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"Shot?", said Boris. It was more a command than a question. He poured Beluga vodka into my glass. "My father drank three shot every day," Boris said. "Lived to 87." Boris Meltsner is the owner of Amped, a very fine range of class-D amplifiers. I was visiting him at the 2024 Capital AudioFest (CAF) in Rockville, Maryland. Boris hails from "Soviet Union, not Russia," he said in an accent as thick as a potato-filled piroshki. "Was called Soviet Union when I left."

Visiting CAF is a joy for me. I recently sold my company, Music Hall, and I was already missing the camaraderie of my industry colleagues and the fun of playing and listening to music.

I have been in this industry for more than 40 years. My first venture was building loudspeakers for Linn in Scotland, at a small factory in Manhattan, on Bond Street. Then I formed Music Hall and went 'round the country selling the Revolver turntable. That was 1985, when everyone was throwing their turntables in the trash and buying "Perfect Sound Forever" CD players. Great timing!

Working for Linn taught me the value of listening to music—to the pace, rhythm, and melody. Every speaker I made was strictly tested and carefully auditioned. That training taught me how important it is to hear live music, to have a reference point when listening to new products and evaluating their musicality. Every product I made at Music Hall was held to this rigorous standard. My ultimate test was "Could I live with this?" If the answer was yes, I brought it to market. My basement is still littered with duds that didn't make it.

The ability to listen to equipment and to evaluate its worth is not magic. It is something anyone can learn. The more you listen to music—preferably classical or jazz, though other genres are fine, the less amplified, the better—the more you can hear the interplay of the instruments and how they follow the beat and rhythm. This interaction of musicians playing together in tune is my reference point when evaluating equipment. The downside of such connoisseurship is that listening to reproduced music that is not musical is even more unpleasant, and there's plenty of that at hi-fi shows, including CAF. But I will leave that evaluation to the swarms of so-called reviewers who infest the shows.

Speaking of reviewers: Herb Reichert of Stereophile moderated a seminar on DACs. Herb did a great job, getting the participants to relax and talk truthfully. It was interesting to me, an old analog man, that this panel of experts and manufacturers admitted that there is no standard for digital chips. Everyone is on their own in the digital world. They all must listen to their DACs and decide which version sounds better. That's okay—but how do we know which digital designers listen to music? I should have asked.

In the past, as an exhibitor myself, I never had time to visit other exhibits, but now I could wander aimlessly. I sauntered into the Command Performance room. My old pal Jeff Fox (footnote 1) had a plethora of equipment, but I lucked out: Anne Bisson was singing live along with her latest CD.

Anne's singing touches a chord in my heart that makes me all gooey and emotional inside. I heard her a couple of years ago in Montreal, from whence she comes. Her version of "Nature Boy," with her son on piano, moved me to tears. I recommend you listen to some of her records.

One item at CAF stood out so much that I must mention it, a two-way loudspeaker. Its musicality, clarity, and bass were astonishing. I have always been a big fan of two-ways. A few years ago, I made one of my own, the Marimba (footnote 2). But this little box delivered such a performance it forced me to spend a long time listening to it. The Chesky LC1 was designed by 17-year-old Lucca Chesky. The young Chesky also built the speakers, using 3D printing and lots of stuff I have never heard of. This loudspeaker (which you can now buy online) blew me away. Growing up in a house filled with music has obviously affected his reference point. Lucca is a true product of the stellar musical Chesky family. Hat's off to Lucca. At the time it wasn't even a commercial product, though it is now.

Also at the show, Arnold Martinez of Synergistic Research demoed various wares. One was a Black Box Carbon, which the website describes as a "broad spectrum low-frequency resonator array" said to eliminate "bass nodes and room modes." There were four of them in the room, and when they were removed, the sound changed quite dramatically. I maintain a healthy skepticism of all such devices—including the Vibraton, described on the website as "a handmade multi-frequency resonator" that "when excited ... radiates even-order harmonics in a 360° wave pattern in sympathy with the music, focusing and expanding the soundstage." When it was added, the sound indeed expanded, but was it better? I leave that to others to decide.

I returned to Boris's room for another shot of vodka. David Salz and Larry Smith from Wireworld were there doing a demo on power cords, showing the difference a quality power cord can make. The noticeable improvement was surely from the vodka, and soon thereafter, the malt whisky, which made everything sound better.

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Heard in the Hall

I have long been fascinated by the amount of rubbish heard at hi-fi shows. Below, guaranteed verbatim, are some highlights from CAF.

• "If you can't make it sound good, make it look good."

• "I can't hear very well."

• "We have no control of our DAC."

• "All you have done is create an expensive candle."

• "We have half a pound of silver in it because silver has less inductance than copper."

• "If we want to go for neutrality, we go with Birch."

• "For better frequency response, I would go with Quartz."

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Footnote 1: See Ken Micallef's review of the J.Sikora Standard Max Supreme turntable/tonearm combo on p.145. J.Sikora is imported by Fox's Notable Audio.

Footnote 2: See Stephen Mejias's review.