Capital Audio Fest 2018--show report


DAY 1

I came primarily to audition loudspeakers, so this report will focus on them. I omit associated equipment, as there was just too much to keep track of, and few rooms had handouts with the detailed list of components.

The first day of the show, I managed to visit 2/3 to 3/4 of the rooms that were of interest to me. The remaining rooms I’ll visit tomorrow morning, and then start going back for a second listen in the afternoon.

In what follows, I’m more or less transcribing my jotted notes that I took while in the room in question.

Note: the regular-sized hotel rooms being used by most exhibitors tended to emphasize strongly a particular bass range. For too many of the rooms I noted “bass boomy”. Only a few rose above this…

 

Some highlights, not necessarily in order of preference.

DAEDALUS ZEUS. Very large speaker in a large room. Very good generally, beautiful on classical. A big sound, but not overdone (like some others). Very natural. Wonderful dynamics. True majesty on large-scale classical.

DAEDALUS APOLLO. I still don’t know exactly how I feel about this speaker. It’s good certainly, verdict is out on whether it’s great. Decent imaging and soundstaging (I would have had them a bit further out into what is admittedly a small room). A good clean presentation, could be a little overwhelming on some tracks (volume of playback?, room?). Promising to be sure, and a real contender.

SALK SONG 3 BEAT. Easily my nomination for “best bang for the buck” speaker auditioned so far. Extraordinary for the price.  I repeat, really extraordinary.  A nice presentation overall, good depth of soundstaging, for the size of the woofer the bass is definitely there—and then some. Bass could be a bit boomy depending on the recording (see above). Beryllium tweeter (the BE in BE-AT), one of the best I’ve heard. On one recording it got a wee bit steely on massed violins being played back at high volume. Very impressed.  Of course the wood veneer is also fantastic.

IMC Audio. One of the true sleepers—well, perhaps not even a sleeper, as it doesn’t go on sale till this coming January. Extraordinarily fine. Look for a photo on the web—it’s unconventional, to be sure. A large slightly curved array (curved both horizontally and vertically) using bending wave drivers.  Sitting on top of massive woofers in a large cube. Very very natural sound. Good imaging, good soundstage. Good dynamic range, but not overdone. A true full-range speaker, that doesn’t overwhelm. Projected price around 20K. Dedicated crossovers with lots of adjustment, needs two power amps. I repeat: if ever a new company and a new product deserved to succeed, this is it!

HARBETH 40.2. OK, I admit it, still my favorite. One of the few in the small rooms that didn’t boom, but still produced strong, deep bass. Pure, natural, clear. Excellent timbre. Good imaging and soundstaging. Brought a smile to my face and tapping to my toe.

VIMBERG MINO. 29K. I believe this new speaker, or its bigger brother, has been commented on very positively from other previous shows, and I understand why. Big, full range, but not overblown sound, very natural, impressive presentation, sense of effortlessless.

DESTINATION AUDIO NIKA. Large speaker with horns and a massive cone woofer. The size overwhelmed the small room…..but the sound didn’t. It managed that trick of being delicate *and* full when required. Dynamic for sure. Ultimately I thought that the image projected was perhaps bigger than natural.

SONNER LEGATO UNUM. These tiny speakers with small, small, small mid-woofers seem to defy the laws of physics.  Using a 5.5” driver (it looks about 4”), every single visitor to the room was asking: where’s the sub-woofer?  *And* they could play loud, very loud. Ultimately I thought them slightly bright, slightly “hyped” overall and a little “larger than life”, though part of this could have been the volume they were being played at. Amazing engineering, to be sure.

 

Middle of the pack (for me).

What these speakers shared, was that they all struck me as highly competent speakers, doing everything right, but somehow they didn’t separate themselves from the pack. It’s as if there were a good, clean, modern sound that a number of manufacturers are converging on.

DYNAUDIO CONFIDENCE 20.

VIENNA ACOUSTICS BEETHOVEN CONCERT GRAND.

QUAD Z4. Nice presentation, but little except a keen price to differentiate it from many others.

DEVORE GIBBON SUPER 9. Their new model. Thunderous bass for the size. Good dynamics and full sound. But everything a bit homogenized, blended/mushed together, I think this affects timbre most of all, as well as individual instrument lines. Perhaps a by-product of being demonstrated as excessive volume (compression?).

TAD E1 [not sure of model name, floorstander]. Big sound, but overlarge images. What I call a “technicolor” speaker.

LEGACY SIGNATURE SE. After that less-than-rave review in Stereophile, I wasn’t expecting that much, so I was pleasantly surprised. Rich sound, good bass. Dynamic. Believable size of image. The more I listened, the more I became aware of a less-than-totally-natural timbre, and they also got a shade steely on classical violin at high volume. Definite bang for the buck, but probably not for me.

 

Disappointments. No disrespect to these makes/models, but on the day, in the room, listening to the tracks being played, I was severely underwhelmed. They have good reputations, so likely under different circumstances they would be much better.

SPATIAL AUDIO M3. I’d been really looking forward to hearing these. Very boomy in the room (because of open baffle??), and the sound overall seem very homogenized. Timbres not distinct, and everything kind of mushed together. Opposite of what I’ve been calling pure/clean sound.

WALSH OHM 5000-series. What can I say? As with Spatial, I’d been really curious to hear these, but I didn’t cotton to them at all. Perhaps it was the unconventional set-up (even for them), perhaps it was the room, perhaps it was the source material. Other people there seemed happy. But other than being overly loud, there was no imaging at all, the sound was homogenized, not in the least beguiling, and frankly it reminded me of a quality sound system being piped into a noisy upscale restaurant. As I say, *my ears* *on the day*, as I know there are many fans of this line of speakers.

 

Any requests of speakers for me to seek out?


128x128twoleftears
@bigkidz I was at CAF briefly on Friday and felt the GT Audio and Pass Labs room was my pick of what I saw during the day.  Open, spacious, great clarity with terrific integrated bass from the impressive bass towers.  
twoleftears - I have spoken to Greg (GT Audio speaker manufacturer) regarding this and he may address this going forward.  The subs can be cut down and he may come up with a smaller version.

Pops - Good to hear your comments.

BTW the GT Audio room features my Direct Heated Triode (DHT) DAC - Vu Jade Audio so some of what you are hearing comes from that source.

Happy Listening.
I was there yesterday only for about 5 hours and thought overall things sounded better last year than this year. A few rooms I really liked:
Charney Audio really lovely sounding system not sure the exact model of speaker but one of the best implementations of a Lowther driver I’ve heard. Also first time hearing the Sparkler CD player and their 300B amp looked to be a steal for $5K.

Destination Audio I was really impressed a very rich natural sound from a pair of big horns driven by all Modwright electronics.

Deja Vu Audio another great custom speaker from Vu set up with a full suite of Aldo’s WE electronics a truly holographic experience. I also liked the other room with the Harbeth 40.2s cj electronics and the AN TT-1/Arm-1/I-O.
Rogers featuring Harbeth 30.2s I just love those speakers and the big Rogers tubed integrated did a nice job driving them.

Gamut I visited this room near the end of the day mcslipp and I were the only people there and it was just a relaxed natural sound that really surprised me from SS.

IMC Audio very interesting speakers and nice sounding with good integration between the upper and lower modules. But what are those drivers on top? Anyone know?

Zu Audio just a fun room I got a quick education in South and West African music from Kolby? from Charney Audio. Huge sound very loud but not fatiguing and un-hifi. No idea what amps were being used in the room though and never asked.

As far as Daedalus goes I didn’t care for the Zeus but I really quite liked the smaller model on the 5th floor the name escapes me they had an angled baffle.
Correction to my above post the driver in the Charney Audio room was an AER not Lowther.
Overall takeaway was I preferred what I heard last year over this year even with plenty of overlap of same/similar systems. Maybe I'm just that much more deaf... Vu's Vintage room is always a favorite but last year's custom WE/GIP speakers were superior to my ears and eyes then this round with essentially the same Aldo designed front end. Also most of the music I heard this year was lame. Could have just been my timing going around. I'm a huge SRV fan but hearing Tin Pan Alley in four different rooms gets old. But at least Diane Krall seems to have run its course. BIG EXCEPTION - Zu Audio - Sean Casey always plays the best music. This year with a mini-tutorial Afro-beat beatdown.

Many of my favorite rooms tended to come small bookshelves.
Those lil' Proac's with a random hodge-podge of gear rocked!
GamuT - Lovely
Fritz Speakers - Awesome bang for the bucks

Loved the Rodgers/Harbeth 30.2 room. Would have like to hear that set up with the 40.2 just to compare with Vu's CJ rig. 

Speaking of speaker swapping, all that killer Lamm gear driving tinny/thin sounding ribbon array's made me scratch me head. I guess ppl liked the setup because of the copious amount of weed filling the room. JOND and I stayed just long enough to get our contact high.

I've never heard the upper end of Wilson. The VPI Room with the new Alexia 2 was extraordinary. Not really my thing but I absolutely understand why so many love them. The imaging, soundstage and instrument separation was incredible. 

Didn't Get It - 
The Gryphon - Did it sound good - yep. Did sound $200k+ good - nope.

The Big VAC Room - for $1.2m I could pay off my house buy a Ferrari and put a couple $100k in the bank and still have my all Shindo system that I liked 4263 times better. I think that system is for ppl with more money than sense as illustrated by the three ppl seating in front of us drinking corked wine I could smell a mile away. The emperor's new clothes? Whatever, smoke 'em if ya got 'em I guess.