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Audio Note’s Adrian Ford-Crush maintains a sweet vinyl stash. So whenever time allows, I hide out in his room and check out the sounds. For this show, all the way from London, Ford-Crush brought Count Basie's fantastic Roulette recording Chairmen of the Board, a Blue Note Classics edition of Hank Mobley’s hard bop treatise No Room for Squares, Cannonball Adderley’s Quintet Plus, and Mad Professor’s 40 Years of Dub.

He also brought a very affordable (by audiophile standards) Audio Note system to play his vinyl: a TT Three Turntable with PSU1 ($9410), IQ 3 MM Phono Cartridge ($1311…

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Falls Church, Virginia, dealer Now Listen Here enjoys an unusual pedigree. By day, part-owner Shayne Tenace (who also runs Tenacious Sound) builds nuclear power plants; a Canadian project currently occupies his time. But by night—watch out—Shayne spins vinyl on the brand new Rega NAIA turntable and Vandersteen Quatro speakers. (Despite his nocturnal preoccupations, his stores maintain regular daylight business hours.) The NAIA had its US debut at the Now Listen Here suite at CAF.

In addition to the Rega NAIA ($12,995), with Rega Aphelion 2 cartridge…

Hitting the show circuit without their usual running buddy, Greg Roberts of Volti Audio (who is taking a much deserved break), BorderPatrol's Gary Dews and Triode Wire Lab's "Triode Pete" Grzybowski joined forces with Living Voice Loudspeakers of Long Eaton, Derbyshire, UK.

The Room 314 system included a BorderPatrol DAC SE-I ($1650), an Innous Statement Music Server with Next Gen Power Supply ($26,200), BorderPatrol S20EXD power amplifier ($21,500), and the new two-way, 93dB/W/m, 6 ohm Living Voice R80 floorstanding loudspeakers ($42,750 or $54,250 depending on ... what exactly…

Amplifier manufacturer Linear Tube Audio was seemingly everywhere at the show. LTA appeared with Daedalus Audio in the Randolph Room, with PureAudioProject in Room 825, with Credo Audio and Audioshield Distribution in Room 730, and with Audeze, Meze, iBasso, and ZMF in the Headphone Lounge; LTA debuted the new Velo ($2100) headphone amp at the show.

LTA received perhaps its best exposure in a room shared with one of the most widely buzzed about products at the show: Clayton Shaw Acoustic Lab's Caladan open-baffle speaker ($3295/pair).

No seats were available when I…

Nexus Audio Technologies' Walter Schofield presented a rig consisting of the VPI Avenger Direct turntable with Fatboy tonearm ($36,000), VPI Shyla cartridge ($2500), and Primare R35 MM/MC phono preamp ($2000); the 432 EVO Master Music Server with Roon core endpoint ($18,000); the Primare PRE35 Prisma DM36 streaming preamplifier featuring the new DM36 advanced DAC module with MQA processing ($5250); and two Primare A35.2 stereo amplifiers ($3900 each) bridged to mono. Walter also presented the Stenheim Alumine Two.five Loudspeakers ($23,500/pair) in their North American debut, a full loom…

Command AV's Jeff Fox was running two rigs at CAF, including a large scale assemblage in the Democracy suite, where the sound matched the beauty of the hi-fi. Jeff's setup included the day-glow red J.Sikora Standard MAX Special Editon turntable ($19,995) and J.Sikora KV MAX 12" Tonearm ($14,500) mounted with an Aidas Mammoth Gold Cartridge ($8650). From thence the signal ran to a Doshi Audio Evolution phono stage ($20,995). Digital front-end duties were handled by an Aurender N30SA server ($25,000), a Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Series 3 ($28,000), and a Berkeley Audio Design Alpha…

Walter Swanbon of Fidelis AV Distribution brought not only the Harbeth loudspeakers and Pure Fidelity turntable I raved about in recent Stereophile reviews, but also a couple brands I was unaware of until now. Walter always gets great room sound, so I was looking forward to a discovery.

Walter included the Pure Fidelity Harmony record player complete with Origin Live Encounter tonearm ($9995), (plus $500 for the premium finish shown), Lab 12 Melto 2 tube phono preamplifier ($4490), Lab 12 DAC 1, a non-oversampling DAC with a tubed output stage ($3290), and an Aurender N200 server…

Fast-talking, smooth-walking, Brit-expat Robin Wyatt is one of the best setup men in the game. Showcasing unique gear that he operates to perfection, his rooms typically capture best-in-show performance.

Records were played on the newly revived Michell Engineering Gyrodec SE turntable ($4000) with Sorane SA1.2 tonearm ($1925) and new Michell Engineering Levi Feet ($750). Robin had mounted on that meaty machine a Miyajima Labs Carbon Stereo Cartridge ($3000). A Miyajima Labs KSW SUT ($2250) did what SUTs do. Digital was also part of this package, in the form of a Sonore…

Audio Note Meishu 300B Tonmeister Phono Integrated Amplifier
($15,740; reviewed by Ken Micallef in Vol.46 No.2 review)

Finalists (in alphabetical order)
Ayre VX-8 Power Amplifier ($6800; reviewed by Ken Micallef in Vol.46 No.10 review)
Benchmark AHB2 Power Amplifier ($3499; reviewed by John Atkinson In Vol.46 No.1 review)
Dan D'Agostino Momentum M400 MxV Monoblock Amplifier ($79,500/Pair; reviewed by Jason Victor Serinus in Vol.46 No.6 review)
HiFi Rose RS520 Streaming Integrated Amplifier ($3695; reviewed by Rogier…