Capital AudioFest 2024

The buzz was palpable weeks before I hit the show. David Chesky’s son, Lucca, had designed a pair of small bookshelf speakers—the LC1—while still in high school and developed the speakers while interning at Princeton University with Professor Edgar Choueiri, the brains behind Bacch SP.

Sandy Gross, veteran and founder of Polk Audio, helped choose the drivers and contributed to the design, I was told. And they were selling for $498 apiece.

The LC1 cabinet exploits a composite, multi-layer, high-mass, non-resonant material, features a 1” dome tweeter, a 6.5” polypropylene cone bass/midrange driver, and dual internal 8” 'fluid-coupled' passive subwoofers.

Internal wiring from Kimber Cable and a hardwired, silver-soldered crossover with Solen Film Caps complete the system.

The hefty cabinets look strong and well built. Oddly, the face of the tweeter appeared to be surrounded by a kind of latticework, which I learned was a “unique tessellation diffraction control.”

What’s not to love?

The new Mytek Empire GanFET Stereo/Monoblock ($9995) and Mytek Manhattan DAC II ($6995), coupled with Audirvana on a Mac, drove the LC1s.

The room was dark. All the seats were taken. I asked for Ellington. The small speakers blew out a massive soundfield that was rich, dynamic, punchy, and very well layered. What? The tone was just this side of rich, but like my BRX bookshelf speakers—designed by Mr. Gross—clear, generally transparent, and highly engaging. Touch and texture were more than adequate. Brass had bite and attack. Drums punched like a larger speaker. The sound was how I like it, so I asked to play the LC1s loud.

I’m waiting for Lucca’s floor-standing speaker. Meanwhile, these were the greatest-value small speakers at CAF 2024.