consisted of Synergeistic Audio Galileo SX IC, speaker and power cords.

There had to be room problems here as there was a real discontinuity between the low end and the rest of the speaker's sound.

[MylesBAstor]

Audio Federation came all the way from Palo Alto, CA to exhibit at Capital Audiofest 2019! Not quite China but a long distance nonetheless!

Mike and Nell brought with them a system consisting of:

$66,500 Acapella Campanile 2 speakers with recently developed hyperspherical horn
$110,000 Acapella LaMusika 2000 wpc hybrid integrated amplifier (E182CC input gain and MOSFET output stage)
$6875 Acapella Audio One music server
$98,355 Audio Note DAC Five Signature
Acapella and Audio Note cabling

The big room didn't do the system any favors and I wish I could have heard a couple of familiar tracks. Still, the I think the somewhat sexy looking 93-inch high Acapella Campanile 2 speakers (replete with conventional woofers, horn mids and Acapella's TW1s ion (plasma) tweeter) threw a huge soundstage and disappeared completely within that stage.

[MylesBAstor]

Overture Audio Video in Delaware put together a system consisting of Magico M2 speakers, Esoteric Audio electronics including the Grandioso C1 preamplifier and Grandioso M1 amplifiers, and Technics SL-1000RE-S direct-drive turntable/

van den Hul Grail SB phonostage

combo.

[MylesBAstor]

Room 508 featured an all New Hampshire built high-end audio system. LKV Research and designer Bill Hutchins brought the new wpc Class D Veros PWR+ power amplifier, Line One preamplifier and Veros One phonostage. The PWR+ utilizes the Bruno Putzey designed Purify 1ET400A Purify Audio Class D module and features a zero open loop feedback input/voltage gain stage. Sonner Audio from Merrimack, NH brought their 2 way bass ported (1-inch ring radiator tweeter and 5.5 inch coater paper woofer) Legato Unums stand mounted speakers. Basis Audio from Hollis, NH brought their 2200 Signature turntable with Vector 4 tonearm and Lyra Delos cartridge for analog playback. Basis Audio cables rounded out the room

[MylesBAstor]

Bill Parrish owner of GTT Audio always comes prepared to audio shows and it's a rare ocassion when he doesn't have one of the best sounding rooms at a show. This year was no exception with the debut of several new products at CAF 2019. Making their debut at CAF were the Humboldt integrated amplifier and the Kronos power supply. The Humboldt is derived from AudioNet's top Stern preamplifier and Heisenberg amplifiers and delivers 320 wpc into 8 ohms. The new Kronos Sparta power supply came out earlier this year and is designed to further stabilize and filter power to the turntable motor.

GTT Audio's room consisted of at CAF:

$24,000 YG Acoustics Carmel 2 speakers

$55,00 Audionet Humboldt integrated amplifier
$10,100 AudioNet PAM G2 phonostage
$10,100 Audionet EPX optional power supply

$24,000 Kronos Sparta table from Canada
$9500 Kronos SSCPS Sparta Super Capacitor Power Supply (SSCPS) optional power supply
$8550 Kronos Helena 10.5-inch tonearm and armboard
$15,000 Air Tight Opus 1 cartridge

Kubala-Sosna cables Realization cables

YG Acoustics speakers have come a long way over the years and the system with Carmels possessed that ease and laid back quality of the bigger YG speakers. My main quibble with the Carmels (and has been since first heard them) is that they are small speakers and compared to the other YG models (and other speakers) just tend to make the music sound a little smaller. But other than that the Carmels are always musical and get the musicians' intent across.

[MylesBAstor]

A view from the fourth floor of the atrium showing the VAC/von Schweikert room as well as the tables overflowing with music software and other goodies!

[MylesBAstor]

Jay Truitt, owner of 20/20 Evolution Systems, took two rooms at this years Capital Audiofest. On display in this room were Kharma Audio dB7-S speakers backed by conrad-johnson's top tube gear including the $26,500 GAT Series 2 preamplifier, TEA1 Series 3 phono preamplifier and the debut of the ART-27A 36 wpc Class A triode power amplifier. The analog front-end consisted of a Kuzma Stabi-R turntable and 4-Point tonearm (silver/gold crystal cables) mounted with Kuzma's CAR-30 cartridge. Cables were some prototype wires from Jay.

All biases aside, this one of the best small rooms at the show. I've never been a Kharma speaker fan but these small two-way speakers broke all previous conceptions about Kharma speakers. LPs sounded oh so sweet, delicate, airy and detailed. No trace of that hyperdetailing I've heard in previous iterations of Kharma speakers. (and even backed by cj electronics too!) No trace whatsoever of artificiality. Credit cj's newest ART27as that use KT88 configured for triode operation here too!

[MylesBAstor]

Larry Borden owner of Distinctive Audio in River Vale, NJ had another one of my favorite under 5 feet tall rooms. Not to mention much better sound than last year. The system was fronted by Gary Koh's $30,000/pair Maestro speakers and supported by all Merrill Audio electronics including the $22,000 Element 116 monoblock amplifiers (my review of these amplifiers is coming), $12,400 Christine preamplifier and Jens phonostage. Records were spun on VPI's $15,000 HW-40 turntable and Fatboy arm outfitted with a $5295 van den Hul Crimson Black cartridge. All wiring including ICs, speaker and power cords were provided by Genesis Advanced Technologies too.

The sound here was very smooth and liquid with nothing that grated on your nerves. Imaging filled the small room and there was that sense of ease and control that the latest Merrill electronics possess.