Who is excited about Capital Audiofest 2023?

Test

This was my first Audio Fest in many years. I’m retired now and glad to be back in the hobby. I’m building loudspeakers, and Ronnie Thackeray of Carolina Audio (tm) is having me build for him now. We have a nice 2-way, and I wanted to see how it compared to speakers at the show. I’m currently building a full range based on the 2-way’s cabinet-so I wanted to hear that type as well.

I have to say—that Hilton is the most confusing building I’ve ever been in. It’s like being in a M C Escher drawing. I got lost just walking in the garage. My car was close to the entrance, and I wasn’t going to move it for any reason! Fortunately there were some nice restaurants in walking distance from the hotel.

The big rooms/systems were magnificent, ( NOLA, KROMA, VonSchweikert and others). In most every case I thought the image was unnaturally large. And why did they have the speakers out in the middle of the room? Cost? Prohibitive for most. If I wanted to fill a ballroom with sound, I’d get a set of Altec VOTs. I have a pair of Tom Tutay’s modded Altec 1570b monoblocks that would push them nicely!

Show standouts for me:

ELAC—had a great sounding small powered speaker. AptX Bluetooth and quite a good value @$300. Give Billy CRUTCHFIELD a call and get yourself a pair. The Rep said that there’s a bigger set in the works. Black Friday prices are in effect now.

ATC Acoustic Engineers—showed a 3-way that sounded great and was a good value. Available as passive or powered $5999/$10,999 per pair. The big domed mid driver might be the star here. Nice coherent image and they Rock!

MON Acoustic—showed three small monitors that I thought sounded quite good. I heard the Platimon VC One, a MTM design with AMT tweeter. These imaged well. A great natural sound with the Triangle Art and Chord electronics. I could be happy with these.

Since I’m building a full range speaker now, I was interested in hearing other FR designs:

Voxative was my first exposure. I have not favoured this “Lowther” type of driver in the past. I’ve heard a few DIY efforts and thought them to be shouty in nature. I noted a more forward presentation rather than shout with the  Voxative horns and they really engaged me. Bass was surprisingly deep. Voxative’s own 211 tube integrated pushed the speakers nicely. Very attractive looking integrated! I visited Vox a second time, and I found the bass to be excessive and poorly controlled. At $12.5K a pair, it’s a No from me.

Songer Audio—on Saturday was playing their Field Coil open baffle HF driver speaker. A 2-way design with a enclosed woofer. I noted a similar forward presentation with greater detail in the upper frequencies. The bass had greater extension and was better controlled. Even so, I felt that the bass was a bit plump and excessive. At $37K for the pair, it’s a No from me.

MACO/Macaria—Did anyone notice the two ladies with a interesting looking pair of open baffle speakers out in a hallway? I did, and I stopped to chat. This is a brand new speaker and MACO didn’t even have time to arrange a room with electronics. They invited me to an after hours audition-if they could find a room to present. MON Acoustic stepped up and generously offered their electronics and room. This was pure magic. The Macaria is a 2-way open baffle speaker. Input sensitivity is 88dB. Impedance depends on the number of voice coils used. The woofer has two coils to accommodate this. Similar forward presentation, but this time it was like a direct neural injection into the music. I was twitterpated. (a Disney term) The Macarias would be a excellent tool for a recording studio-you know exactly what’s happening in the recording. Music flows effortlessly from these speakers, and it really is like having a full symphony in your room. Dynamics are a particularly strong point here. Coherent transition from top to bottom. The bass is deep, powerful and well controlled without bloom or bloat. Great texture at all frequencies. Wow……I understand that these come in different materials. Granite, Quartz, solid hardwoods, and  itch ply. I’m most interested in the Birch plywood version as birch imparts a natural warmth into the sound-which I like. At $6K for the Birch, these things punch way above their price point. For me, these speakers were the very best of show at CAF. A close friend that was with me thought so as well. A true shame that more folks didn’t get get to hear the Macarias. I’ve been into audio and music since I was small. I’m 68 now and I think that these are quite special.

maco-audio.com

Instagram  @madlyaudio

Small ELAC is $399 on sale not $299. My mistake.

Still a killer deal.

cheers

mike

I learned that one day only allows visiting perhaps 1/20th of the rooms. I didn’t even make it to the sixth floor. But I did hear some great music.

I agree with a poster above that the GoldenEar 66’s sounded great, not at all bright. Best budget sound I heard. I was especially impressed with the sound in the ModWright room, with ModWright components and the smaller Acora speakers on stands. The various Joseph Audio iterations all sounded excellent to my ears. I heard the outstanding ATC SCM50 amplified speakers and think that the decision to lower ATC speaker prices in the US to more closely match prices in the UK is wise. The ATC SCM40 v2 at $5995 might be the new best value in audio.

I liked the MBL’s (my first stop), with an incredibly open, spacious sound. I felt as if there was a slight metallic sheen on the upper mids and highs, that another here characterized as being slightly bright.

Finally, the sound of the Magico’s driven by the big Gryphon integrated amp at the Command Performance room was terrific. The “light show “ accompanied by electronic music exemplified the cleanliness and power of this system.

Bache speakers were very, very musical and organic sounding., a hidden gem of sorts, from Brooklyn of all places!

NSMT in Audio Archon dealer’s room were also very smooth and contrasted with most other rooms.

The big Borressen Yikes!!! Same for the big Kroma speakers from Spain.

McTech speakers also sounded quite musical, as did the new Quads, if one listens strictly sitting down in the sweet spot.

Cessaro Wagner sounded very musical but at 65grand, your mileage may vary as they say. Last year Highwater Sound had no less musical speakers &system from Denmark & Italy at much more accessible prices...

QLN monitors were quite impressive but again at about 18 thousands they better be....

Small, powered $600 Elac Debut were amazing! Would make great gift to kids & non audiophile music lovers to get them hooked up into this hobby.

Magnepan 2.7i sounded quite good, IMHO better than most mega buck speakers at the show.

Viva horns placed full size David Bowie right there in room.

Avantgarde horns were quite special, but the room was way too small for these to show their full potential.

Also quite enjoyed the newly re-launched Voxative speakers refined nature with classical and jazz.