2. misc-audio
  3. 125370-40

Capital Audio Fest 2016

Just got back.   Did not see a thread for this yet so here it is.  

For me  lots of very good sound this year.    The best as a whole I have heard.   Very few disappointments.   Some old favorites enjoyed once again and a few new finds.   Will report more when I get a chance to digest it all a bit.  

I'm of course very interested to hear about what others thought and may have discovered?




128x128mapman
mapman's avatar
mapman OP
22,075 posts
 
Yes Audio Note room always seems to be one of my favorites as well.   No difference this time around.

I plan to do some experimentation with corner placement of speakers in a few rooms of my house.

Classic  Audio/Atmasphere was probably the best showcase for gear at the show.   Last time I attended a couple years back they were in a small cramped room that cramped their style as well.   This time around they were in a large ballroom with plenty of space around them, the largest vendor room at the show I think.  Plenty of room to shine.    The RTR tape of Beatles White Album playing when I was there was a lot of fun.    The room was surprisingly empty though considering this was probably the grandest audio treat at the show.

The new Kef Muon flagship models that premiered were impressive as well when I heard them.

My time was limited so I bypassed record vendors and only briefly sampled many setups I wish I had more time to listen to.

Benchmark room was a draw for me in that I had never heard BEnchmark gear and this will likely be my next DAC perhaps sooner rather than later.
jond's avatar
jond
5,739 posts
 
Another room I like that I forgot about was Fern and Roby great industrial design and use of natural materials and very solid sound.
willsw
22 posts
 
berning/voxitive custom horns
To add more info, that room had Linear Tube Audio amps (the boards designed for us by David Berning) and Gary Gill built the horns. That was one room playing CDs, through a modified Icon Audio tube-output CD player, as well as playing vinyl on a Fern & Roby turntable. 


Another interesting experience was hearing the new Volti Rival speaker which uses the same drivers as the Vittora but with a smaller bass reflex cabinet (and smaller price).  I hope this new speaker gives Greg Roberts the commercial success he deserves.

I came in when they were playing Buddy Guy's "Done Got Old" and the room was packed - rightfully so, it sounded incredible. After that, someone requested classical and a selection from the Firebird Suite literally blew into us at the back of the room. Those were the $11k model with the external crossover. I'd love to hear the basic $4k model. 
calloway
874 posts
 
Great show..many outstanding rooms. The Tidal room with the Piano Diacera G2 speakers was my favorite inspite of the REL not in use due to setup issues with room placement.Such great,natural sound with effortless presentation.
larryi
3,887 posts
 

I had a good time at the show, although I really did not see anything "new" that piqued my interest.  Overall, most of the rooms delivered decent sound, which is unlike many shows where some rooms sound truly awful.  I think this is probably the case because it was the second year at this venue and most of the exhibitors were there for the second time.

The best sound at the show, to me, was delivered by the Deja Vu room with the "new" open baffle speaker system with vintage drivers and a newly built crossover made with vintage parts (it looked like a sealed system but it was open baffle).  The system had two speakers, but, was configured as a mono system because the amplifier used is a one-of-a-kind prototype (uses WE 271 output tubes and mercury vapor rectifiers).  This system provided an amazing demonstration of mono delivering a big, open, soundstage.

I was also impressed by the monitor speaker being shown in the Gershman room.  It delivered an incredibly layered and deep soundstage when playing a phono source (I did not know the music).  When the demonstration followed with Richard Thompson's "Quality Shoe" from a digital source, the sound was less terrific (I own the vinyl and it is a good recording, but, I don't know how well it was mastered in digital).  Still, this is a very promising speaker.

The Audio Note room was again doing its stealth thing--the system was very musical and enjoyable without having those aggressive qualities that a lot of people seem to like at shows (but I am guessing that kind of sound would grow tiresome in the long run).

I say two rooms with Voxactiv speakers in them and I liked what I heard--very clear and dynamic sound, minus the shrill and peaky quality that is often heard with wide-range drivers.  The big Voxactiv speaker at the show had to be listened to at quite some distance to not sound shrill and peaky, but, when thus accommodated, it was very nice sounding. 


More to discover