A Capital Audiofest 2012 thread

I was at CAF for several hours on both Friday and Saturday, and I had a chance to visit rooms of interest on multiple occasions. My reactions were somewhat different than expressed above. In general I thought the overall sound quality this year was pretty mediocre and not nearly as good as last year. I have no idea why that would be. Certainly there were no standout rooms like last year's Wilson Sasha/D'Agostino demo using Peter McGrath's live recordings.

The rooms this year that had reasonably good sound, in my opinion, were:

1. Audio Note room with both vinyl and digital
2. Command AV room with Devore Orangatan speakers
3. Deja Vu Audio room with Western Electric drivers in Jensen Imperial type cabinets
4. Dave Slagle's room with Lowther field coils in big Azurahorns (interesting but not really my cup of tea)
5. DC Audio DIY Club room with homemade electrostatics (interesting again, but not really my tastes)
6. Volti Vittora speakers---too loud and I didn't think they sounded as good as they did last year, but still much potential here.

I find it very interesting that Mapman and I reached such different conclusions about the rooms he named. The GT Audio speakers would have given me a headache if I had stayed there much longer. I was not impressed with the Classic Audio Reproductions demo---much too loud but beyond that the bass was thick and lacking in tonal differentiation. The Cathedral speakers might have sounded better in a much larger room, but at a 10' or so distance they were seriously lacking in coherency (same could be said for the Sophia speakers as well). Lastly, the Daedalus Athena sounded much, much better in Denver last fall in several rooms where I heard them. Based on that experience, I was really looking forward to hearing them at CAF without all the distractions and noise of RMAF. Unfortunately, they sounded too thin and bright each time I visited. I know they can sound better than this.

I had not planned frankly on commenting at all on this year's CAF show, but I have because Mapman's comments show that two enthusiasts can hear the same sounds yet reach quite different conclusions. I am not saying that my feelings are any more valid than Mapman's. I just find it interesting that we have such diverse reactions. I guess that's what keeps more than one audio company in business.

Despite my negative tone, I actually had a great time especially meeting up with people I hadn't seen for a long while. I truly hope that the show is a success and will continue for the future.

Sal,

Some of those you mentioned might have caught my ear more had i more time to absorb. Some rooms i was in and out of very fast if nothing caught m eye or ear uniquely.

The audio note room was one i was interested in and spent 20 minutes or so in. I liked them as a corner placement option and they sounded fine just nothing struck me as particularly outstanding for their size and price. I guess i had unrealistic expectations perhaps going in. Also short auditions do not tell you much about if you and the sound will get along over the long term. That can be tricky. I suspect the anotes might have endeared themselves to me better that way for some applications but again lack of dynamics for the cost was a concerrn.

Thank you for your impressions, Mapman.

It's good to see people's perspective, even if we don't hear the same thing. You're a lot more sanguine about the sound you described than I am. Again, I felt most rooms sounded poor.

In addition to RMAF, since you are on the East Coast, I would encourage you to visit the NYC show next spring. Maybe it's unfair to compare this to NYC or RMAF, but it didn't rank with VTV 2006 in NJ, either. I found the overall lack of energy at the show disconcerting. The lack of exhibitors and dearth of people disappointed many, none more so than those who had to shell out for the rooms. Given the East Coast locale, I have trouble believing the poor attendance of this show. My buddy who had a room couldn't get over how dead it was. And, like in NYC, this was another grey haired affair, there simply are no young people showing up at these events. A fifty year old guy seems on the lower end of the demographic.

Here are the rooms I liked (if a room isn't on this list, presume I didn't like it):
BEST OF SHOW - Highwater Sound! Along with Mike and Neli of Audio Federation and Bobby Palkovic of Merlin, I doubt there's anyone in high-end audio who does a better job at a show. The TW Acoustic, Tron, Horning sound was as close as one gets to real live music in these shows. Just wish Jeff would relent on the noise the AC would have contributed; man, was it hot in that room

Bogen amplifiers driving church organ pipe loudspeakers. The most creative system I can remember in high-end audio, bar none. This guy is an absolute, think outside the box genius. Not the best sound of the show, but definitely the most crazy and fun. I absolutely loved the concept, bravo!

Paolo Audio. A boutique tube amplifier manufacturer in Virginia I'd not previously heard of, and did a surprisingly good job

Bob Carver Audio/Daedalus. Didn't come anywhere close to challenging for my Best of Show, but decent nonetheless. I was very happy to finally hear the Carver tube amps

Sophia Electric. Personally, I found the loudspeakers a bit bloated, but color me impressed hearing their 300B based SET amplifier drive them. Were I in the market for an SET amplifier, I'd give some consideration to Sophia

Woo Audio. The non-headphone based system in the second room was incredibly musical

Deja Vu. Sorry not to hear the PP 300B or 2A3 Vu produces. I found the room with the much overlooked Synthesis stuff from Italy, which is one of the biggest bargains in this hobby distinctly better than the other

Cathedral Speakers. As Mapman mentioned, the very nice sound coming from these was quite unexpected

Joseph Audio/Bel Canto/VPI. It looks like I forgot to add Jeff Joseph to my list of folks who normally hit the ball out of the park at these shows. Excellent sound. Though the floorstanders weren't playing, my wife was impressed enough with the sound of the monitors and the overall aesthetic that she actually asked if I could buy a pair for the main system. How's that for an endorsement?

DeVore Fidelity/Leben. Truthfully, I've never been all that thrilled with DeVore loudspeakers. That all changed Saturday when I heard the Orangutang. What a wonderful pair of speakers they are

Trel,

I'm not sure our assessments are all that different. I was very pressed for time and attempted to hit all the rooms. Other than the ones I mentioned, which for various reasons I spent more time with, I was mostly just assessing pass/fail. If the sound was OK and had promise, it passed. THere were only three rooms I heard that I would say failed. Most of the rest had potential. I only had 4 hours so there was more than enough to keep me interested and engaged especially since I do not normally frequent these shows. It was a special treat for me!

Is it possible that some vendors had their sound tweaked better by Sunday? What days were you there?

I did get the impression that the vendors were disappointed with the turnout.

My main critique with this show was there was no apparent entry path for the uninitiated. In this economy, high end audio should do a better job of providing clear stepping stones rather than presenting the image that you have to spend $10s of thousands to really be in the club. Few young people have the money or desire with all the decent options out there today to join that club. It's exclusiveness is its main defining characteristic and probably it s biggest barrier to growth.

One thing I look for in these shows is value in addition to reference level sound. That is a big factor in my assessment.

I notice in the comments by Mr. Atkinson from Stereophile a focus also on what sounded good or right to him. That is normal for most, but for a representative of a publication that seeks a somewhat broad audience, I would have liked to gotten a sense that he was more open to new or different things than I did.

I did not see or notice the pipe speakers on SUnday. Not sure if they were still there? That would have been cool!

I guess its a matter of perspective. THe more hardcore full time audiophile that attends many shows might be unimpressed. How many of those are there really? If you can't get their interest, whose interest can you get?

The answer might be everyone else maybe, but you have to make something like this digestible to the uninitiated somehow.

THe DIY demo of the simple full range driver on large open baffles running of the small Class A amp was the show stealer for me. What these guys did with a little knowledge, creativity and just a few dollars really put almost everything else to shame. It also happened to be the most crowded small room I saw at the show on Sunday (GT was second, at least with the right music playing).

One other observation I had in regards to attracting young people was the music selection. Can you say old codger music? At least mostly. I love most of it but the music that most people listen to these days was totally absent. What's up with that?

The DIY room really livened up for a few minutes when the exhibitor cued up some Green Day and I suspect most listening heard something of interest then that they had never heard before! Like when I heard Fleetwood Mac years ago on a pair of Klipschorns and Tympanis for the first time and officially became an "audiophile". Except no audiophile will say Green Day sounds good except once heard on a good "high end" system. Then it sounds like it should, not like a bunch of random noise. After Green Day, they then switched to a classical concerto with similarly excellent results. That's the way to do it IMHO.

I attended Saturday afternoon. I thought that the number of exhibitors was about right for the number of attendees that, admittedly, was rather disappointing. As others have noted and as I had expected, most of the attendees were middle aged men (and older) with very few women; however, I was also pleasantly surprised by the number of younger guys. To be fair and using speakers to illustrate my point, the median price of a pair of speakers was about 10k and many of the speakers were huge or required a lot of space to breath; I do not know many men in their 20s and 30s who have that amount of disposable income and the necessary space - I certainly did not at that age.

Also and maybe it is just me, I find it almost impossible to judge equipment in the environment of an audio show. The rooms are small and bear no resemblance to the space where I live either aesthetically or acoustically, and systems are often too loud for my taste. After a while, most rooms tended to become one giant acoustical blur.

To me, CAF (and other shows) was an opportunity to say hello to friends and individuals in the industry and, perhaps, to target one or two products that I wanted to hear. In that regard CAF was a success; and I hope it will continue next year.