Capital AudioFest 2024

This is the CAF room that all my audio-running buddies and even non-buddies told me about: Songer Audio.

I strolled in and took a seat in front of a LampizatOr Atlantic 3 TRP DAC ($7325), an Innuos Statement Next-Gen Server & Streamer ($25,000), and Phoenix NET Network Switch ($4349). These components fed a Whammerdyne Heavy Industries DGA-Ultra 2A3 Integrated Amplifier ($5995). Whammerdyne Heavy Industries sounds like a Roadrunner cartoon company gone wrong, but I stayed put.

The Whammerdyne drove the stodgy-looking, 95dB sensitivity, solid hardwood cabinet, Songer Audio S1x Field Coil Loudspeakers ($45,000/pair) that debuted at the show.

“The S1x sets a new standard for single-driver point source performance,” states the Songer site. “Centered around our latest V4 Nova driver, every facet of our critically acclaimed S1 was revisited in the development of the S1x . . . With a redesigned steel geometry milled from ultra-low carbon steel, the field coil pole piece is made from permendur, offering the highest saturation flux density of any commercially available metal. Deep cryogenic processing is a three-day treatment in which the Nova voice coil wire is submerged in liquid nitrogen for 48 hours at -300°F. During this process, the wire metal is compressed, becomes more conductive, and its natural crystalline structure is restored. The result is clarity, detail and accuracy elevated to new, utterly breathtaking levels.”

That’s a mouthful. KBL Sound supplied cables, including Extrema RCA (6749€/pair), Red Corona XLR (2439€/pair), Extrema power cord (7635€), and Himalaya II power cord (6799€).

This system played music, just as I'd have it. Mitski's 'Bug Like An Angel' skittered on acoustic guitars and echoey vocals, the Songer system laid it out with a languorous gait, a vast vocal choir sprawling across the soundstage with a lavish, large scale, cinematic scope. Pinpoint accurate, animated, and utterly focused, the sound seized me and set me to rights. Well done, Songer Whammerdyne wizards!