Who is excited about Capital Audiofest 2023?


I find I am largely ambivalent and not sure if I will go or not.  It’s a nice event and I go most every year but looks like mostly more of the same old same old.   Are these shows really keeping up with the times? Anything really groundbreaking there to see or hear?  I wonder.   Might go tomorrow.   We will see 

128x128mapman

It's always worth going to see Ken Stevens in the Convergent Audio Technology room.  He usually manages to get great sound even in a show setting, plus it's always educational just to speak with him.

I went primarily to listen to speakers. In no particular order speakers that I found interesting:

Songer audio S1 field coil single driver

Cessaro GAIA 1

the big NOLA speakers

The small Tidal speakers in the Bricasti Design room

Magico in the Convergent Audio room

Magico in the Command AV room

 

One interesting observation was the Alma Music Estelon Aura. In their show room I thought they sounded very good but at the show not so much.

 

The abundant internet influencers were in full force. They would sashay into the room stand in from of the speakers and equipment and talk over the music describing the systems.

I also thought the Songer audio speakers sounded great.

The Joseph Audio and Magico speakers also sounded very nice. 

i was also pretty impressed with the small stand mount speakers that OCD audio guy has in his room. I can’t remember what they are though. 
 

i want to go back to hear Clayton Shaws new speakers. My brief listen was promising. 

+2 on Joseph Audio. Now Listen Here had a very nice setup in the executive suite (Pearls with some outrageously expensive electronics), and there were a few others featuring the Perspectives and Pulsars. These all sounded very good.

Also heard and purchased Clayton Shaw’s new speakers. Incredible value, though the electronics he was using were not up to the quality of the speakers in my opinion.

The Singer field coil speakers were very interesting.

Caprice Audio had a really nice setup. He has a noise reduction box that he designed. Not sure how much that contributed - he did do a before and after comparison - but the stand mount speakers he had were every bit as good as the Borresen stand mounts (actually maybe better) at about 1/5 the price. Wish I could remember the name of them.