Who is excited about Capital Audiofest 2023?

Did the mbl setup manage to standout this time around?

I was there Friday. Was planning to go back yesterday or today but didn’t make it so I really didn’t get to listen to as much as I had hoped. The ampsandsound room was the best that I heard.  It was their most expensive Arch mono block amps in action and the first time I’ve listened to their equipment. Very impressive. Also listened to their headphone amp at the Audeze both and was also very impressed. It will probably be my next amp. The QLN reference speakers were very impressive too with the Vinnie Rossi electronics. I always like listening to Classic Audio speakers with the Atma-Sphere electronics. No Class D’s though. And I agree, the Songer field coils were nice too. Deja Vu’s big horns sounded very good and the monitors (sorry the name escapes me) for the asking price of around $7k - $8k were impressive. Last time I attended CAF was 2018 and I must say the equipment that I was able to listen to this time for the most part was impressive and in general the rooms seemed much better than before.

Last time I attended CAF was 2018 and I must say the equipment that I was able to listen to this time for the most part was impressive and in general the rooms seemed much better than before.

I agree with this statement 100%. I go to CAF every single year. And I don’t take oscilloscopes or decibel meters with me to the party unlike my manmap style friend. But yes, with few exceptions most rooms sounded pretty good. Some of them exceptionally good

Compared to previous years many rooms sounded good.

1) Schweikert in the large atrium room. The room, per the designer who ran the demo is the best room on the show circuit. Probably most setups would sound spectacular. The soundstage is like in an IMAX. 

2) Cessaro horns sounded good

3) Vivid/Mola sounded good

4) First time I heard the big Bayz audio speaker. Great, but 160k.

5) Gershman acoustics - great price/value

6) Joseph audio - always good, never heard a bad room from this company.

Bit dissapointing:

1) Borresson - I wanted to like the rooms and the lower X models, but fatigue set in after 1 song.

2) MBL 101 - Nice, but for 100k speakers something was missing in this setup. Too soft sounding.

3) Sunday was very low traffic. Not good for the companies exhibiting

Overall, great, wish I had more than 4 hours. One really needs 2 days.

Really good show, I was able to see a lot of rooms on Friday and Saturday. Quality was really good across the board. Many really solid rooms.
 

The MBL room was very impressive, but maybe a tad too much treble. Otherwise was a very impressive room.

Colin at Gestalt had a great room with the Lamm monoblocks, can’t recall the speakers but they were a lot of fun to listen to as Colin would spin many different records one after another.

Songer audio was very nice, a little too hot on top for me, but it was a beautiful sound. Nice stuff.

Tidal was amazing, probably sat there for at least 20 minutes listening to a ton of jazz. Really great room.

NSMT was a really good room, underrated.

Both Von Schweikert rooms were excellent this year, with the VAC room being completely filled with sound by their new $27k model.

Boressen X2 and the Forte 1 was a better showing than what I recalled from last year with the X3 and Aavik separates. 

Goldenear was probably my favorite speaker on the 8th floor. 

Really wanted to like the Magico S3, but sounded dead in the room where it was paired with MSB monos and their DAC, not much better with the Gryphon 333. Convergent Audio Technology was able to get the most out of them, but it still left me wanting.

Stenheim was also a bit underwhelming, even with those Dartzeel monos, just not my thing.

Lots of rooms had Joseph audio and those little standmounts were fantastic wherever I heard them.

OCD Mikey had a very smooth room, easy to listen to, good stuff.

Maybe my favorite room - Perlisten and Audia Flight, whatever was going on there it was captivating.