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

@glupson, the lady handing out cookies was mrs Katz, refreshing to see a family affair at the show. She baked the cookies herself, while Mr Katz builds.

In general, the limitations of the rooms made it impossible in many cases to discern what the speakers are doing. 
The JA’s were playing at such a high volume in a small room, I was overloaded although I was surprised by the low end output.
I was hoping to hear Legacy Aeris but just as I got there they switched to (I think) the Focus.
forgot the brand but there was a room with speakers in plexiglass cabinets. It seemed a little odd that the tweeter faced forward while twin mids faced to the sides. I found that room way boomy.
the Martin Logan 5 speaker surround set up was rather unexpected, as were Benchmark class D amps.

this was my first trip to CAF. Having experienced that, there is no need to go to NY’s Park Lane event.  There is no comparison.  If I were running the NY audio show I would hold it in NJ. Drastically lower cost to hold event, much easier for exhibitors to bring their gear and less hassle for attendees.

@jacksky, The Benchmark amps in the ML room are not Class D, they combine Class A/B and Class H. Russ and Roz Katz have transformed their home into a showroom for many great sounding audio brands and he's a wonderful source for vinyl.

jacksky,

"Drastically lower cost to hold event, much easier for exhibitors to bring their gear and less hassle for attendees."

I wonder if New York show, being in Manhattan, is actually less hassle for attendees. New Yorkers often do not have a car, bridge and tunnels are to be avoided, etc. This way, potential attendees can take a subway from most anywhere in the city. Why put a show on the weekend after CAF is puzzling. Even those living at walking distance from the venue may not feel an itch to visit, once they have been to CAF a week prior to that. I guess, the aim may be New Yorkers who do not like traveling.

Hello all,
I just wanted to clarify a post by pops regarding our Pass Labs amps as being down on Friday at CAF.
The XS150 monoblocks were not down.
As anyone who was in the hotel Thursday night may have heard, we had a wicked thunderstorm move into the area.
Lightning actually hit the hotel....awesome noise !!!
Anyway after that, the power was down for a bit in certain areas. as well as the wifi.
Friday morning just before the show we tried to play a record, we found the Pass labs phono and preamp units blue lights were suspiciously low in intensity and nothing would work. One of the active subwoofer amps would not work as well.
I remedied that problem by running both sub channels off of one sub amp and running the subs in mono.
Low voltage was the cause, no doubt the massive power supplies in the Pass XS150’s were hogging all the juice.
Alex the engineer from our partner Basis, a New Hampshire company employed the help of another N.H. company LKV Research to lend us a phono unit , MANY THANKS !!
This unit drew less juice than the Pass and it got us through Friday.
Regarding the sound, the whole system was running on low voltage , something those massive Pass XS150’s dont like. Also it was not sufficiently warmed up on Friday.
By Saturday everything was warming, the voltage stabilized and the system started to bloom.
Wish pops could have made it back, the system was really shining.
Many visitors loved it as did reviewers.
I got a call a few days after CAF, a gentleman purchased the speaker and subwoofer system.
It was a shaky start to CAF 2019, I had a few heart stopping moments, but it turned out to be our best showing to date.
See you next year.
Greg
GTAW