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If you're a fan of my Stereophile scribble, you know I don't consider myself a fan of stuff like DSP processing, digital amplification, spatial reconstruction, or active room correction—all of which play an important role with Bill Dudleston’s Legacy Audio loudspeakers.

So you could have knocked me over with a flea-watt tube amplifier when I heard Dudleston's Legacy Aeris ($23,400/pair), Legacy Focus XD ($15,200), and Legacy Signature XD ($11,200) loudspeakers. I was floored. This was one of the best-sounding rooms I've heard so far at CAF 2023.

Whether playing Shelby…

On A Higher Note’s Philip O’Hanlon is typically seen at shows playing unusual records while entertaining attendees with his charming storytelling and Irish brogue. This was something different.

Brogue intact, O’Hanlon was operating Déjà Vu Audio’s room. No surprise there, as Vu is a major mid-Atlantic dealer, based in Vienna, Virginia. The room contained O’Hanlon’s Graham LS5/9 standmount loudspeakers ($7773/pair), a MoonRiver 404 Reference integrated amplifier ($5995) with a MoonRiver MM/MC phono stage module ($775), Lector CD-707 tubed compact disc player with separate PSU-3T…

Always a friendly face, yay, a calming presence as I crawl through show halls, Technics' Bill Voss was on hand to play music and talk shop in a space hosted by Overture Ultimate Home Theater Electronics of Wilmington, Delaware.

New to the room, and recently announced, Technics’ 4th generation Direct Drive SL-1200 GR2 Turntable ($2199). Salient points of the table’s build include a newly developed motor-drive circuit, newly designed low-noise power supply adopted from Technics’ Reference Class SL-1000R turntable, "new color cues of certain parts and elements, as well as the new…

Not content to consistently produce some of the best sounding rooms at CAF year after year, Harry and Mat Weisfield changed up almost all their ancillary gear from 2022, but the sound remained fantastic.

Room one, where Harry unpeeled a new copy of a Classic Records edition of Respighi's Pines of Rome, played penetrating sounds via a VPI Avenger Direct turntable with Fatboy gimbal tonearm ($36,000) and a VPI Dragon turntable ($8000) outfitted in ZZ Top–worthy red alligator hide, four Cherry VPI Isolation Bases ($1200 each), and electronics by PrimaLuna: an EVO 400 Tube…

Impossibly ambitious? Too many demands on the audience? Tommy done better? A final collapse before a glorious resurrection? 1971's Who's Next, which began life as a more-advanced-than-Tommy sci-fi rock opera called Life…

New York City continues to have a rich hi-fi culture, but many of its fabled hi-fi shops have shuttered—think of Lyric Hi-Fi, which played a major role in the development of audio's high end before it closed in 2021 (footnote 1). But recently NYC's hi-fi scene has experienced a bit of a renewal, with undertakings aimed at a wider, younger audience. One example is a new, niche audio showroom in SoHo, which opened in September, by former deejay and fashion designer, artist, and current audio craftsman Devon Turnbull (footnote 2).

The Ojas Listening Room could…

Hanging at the bar at the Hilton Twinbrook, one hears stories of audio deals gone bad, an actor absconding with a $500,000 system to an unknown Mexican destination, or sordid tales of a peeved player spiting bile at an unknowing colleague. Then there's show organizer Gary Gill, whose upbeat, generous persona is a prime contributor to the success of the Capital Audiofest.

Another valued player, who possesses a sense of inner calm I wish I could generate, is Valve Amplification Company President Kevin Hayes, one of our industry's good guys since his company's founding in 1990.

All man hands were on deck for the US debut of the Italian-made Riviera Labs AFM 100 monoblock power amplifiers, brought to the show by Riviera Labs President of Sales and Marketing Silvio Delfino and Tone Imports' Jonathan Halpern. Also in attendance was Wadax SA's Brandon Lauer and Bending Wave/Göbel Loudspeakers distributor Elliot Goldman.

This massive-sounding, sweetly clean setup included Goldman's Stereophile-featured Göbel Divin Marquis loudspeakers ($90,000/pair), and a Madrid-manufactured WADAX digital front-end including the Atlantis Reference Server ($68,800),…

The obvious headline: The Beatles are releasing a new song. It's called "Now & Then," and all four Beatles play on it. You've probably heard about it by now, since there's a massive marketing campaign. UMG is calling it "the last Beatles song." For more information, see this article.

Those attending the…

I ran into Audio Skies' Michael Vamos at the Hilton bar while schmoozing with old friend Michael Lavorgna, editor and owner of the excellent Twittering Machines audio site. (He's also my fashion guru.) Vamos convinced me to check out his room, presented with Baltimore dealer Dr Vinyl, and I was glad I did.

It was the end of the show, my brain was fried, my ears knackered. It’s amazing how great music played on a great hi-fi can lift your spirits.

The system included a Pear Audio Odar turntable ($15,000), with DS Audio Grand Master EX cartridge ($22,500), Integrity Tru…