Capitol Audio Fest

Hi Larry,
Very nice show report.  I too was curious about Tekton Double Impacts given the considerable hype.  I'm glad you were able to hear them (-and mapman as well). We agree, definitely good sounding speakers and they're easily driven by lower powered amplifiers.  Jond I wish you could have beard them as I always appreciate your impressions. 
Charles 

jond,

The Channel D room was a touch bright, but, I took into account the nature of that kind of reverberant space.  I think you would have really  liked the Charney and Rethm speakers.  Neither were bright and they were also, like the Auditorium, not cursed with a prominent peak in the upper midrange.  Did you get to hear the Volti speakers?  This is, for a horn-type system, a reasonably compact system that delivered good sound.

I also should have mentioned the Burwell and Sons horn system.  I thought they sounded quite good too.  They were warm sounding and delivered the saturated harmonics that I like from old school systems (tube electronics, pleated paper surround woofers, compression drivers, etc.).  They were also surprisingly compact and nice looking; I thought they were monsters from the pictures I have seen.  But, at its price point, Deja Vu can build a custom system that is precisely what you want (and hopefully can afford).

I should also give favorable mention to the DC area DIY group and their room.  This time, they only displayed one setup instead of rotating several systems so they were not as ambitious as in prior years.  But, the system was quite nice sounding.  It was essentially a cube without a top and a back (open baffle design).  An 18" woofer fired downward and the front baffle held a coaxial midrange/tweeter.  The box was made rigid by using round dowels across the open top and open back (great idea for reducing interference with the back wave of both the woofer and coaxial drivers).  The speaker looked to be quite easy to build and the parts were quite inexpensive.  This makes it a classic DIY product--clever design substituting for expensive parts and construction.

LarryI, your comment about the Burwell and Sons "Mother of Burl" speakers really surprised me.  Maybe they changed something over the course of the show, but on Friday afternoon when I stopped by their room the sound was just plain awful, I mean ear bleeding painful.  I left the room within 5 minutes out of fear of damaging my ears.  To me that was a prime example of how horn speakers can turn off many listeners.  Maybe they got better over the course of the show but my experience Friday did not encourage a repeat visit.

There were a number of other rooms that did not appeal to me for one reason or another including Classic Audio, Daedalus, Volti, Tidal, and VAC/Von Schweikert, but nothing bothered me like the Burwell and Sons room. 

On a more positive note, some other speakers I did enjoy include TAD Evolution One, German Physiks and Harbeth 30.2.  As I look over the exhibitor list, there were many rooms that I seem to have missed so I don't mean to imply anything good or bad by omitting others mentioned in this thread.

I hit Classic audio room Saturday afternoon. They were playing a R2R of Tull Thick As a Brick I believe. The sound was very bright for some reason. Was hard to listen. Something was off I’m guessing in that I’ve heard their rooms at CAF several times including same room last year and this was first time I was not impressed.

Burwell speakers were gorgeous but I was more impressed by that than the sound.

Zu room also seemed to have a problem on Saturday afternoon. The large room was empty (also very cold) and sound was a disaster IMHO. Zu has never totally floated my boat in past years even in much smaller rooms. This one was larger and I think they were still running off similar flea powered but pricey amps. Sounded like a poorly done PA system this time around. Too bad because I like the Zu look but the sound has yet to grab me. The large circular shaped room was surely a factor.   I'd stay out of there unless I had a chance to prep well in advance!

I liked the sound of the Harbeths, something I could live with, and the looks, but not so much the price. Lots of competition there.

When it comes to speaker appearances, the Auditorium 23 gets a gold star for sure.  The cabinet was made of solid walnut with superb joinery and the vertical walnut strips on the front looked really nice.