Capitol Audio Fest

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.  

There were a lot of nice sounding rooms at the latest Capital Audiofest.  As in past shows in this location, the smaller hotel rooms tended to sound better than the larger conference rooms.  I am in agreement with a number of postings above.  I too, thought the Deja  Vu vintage room and the MyEmia room were outstanding, the best rooms at the show to me.  

There is so much hype in this forum about Tekton speakers I wanted to hear them.  I came away impressed with how good they sound relative to the price quoted on them.  The only commercial shortcoming would be the size of the system.

Volti had their best room at this show.  I was not that impressed with their setups in the past, probably because the room and accompanying electronics did not show them at their best, but, this year, with a physically smaller system, their room sounded quite nice (warm and harmonically dense, without sounding mushy).

The Shindo/Auditorium room was pretty good sounding.  I am familiar with WE 755 single driver systems which tend to be very clear, dynamic and exciting sounding, but, they also tend to be peaky, thin in bass/midbass, and extremely colored.  The Auditorium speakers did a decent job of taming these negative tendencies with only a modest loss in dynamics and immediacy of the Western Electric originals.  But, they only rated, to me, number three in the single driver category at this show.  I  was really surprised by how good the Charney single driver system sounded (Voxactiv driver) and it delivered the goods dressed in a reasonably nice looking and compact cabinet.  I heard decent bass and sound that did not become strained at fairly high volume and I did not hear as prominent an upper midrange/treble peak as I've heard with most single driver systems (surprisingly, I thought it was a bit too soft in the upper range).  The other system that impressed me was the Rethm Bhaava; it was not as well rounded as the Charney, but, it was about a third of the price.  

The German Physics omnidirectional speakers sounded pretty good, they managed to deliver the expansive soundstage you expect from such speakers while having a bit more solid and grounded center image than I've heard with other similar designs.  The bass sounded well integrated and balanced.

I am not a fan of most modern dynamic speakers featuring space age cabinets and exotic material drivers.  Most sound harmonically bleached, brittle, and, while they can deliver high volume levels and sound "fast,"
they tend to be lifeless sounding at modest volume levels.  That was not the case with the YG  Carmel 2's I heard at this show.  While not being quite as warm as I like my speakers, they sounded very good otherwise.

One of the bigger rooms, running a  Channel D music server also sounded very good.  If I recall correctly, the speakers were Vandersteens.

The Deja-Vu room with "non-vintage" and more modestly priced gear sounded very good for the money.  The system is modern, but old school (hence non-vintage), with tube electronics.  The new Harbeth 30.2s were in the system.  It is hard to tell under show conditions, but, compared to what I've heard of the 30.1s, these sounded better: a touch less obvious that the speakers are boxes, and the slightly annoying sibilant peak in the upper midrange was not evident (I like the 30.1s; I like the 30.2s a little bit more).

Sal,
Well given her background that explains the refined ear/listening ability. It surprises me that she wouldn’t be attracted to jazz given the great pianists who’ve played this music and how utterly beautiful jazz sounds via this magnificent instrument. But again,preference end taste are truly  personal and individual.
Charles