Capitol Audio Fest

hey charles the Shindo room was the first one I hit, the system was the Aureges Preamp and Montille amp, the source was a turntable names escaping me. I loved the Auditorium23 speakers Hommage something, first of all they are super cool looking a bit reminiscent of Advents or Tannoys. Really warm rich sound midrange was fantastic highs were warm and extended at the same time. Bass was solid for a single 8 inch full range driver overall very impressive.

Jond, 
Thank you. These components are Shindo's lower priced offerings and it is impressive that they were capable of sounding so well for you. Seems like a very high value proposition. 
Charles 

Jond, the turntable in the Shindo/Auditorium 23 room was a PTP modified Lenco.  Like you I was impressed with the Auditorium 23 speaker which uses a Line Magnetic replica of the Western Electric 755 running full range.  The midrange was very natural and musical.  My wife said this was her favorite speaker out of the whole show.  I wouldn't go that far since it was too rolled off in the extremes for my tastes but it was still a very musical sound overall.  It was also nice to see Dave Cope again even though it was strange for him to be in a room without any Audio Note gear.

i posted some comments on this year's CAF on AA, but my favorite rooms (in order of preference) were:

1.  Dave Slagle's EMIA room with stacked Quad 57's driven by biamped PP 300B amps built into the speaker base.  Amazingly lifelike fullrange sound.  These were not your father's Quads.

2.  The DejaVu vintage room with 3-way field coil speakers using GIP replica versions of Western Electric drivers.  A great example of Vu's open baffle designs using vintage drivers and horns, although the room was way too small to do the speakers justice.

3.  The Robyatt room with single Quad 57's.

i didn't spend a whole lot of time in rooms with more conventional systems.  For those who like thumpy bass and sizzling highs there were those rooms too.  I took my wife to a number of those just so she could hear what "other" systems sound like, but she too had no interest in staying very long in those rooms.

Hi Sal, 
 Thanks for your report. Your wife seems to have very good and refined ears. I understand why she'd be unimpressed with the typical hifi sounding rooms that usually get more press coverage. Does she enjoy listening to music often and did she play a role in developing your audio system?
Charles 

Charles, unfortunately the answer is No.  My wife is far more talented musically than I (piano and voice) but she has zero interest in jazz and less than zero interest in gear. She mostly listens to Broadway musical CDs in the car.  This was the first time she has ever attended a Hifi show so these were all new experiences for her.