Digital Sources: dCS Rossini SACD/CD Transport & Rossini DAC & Rossini Clock & Network Bridge; EMM Labs DV2 DAC; Intel NUC7i7BNH with 8GB Ram, 128GB SSD running Roon; Linksys routers (2), Small Green Computer Systemoptique optical isolation bundle, two TP-Link gigabit Ethernet media converters plus multimode duplex fiber optic cable; Small Green Computer linear power supply (3) & 200W Linear Power Supply; external hard drives, SSD USB sticks, iPad Pro.
Power Amplifiers: Dan D'Agostino Master Systems Progression monoblocks.
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
I have been beating the headphone drum at Stereophile since I started in 2014. By 2016, when I reviewed Linear Tube Audio’s inaugural product, the microZOTL2.0 line-stage/headphone amplifier, I was falling asleep with AKG K812s on my head. (Now I’m falling asleep with HiFiMan Susvara and RAAL-requisite SR1a ribbon headphones.) To me, headphone listening is the gateway to audio’s newest wonderland.
Therefore, naturally, I had to start my Friday morning CAF adventure at Linear Tube Audio’s Headphone Lounge, which featured the full array of LTA’s handsome amplification featuring casework…
“Herb, did you see all that vinyl?”
I had woken up not long before, fallen out of bed, and descended the hotel stairs to the Atrium—to the sight of what appeared to be many tens of thousands of vinyl records. I had dragged myself away and met Herb Reichert for breakfast, where we made plans for Stereophile’s coverage of Capital AudioFest 2019. But the vinyl kept drawing me back.
Herb's response: “Ken, there’s over 80 rooms!”
Held for the 4th year at the Hilton Hotel in Rockville, Maryland by organizer and founder Gary Gill, this year’s CAF has increased its vendor count…
It’s easy to get lost at this hi-fi party. Do I follow my carefully chosen itinerary or my ears, leading me down seemingly endless hallways where music emanates from every corner and cranny?
One such adventure of the latter kind led me to John McGurk’s AudioShield room, where Credo Audio Switzerland, in conjunction with Meitner, EMM Labs and VPI, presented a system with a big, immersive soundstage.
As explained by Amadeus Meitner, the system included the DS Audio W2 optical cartridge ($4500), brand new VPI Vanquish Magnetic Direct Drive Turntable (prototype), EMM Labs DS EQ1…
The lighting in the Krell-Alta Audio room was bleak, gray, colorless. The only color in the room was the blue from the lights on Krell’s never-before-played-in-public K-300p phono preamplifier ($TBD), Krell Illusion line-level preamplifier ($7700), Krell Duo 300 XD amplifier, and Krell CEO Walter Schofield’s shiny blue jacket. Before lighting-induced dystopian melancholy took hold, I was greeted by the dual grins of Walter and the always fun story teller Michael Levy, CEO at Alta Audio.
As I sat down, Walter said, “Herb, did you ever think the old Krell sounded hard, gray, and transistor…
As I said in my storm-centered intro, Capital Audiofest is my favorite audio show because the people are real. There are not so many slick-suited international types like the old CES and the new Munich High End. In Rockville, MD, we have down home local audio dealers, like Roslyn and Russell Katz, who filled FIVE rooms with fine audio and the hall of the fifth floor with LPs. Their company (companies?) have two names: The Audio Hunters and The Vinyl Revivers.
Before I knew who she was, I saw Roslyn in the hall handing out chocolate chip cookies that she baked herself. She was vivacious,…
Staged by Cornelia and Michael Davis, the beautiful Audio Federation assemblage consisted of the Acapella Audio One music server ($6875), Audio Note UK DAC Five Signature ($98,355), Acapella LaMusika integrated amplifier ($110,000), new 93” tall, 450 lb. Acapella Audio Arts Campanile 2 loudspeakers with an updated spherical horn midrange (95dB at 8 ohms, $66,500/pair), and Acapella and Audio Note UK cabling.
Streaming a 16/44.1 file of the Mercury Living Presence version of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat major performed by Gina Bachauer, the sound was very large scale, clear, dynamic…
I’ve known DeVore Fidelity’s John DeVore a long time. Luxman America President Jeff Sigmund, too. I’ve reviewed a few of their products—DeVore and Luxman. These guys are salt of the earth. They’ve got tradition, they love music, they have a desire to create, a desire to serve.
Not to get all lofty here, but it’s good to know there are still true artists and great people at the core of the audiophile/hi-fi business. And while their room, presented by Jeff Fox’s Command Performance AV of Falls Church, VA, featured DeVore’s most expensive speakers and the new Luxman CL-1000 Preamplifier,…
Walk through the glass entrance doors, then twenty paces straight ahead, and you find yourself standing at the lip of a dizzying precipice, with a full panoramic view of the Rockville Hilton’s vast LP-filled atrium. To your right is a spectacularly lit glass wall that measures about 25’ high by 75’ wide. Above the glass is a giant banner baring the turquoise Valve Amplification Company’s logo: VAC. Standing in front of the wall are groups of urbane sophisticates: handsome men in suits, beautiful women, bright-eyed children. This envy-inspiring display is assembled by The Audio Company out of…
With so many megabuck rooms fattening the floors of CAF 2019, it’s easy to miss the smallish, sub-$10,000 systems making absolutely first rate sound. One such room was manned by MoFi’s Jon Derda: the Tenacious Sound/MoFi/Quad room.
After leaving Greg Roberts’ superb Volti Audio room, a Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar solo pulled me into Tenacious Sound lair across the hall, and there they were: the Wharfedale Linton speakers recently reviewed by Herb Reichert ($1199/pair, plus $300 for the stands). The Lintons remind me of my old Spendor1/2s: similar fatboy dimensions and equally room…