Capital AudioFest 2021

My first night here at the Hilton, loud music pumped from the room next to mine. At 11:45pm and it was still blasting, interrupting my much-needed beauty sleep. Several calls later, the volume from the adjacent Daedalus Audio room went down, and I was down for the count.

That experience didn’t dissuade me from walking into that room the following morning and enjoying some excellent sounds. Linear Tube Audio’s Nicholas Tolson was there, running a system consisting of the Daedalus Audio Muse Studio floorstanding loudspeakers ($11,850/pair, 95.5dB/W/m into 6 ohms), DiD SPK isolation devices (for speakers, $50 each), SS/Brass Spikes ($38 each), and DiD isolation devices (for electronics, $480/per set). Amplification was provided by Linear Tube Audio’s LTA microZOTL Preamplifier Level 2 ($5750) and LTA Ultralinear+ Power Amplifier ($6800). The digital source was the Lampizator Baltic 3 DAC ($6450) combined with the Lampizator SuperKomputer Music Streamer ($8000), streaming from laptop. Cabling was by WyWires: Diamond Series Interconnects ($4495), Platinum Series Power Cords ($999), Diamond Series Power Cords ($2295), WyWires/Daedalus Power Broker AC distributor ($2495), and Diamond Series Digital Cables ($1699).

Among other music, Tolson played vocalist Sarah Jarosz’s Bob Dylan classic, “Simple Twist of Fate” from her album, Build Me Up From Bones. The music had fine touch, body, and decay, and sounded very open. Jarosz’s voice was liquid and dynamic. Switching to the Tutti! orchestral sampler, the system played with excellent scale and drama.