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Audio Troy Capital Audio Fest the good, the bad and the ugly!

Just came back from the great Capital Audio Fest.

A lot of great rooms, a few surprises, missing brands, and some winners and losers.

The great:

Doug Whites The Voice that is system of Tidal gear, Innous Statement, and Tidal loudspeakers just was stunning sounding.

The big Genesis system in the Vpi room was quite excellent. 

The Old Forge room's Sound Kaos speakers were superb.

The Cat room with the Kef Blades proved the Kef Blades are a true contender with way more expensive loudspeakers.

Dadelius speakers sounded very good, unfortunately the system was $200k!

The Bad:

The $120k Devore's new reference speakers were good but not $120k good at this demo

More to come.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
128x128audiotroy
pops
2,275 posts
 
Soix the JA perspectives were outstanding.  He had them set up on the long wall of a very small room so it was definitely a nearfield listen.

Not sure about the electronics he used but his speakers sounded great as always, for me at least - I love his speakers but have never owned one.  They were imaging magicians, no sound was coming from the speakers, total transparency.  Sharp transients and deep tuneful bass - without an ounce of aggression.

I could easily live with them if they were a fit for a large room like mine.  According to Joseph himself they would work with the right placement.
dodgealum's avatar
dodgealum
1,406 posts
 
Yes, saw the write up on PT Audiophile--looks like Lou and Mark brought everything but the kitchen sink, including monoblock Ref ZOTL 40s to drive the BOW subs--so $200K is probably close with cables etc. That said, I'm sure in a normal size room you could get 98% of the SQ for under $100K by eliminating the subs, going with less expensive power cords and speaker wire (like Lou's hybrid design with WyWires). 
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy OP
3,831 posts
 
Jond, guess we are hearing different things, the Muons were way too big for that room, the sound didn't gel for us.

Agree the Voltis were very good, Audiotech very good, the Acapella room was impressive but again way too large a room and the system was mind blowingly expensive.

Now a caveat, the Genesis were I think $180k and no that weren't that good but the sound after hours playing a harp recording vs the real harp player did show the system was quite capable.

We had the reverse with the Tial room more magical this year, good last.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
glupson
7,842 posts
 
One observation.

One of the rooms, in front of which a lady was giving cookies, had an equipment rack with no equipment on it. Unlike any and all, this one had color. It was red. Cut it some slack for maybe not being the ultimate audio high-end etc. It was politely awsome among all those industrial designs. Not to mention, it was just over $300.

I was more impressed by seeing it than I was by seeing VAC/Von Schweikert system.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
I don’t know why they haven’t switched over to static displays at the big shows. Nobody can get great sound at the shows for reasons that I’ve elucidated many times, most of which are very obvious. Sure, sometimes they get excellent or at least listenable sound in a room, but isn’t it an awful waste of time, money and effort? You know, run them like they run Auto Shows.
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