A Capital Audiofest 2012 thread

Mr T., I heard these GT Audio Works + dual subs for $3000 at CAF and enjoyed them very much.

mR t.: YOU ARE CORRECT .

tHERE WERER SOME VERY GOOD diy ELECTRSTATS DEMOED i HEAR BUT OTHERWISE GTT HYBRIDS WERE THE CLOSEST THING.

Link to Capital Audiofest 2012 website.

I went two years ago Sunday only. Things were in full swing through 2-3 in the afternoon then things were winding down as I left. Got there too late for the morning "swap" event, which sounds neat. May try to make that this year.

There were a number of very good sounding systems there. The GOTO and Cathedral horn setups in particular come to mind and may be there this year as well. YG/Magico a/b demos by YG was interesting and both sounded pretty good. Manley amps were quite nice though under served perhaps in their setup. Jolida fx10 was the best buy I could spot. mbl setups were sub-par compared to same at the dealer and not indicative of what mbl can deliver set up properly.

Planning to head down tomorrow morn.

Any impressions from attendees so far?

Just got back. Spent 4 hours or so there earlier today.

My skinny, FWIW, in that I have never attended any other show to compare other than the initial CAF two years ago, is it was worthwhile and I would like to have had more time to soak it all in. Overall, the sound quality of the rigs on display in the various rooms was more consistent than two years ago. Probably due to more typical hotel venue rather than a 19th century mansion.

I heard a lot of good sound that I could possibly live with but not enough time to assess each well. Overall, most of the vendors did a good job tuning their systems into the rooms, most of which were not particularly large, so I found that to be a good thing.

I'm not quite sure I heard anything revolutionary or that stuck way out in the crowd, but lots of very solid finds nonetheless that would warrant further investigation.

So I heard some new good stuff that sounded like it had potential.

Attendance today did not seem large. There were people there but few crowds snd fairly low key overall. Not a bad thing for one trying to fit a lot of listening into a few hours.

More details soon when I have a chance.

I heard a few things on my to-hear list for the first time:

Daedelus: i was impressed and these lived up to my expectations in a
short limited audition with nice acoustic jazz recording.

Classic Audio Reproductions (with the field coil drivers + Atmasphere
amps: i was expecting benchmark level sound and tnis setup did not
disappoint. Would have liked to hear some good rock recordings but
acoustic jazz ruled here also as it seemed to in general at the show. The
sound was spot on and darn near perfect.

Zu - Missed the boat somewhat. Flea power amps used were nice but
seemingly could not get these hopping for more demanding rock cuts.

GT Audio Works - now here was a new discovery of note with meat on the
bones that sounded great and offered great value at 3k a pair including 2
subs. "There Will Be Changes Made" by Atkins+ Knopfler
packed the room and got my feet a tapping. Modest Bryston digital
source and amp showed they belonged in a high end audio show as well.

DIY Room: A pair of 10" full range drivers mounted in a large square open
back baffle sitting at floor level slightly angled up about 2/3 into a hotel
room run off a diy class a amp of low wattage was the shocker of the day.
How did what looked like a bean bag toss arcade game sound so full and
lifelike for $800 diy? Kinda made me feel sorry for all the megabuck
systems there competing. And they did everything extremely well from
Green Day to classical. Eye opener of the day!

Tidal: Both larger and smaller rigs sounded very good but size did matter
and did not come cheap. The DCS Dac in the one rig certainly helped
make that one shine as the DCS gear always seems to do. The smaller
Tidals sounded good but dynamics with those small drivers was noticably
compressed.

Legacy Whispers in a larger salon room showed some chops but I need to
hear more.

Pops, I recall the sound in the room with the Devore's being promising and I would have spent more time in if I could. Unfortunately, I had only enough time to pop in, listen for a minute or two and leave.

As an infrequent visitor to high end audio events, other than this site, these are may main takeaway observations from Capital Audiofest.

- events like this are perhaps not big enough in scale for the hardcore audiophile audience and much but not all that was there was out of reach financially for many so where does that leave an event like this? Hopefully in a good enough position to have at least a fourth annual event next year I would hope.

- the DIY guys in many ways made a statement about what it REALLY takes to make good sound, and stole the show for me in that regard.

- most of the setups sounded very good to quite excellent to the extent that the venue and rooms allowed. There was not a lot of room for products to differentiate themselves. The sound of most rooms was still very good though. Does it really make any sense to demonstrate megagear like gigantic horns in that kind of environment? Cool looking, yes, but in this case the performance was laughable for the scale of the sound solution attempted.

- Its not so hard to find good sounding gear these days. Its a lot harder to get it to sound good at home.

- Digital fared very well at this show. There was both very good digital and vinyl and very mediocre digital and vinyl demos. This might be the first event I could say that the good sounding digital was more apparent than the good sounding vinyl.

- these shows are worth it just to go shooping for cheap vinyl and reasonable priced CDs. There were a lot of good software values even if the hardware values were harder to come by.

- Nothing says "high end audio" like a SOTA ultrasonic record cleaner for sale in the lobby for the special show price of still over $3000. YEs, people, cleaning all that cheap vinyl ain't cheap. And lets not forget about the audiophile Hifi Tuning fuses. FOr those wondering, no there were no fancy fuse demos at least when I was there.

- the guys there seemed to enjoy it and looked interested. The wives, girlfriends, daughters and others they dragged along with them mostly had that bored soap opera look in their eyes.

In teh end, there a few products I discovered at CA that practically got my interest.

1) A little flea watt Glow audio tube amp in one of the rooms with on eof the many hi efficiency speaker offerings present seemed to take things far beyond what I expected or had heard with similar amps in other rooms. Gotta look into Glow Audio some more.

2) The GT audio works hybrid speakers with subs sounded like giant killers at their $3000 price point in their 10 minute or so audition. Were I looking for a good pair of large full range speakers today I would have to look there. PLus, the rep in the room who I believe is the designer as well in this small upstart possibly 1 man company was very helpful and just seemed like a talented regular guy who just wants to make great speakers at affordable prices and knows how to. I noticed the bass was a little overwhelming at first during the demo and he did as well in that without any cue or prompting he made an adjustment in quick time that nailed it perfectly from there on. THe modest Bryston amp and CD player source used in this rig also got my attention for performance/value. This was the high value giant killer room of the day for me (in addition to the DIY room).

3) I could really use an automatic ultrasonic record cleaner but not for over $3000.

4) For a price is no object system, the Classic Audio Reproductions room left little or nothing to want sound wise during auditions (all vinyl, classical and acoustic jazz, no rock/pop auditioned, but I would expect good things there as well).

5) I also really liked the Daedalus speakers and these might have been my value pick of the day if not for the GT Audio room.

6) I auditioned Cathedral horn speakers again for the second time (first time two years at initial CAF) and these are another good value, excellent sounding product with plenty of aesthetic charm (to me) that should have a lot of appeal to horn lovers

Sal,

Some of those you mentioned might have caught my ear more had i more time to absorb. Some rooms i was in and out of very fast if nothing caught m eye or ear uniquely.

The audio note room was one i was interested in and spent 20 minutes or so in. I liked them as a corner placement option and they sounded fine just nothing struck me as particularly outstanding for their size and price. I guess i had unrealistic expectations perhaps going in. Also short auditions do not tell you much about if you and the sound will get along over the long term. That can be tricky. I suspect the anotes might have endeared themselves to me better that way for some applications but again lack of dynamics for the cost was a concerrn.

Trel,

I'm not sure our assessments are all that different. I was very pressed for time and attempted to hit all the rooms. Other than the ones I mentioned, which for various reasons I spent more time with, I was mostly just assessing pass/fail. If the sound was OK and had promise, it passed. THere were only three rooms I heard that I would say failed. Most of the rest had potential. I only had 4 hours so there was more than enough to keep me interested and engaged especially since I do not normally frequent these shows. It was a special treat for me!

Is it possible that some vendors had their sound tweaked better by Sunday? What days were you there?

I did get the impression that the vendors were disappointed with the turnout.

My main critique with this show was there was no apparent entry path for the uninitiated. In this economy, high end audio should do a better job of providing clear stepping stones rather than presenting the image that you have to spend $10s of thousands to really be in the club. Few young people have the money or desire with all the decent options out there today to join that club. It's exclusiveness is its main defining characteristic and probably it s biggest barrier to growth.

One thing I look for in these shows is value in addition to reference level sound. That is a big factor in my assessment.

I notice in the comments by Mr. Atkinson from Stereophile a focus also on what sounded good or right to him. That is normal for most, but for a representative of a publication that seeks a somewhat broad audience, I would have liked to gotten a sense that he was more open to new or different things than I did.

I did not see or notice the pipe speakers on SUnday. Not sure if they were still there? That would have been cool!

I guess its a matter of perspective. THe more hardcore full time audiophile that attends many shows might be unimpressed. How many of those are there really? If you can't get their interest, whose interest can you get?

The answer might be everyone else maybe, but you have to make something like this digestible to the uninitiated somehow.

THe DIY demo of the simple full range driver on large open baffles running of the small Class A amp was the show stealer for me. What these guys did with a little knowledge, creativity and just a few dollars really put almost everything else to shame. It also happened to be the most crowded small room I saw at the show on Sunday (GT was second, at least with the right music playing).

One other observation I had in regards to attracting young people was the music selection. Can you say old codger music? At least mostly. I love most of it but the music that most people listen to these days was totally absent. What's up with that?

The DIY room really livened up for a few minutes when the exhibitor cued up some Green Day and I suspect most listening heard something of interest then that they had never heard before! Like when I heard Fleetwood Mac years ago on a pair of Klipschorns and Tympanis for the first time and officially became an "audiophile". Except no audiophile will say Green Day sounds good except once heard on a good "high end" system. Then it sounds like it should, not like a bunch of random noise. After Green Day, they then switched to a classical concerto with similarly excellent results. That's the way to do it IMHO.

Gsm,

I agree with your second paragraph in particular. Too much information to process in too little time under less than ideal circumstances. That is why I try to not be too judgmental at that point. Even the three rooms whose sound was below par to me probably had some things in tehm that might work well in a different setup for someone. FOr me its mostly a chance to experience a lot of new things of interest in a short period of time. A lot of follow-up is needed to draw final conclusions. The very expensive stuff was mostly of interest to me for reference potential. I heard some of that potential perhaps but the show format and venue is almost always a bottleneck.

I cannot imagine how any true audiophile that does not get to these things on a regular basis would not have enjoyed the show. Again, the software available alone made it worthwhile for me.

I go to similar events in other industries as part of my work. I know these can sometimes become tedious and old hat quickly when one is subject to constant exposure.

I missed the DIY electrostat but heard a lot of buzz about them when a DIY guy stopped by the Classic Audio room. The $800 in parts DIY full ranges were one of my favorite sounds I heard. I have the sheet at home that was handed out about how to build. I will have to try that someday. No crossover + looked VERY easy for anyone with very basic woodworking ability.

The GT hybrids + 2 dedicated subs were A LOT of speaker for the money. A am not a hybrid fan aka Martin Logan in general but I know these can sound very good in a certain way and the GTs did once the subs were adjusted better for the material playing. At first, the bass levels/mix was a tad off. The sound was definitely more modern and in line with what I remember these types of hybrids to sound like in general. I was impressed though not sure these are exactly my cup of tea, but again, A LOT of speaker for the money and lots of potential. The fullness and impact and overall presentation including detail most resembled the Classic Audio room of the rooms I heard. Not saying they sounded the same, but definite similarities in regards to weight and meat on the bones. That's no small achievement for a $3000 speaker system with entry level high end electronics (smaller less expensive Bryston amp and CD player) running them. The double subs clearly were a part of that once tuned in well.

One other thing i took notice of at caf that may be of interest to me was the new vpi traveller turntables. I have not heard the cost but the build quaiity looked good and the design fairly clean and straightforward. If my trusty linn ever dies, maybe this could be a worthy heir to run my dl103r cart with.

Trelja, do you know offhand if that includes the tonearm that was displayed?

Thanks.

Thanks Trelja.

I hope anyone who likes this site considers supporting any local audiophile events in their area when they occur. What more could an audiophile ask for than dozens of different nice sounding rooms playing music filled with people who appreciate these things? I went home with 3 Mapleshade CDs and two good condition used RCA Living Stereo records from the 50's and early 60's (including a Chet Atkins title) for $32. Not bad! Oh, and a DIY recipe that almost anyone could follow for $800 worth of speakers with the ability to claim giant killer status.

Rifleman,

Thanks for that.

I have the sheet that was handed out for the DIY open baffle speakers but have not had a chance to read yet.

$850 sounded high for the speaker parts alone. That's a very impressive price point for amp and speakers.

I noticed what appeared to be crossover components hanging off the backs but the guy there early Sunday afternoon indicated they were not in use when I asked about it.

"the problem with audio "shows" is the many variables which to create poor sound."

Audiophiles focus too much on what's not right or perceived to be less than perfect.

"My name is Nomad...you are not perfect...you will be sterilized....."

I have not heard more good sound in one place anywhere ever than at CAF 2012.

Was it all perfect? No.

Was it mostly way above average? No doubt.

Was there a lot of promise there? Also no doubt.

Audiophiles can be a jaded bunch no doubt.

"Nice, mapman.

You are the Kirk, the creator."

Cool.

Bring on the green Orion slave girls.......