At any audio show, there are rooms that for many different reasons are a cut above the crowd. These seven rooms at the Capital Audiofest made the cut for me for many different reasons:
- Two of these rooms show what an audio designer can do when they set out to make their version of the ultimate component.
- Two are attempts to take “Walker’s Little Wonder,” the QUAD ESL, which was released in 1957, to another level some 60+ years later.
- Two more of the rooms show what the designers have achieved with new models that have evolved from their statement products.
- And, the last of these is a room where two young American designers showed off a system that sounds huge but is petite enough to fit into a small den or listening room.
DeVore Fidelity Room
Disclosure here, my reference speakers are the DeVore Fidelity Super Nines. So, it’s no surprise that this room impressed me. It was a surprise to me, however, that this room with the DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/Reference loudspeakers impressed me more than any other room at the show.
There were two things that I loved about this room. The first was the sound, and the second was that with these speakers, a statement-level system can fit into the average home. And as I said in my review of this room, “The speakers are very easy to drive and do not require multiple amps or even high-powered amps. So, while they cost nearly a hundred grand, you could drive them with several amps that are under ten grand and a turntable under $20,000. This means that you could easily have a statement system for under $200,000.”
The Audio Company Room
It would be fair to say that it was hard to miss The Audio Company‘s room at CAF. I wrote about this room in my Day One impressions post, which you can read here. That post also lists all of the gear in the room.
The VAC Statement 452iQ stereo/mono power amplifiers (two pairs for a total of $300,000) were center stage in this room, as you can see in the picture. Yes, the price tag alone makes a statement, but this amp is also a statement from Kevin Hayes, owner and president of Valve Amplification Company, of just what is possible for a tube amplifier.
And the rest of the system in this room was also impressive with Von Schweikert Audio speakers and subwoofers, Esoteric Audio components, A Kronos Pro turntable, an Air Tight Opus 1 cartridge, an Aurender music server, and Critical Mass cables and racks. This definitely was a Room of Distinction.
Robyatt Audio and Sound Advice Room
As you may know, if you have read my reviews over the years, one of my first loves in audio was a pair of Quad ESL speakers. The Quads in the Robyatt Audio and Sound Advice room kept drawing me back to listen.
This wasn’t the best looking system or the biggest system at CAF, and it didn’t have the biggest soundstage, deepest bass, or the most specific imaging. So why is it a Room of Distinction? To me, it was the system that I found most musically satisfying, and it was the system that I most wanted to take home.
As I said in my review of this room, “Four years ago, I reviewed a pair of Wayne Picquet’s restored Quad ESLs. I never got the kind of sound from them in my room at home that I heard from this system in a hotel board room. The sound was so very fast, yet it had wonderful big tones.”
There was definitely magic in this room with the Quad ESLs, the Butler Monads power amps, and some other really fine gear.
EMIA Audio Room
As I said in my review of the EMIA Audio room, one of the main reasons I wanted to go to CAF was to hear Dave Slagle’s redesigned stacked Quad ESL loudspeakers, and I was not disappointed.
In many ways, EMIA electronics are an attempt to created quality products using vintage designs as a sort of “no-holds-barred” vintage system. I give Dave credit for having the vision to take this unconventional path for product design. My experience with his equipment is that he designs and hand-makes some of the most musical equipment that I have heard.
Dave’s Quads are nothing like the ones I owned when I was in college. They have been totally redesigned. The only thing that he uses from the original Quads are the electrostatic panel parts. They are bi-amped using two push-pull 300B tube amps mounted in the speaker’s base. Also mounted in the base are Dave’s own wound step-up transformers that directly connect the amps to the electrostatic panels.
I know this isn’t a system you can go and buy, but if you have the time and money, you can commission it. I was thrilled just to hear it! There were only a few systems at the show that could sound this much like music.
GTT Audio and YG Acoustics Room
The GTT Audio & Video room with YG Acoustics, the new Audionet Humboldt Integrated amplifier, the Kronos Sparta turntable with the new power supply, the Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC and Kubala-Sosna cables was exceptional.
The smaller YG Acoustics Carmel™ 2 speakers are the result of years of research by Yoav Geva, lead-designer, to extend the technologies of their flagship Sonja™ and Hailey™ speakers to a smaller speaker that can be enjoyed by more audiophiles who don’t have the space or the budget for the larger speakers.
As I said in my show report here, this room was an example of how great a small room can sound if you put the right size speakers in it. This amp combined with these speakers created a soundstage that was big, tall and believable. It absolutely defied the size of these speakers. The bass and top-end were exceptional.
Gryphon Audio Room
How could a room hosted by Philip O’Hanlon of The Gryphon not be a room of distinction? Philip is always a gracious host willing to share his amazing knowledge of music.
We heard basically this same system in September at AudioVision SF’s 20th Anniversary and wrote about it then. The sound of the Gryphon Pantheon speakers in this room at CAF driven by their Mephisto Stereo amplifier, however, was much better than it was in the hotel ballroom in San Francisco. So, here again, was another example of how important it is to match speakers to the size of the room they are used in. And, the sound in this room was incredibly musical!
The speakers are also an example of further evolution of the company’s flagship products, drawing heavily on proprietary, innovative technologies introduced in the Gryphon Pendragon and Trident II loudspeakers. The source was the Gryphon Ethos CD player/DAC.
Fern & Roby and ModWright Room
Christopher Hilderbrand of Fern & Roby and Dan Wright of ModWright Instruments are two of the best young American designers around. They brought a system to the show that had great tone and tonal balance. You can read my show report on their room here.
I love the looks and sound of the Fern & Roby Ravens loudspeakers, but I had not heard them sound this musically involving before. In their room at CAF, they were mated with Dan Wright’s newest creation, the ModWright Ambrose Ai325 Tube Integrated Amplifier, a directly heated 300B tube amp in a class-AB push-pull mode and can deliver 25 watts per channel. It was also a system that could fit into a small space and not overwhelm the room. I can’t wait to see what these two will bring to market in the future.
The sound was so satisfying, and this was a system that could fit in almost anyone’s home. If you are at a show and see their names listed, make it a point to go enjoy!
Congratulations to all those who put together these Rooms of Distinction. We look forward to seeing you again, and especially hearing, what you bring to the next audio show.
