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Capitol Audio Fest Speakers?

So what did everybody like at CAF?

I've never heard Tidal speakers before but was very impressed. No doubt they stoles the show. Both the ones for $20k and their big brothers. Amazing.

In the $4k range I was impressed with the Audionote J series. Granted they had $20k in electronics behind them but really sounded good. There was another $4k speaker floor stander made from carved reclaimed looking wood. Seemed like a prototype from a new company but I thought it was impressive looking and sounding for the price. Would have brought it home if I had the dosh.

In the Everyman category I thought The Clue speakers showed a lot of potential especially with their new bass module. But the room was way too small having to sit 4 feet in front of them. And once the rum started going later in the day the volume kept going up and up. But I have a feeling they could sound really good in the right room with good setup. The bass modules were just clue speakers without tweeters, but really increased bass authority and dimensionality. Really like adding two subs.
larrybou

Showing 1 response by trelja

trelja
3,226 posts
 
This year's show featured many outstanding rooms. The change in venue, along with some serious attempts by the exhibitors made for significantly better sound that we've heard in past DC efforts.

Overall, traffic was quite heavy early on Saturday, but dissipated through the day. On the good side, this year's show seemed far busier than past one I attended. Though on another note, the headphone crowd on the 4th floor dwarfed the much older high-end audio folks.

Mostly, I liked a lot of what others have mentioned. Beyond those the TAD loudspeakers in the Backert Labs room impressed, Gingko Audio ClaraVu 7 surprised, nicely restored Apogee Duetta Signatures in piano black lacquer left me recalling some of the most beguiling sound of the high horsepower solid state era, and Robin Wyatt's 2 (one OTL, the other solid state) rooms of Quad ESL57 further convince me of how far the speaker craft has not progressed the past 60 years.
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