Capital Audiofest Pictures and Comments

**Ritmo** · November 5, 2021, 09:53 PM

Thx for the pictures Mike. Day 2 typically has better sound. Look forward to your comments and more pictures; of course!

**pdub** · November 5, 2021, 10:04 PM

Wow, Mike's audio show pix. What a blast from the past. Thanks Mike!

**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 06:22 AM

Originally Posted by RDSChicago

What have you been impressed with at the show thus far, Mike?

I’ll finish off today and then provide some comments.

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**AJ Soundfield** · November 6, 2021, 08:22 AM

Originally Posted by Mike

I’ll finish off today and then provide some comments.

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Cool, interested in hearing about those big greyish "Apollo" planars + subs.
Then they can quote you when running ads.

**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 08:27 AM

Originally Posted by AJ Soundfield

Cool, interested in hearing about those big greyish "Apollo" planars + subs.
Then they can quote you when running ads.

These?

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**AJ Soundfield** · November 6, 2021, 08:37 AM

Yep, new to me.
They look possibly modular.

**BobK** · November 6, 2021, 10:36 AM

Originally Posted by Mike

Stunningly musical. I don’t want to leave this room. Been waiting a painful 9 months for my personal pair.

Kharma Midi’s with CJ.

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Could not agree with you more, Mike. Best of show for my wife and I, closely followed by the Tidal and Joseph/EMM rooms.

**BobK** · November 6, 2021, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by Mike

If they’re quoting me, I better provide a proper write up this time too….

Steal the sweet spot in this room if you can! Unlike some very over priced panel speakers now on the market, the GTT’s, made right here in the U.S., don’t exhibit any colorations or brightness. They give you all the speed and musicality you could want from a panel with no discernible downsides, including price! GTT has really upped their game with fit and finish too. Finished in a glossy gorgeous Tiger Ebony, they really made the panels attractive. The woofer integration in this setup was also seamless.

Paired with the exceptional electronics from Pass Labs, despite being in a large room (estimate about 25 x 60), this system delivered the goods.

MSRP for the four towers: $59k with the amps for the woofers and cables.

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Ok

This room was a huge disappointment for us, Mike. Terrible song selection (Rap), loud and bright. Almost unlistenable. Something was very wrong.

**BobK** · November 6, 2021, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by Mike

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Terrible room, again i think due to a poor song selection while we were there...poorly recorded 80’s rock played too loudly. Bright and 2 dimensional...no soul.

**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 11:00 AM

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**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 11:24 AM

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**BobK** · November 6, 2021, 11:24 AM

Originally Posted by Mike

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Huge disappointment with this room...had to go back to the Kharma room to finish the show on a high note. Again, i think due to song selection. Listened to 2 cuts of Madonna. The stage was huge, but we were simply listening to 2 huge speakers very easy to localize. No musicality IMHO. And this was probably a $1.5M dollar system.

Part of the problem was that we had just come off a huge high moments earlier in the Joseph Audio/EMM room...wow! Great song choices...fantastic sound...just loved it! Tied for #2 with the Tidal room just behind the Kharma room.

Our top 4...Kharma, Tidal & Joseph/EMM tie, Volti Audio. Never listened to anything in the UHA room as they were always talking about the deck every time we stopped by. But our top rooms were always playing great, well recorded music. Shazamed a bunch of new music i can’t wait to listen to when we get home.

**BobK** · November 6, 2021, 11:28 AM

Just to clarify, the room we did not like was the VAC/VS (with the huge VS). The TAD room was awesome.

**nc42acc** · November 6, 2021, 11:35 AM

Will someone go by room 508 and listen to the LKV Research demo please?

**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 11:43 AM

Packed rooms and an excellent turn out on Saturday!

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**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 11:56 AM

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**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 12:23 PM

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**AJ Soundfield** · November 6, 2021, 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by Mike

Packed rooms and an excellent turn out on Saturday!

Nice

**joeinid** · November 6, 2021, 01:59 PM

Mike,

Thank you for the coverage and especially the photos. Feels like old times. I’ve missed seeing all the new gear and show coverage. We appreciate the hard work.

**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 02:09 PM

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**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 02:10 PM

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**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 02:33 PM

My top 3 rooms:

1. Kharma midis with CJ and Aurender
2. VAC with VS, Esoteric, Aurender and Critical Mass
3. Magico S5 mk2 with CAT amps

My top three were all tube rooms.

So many good rooms. Really enjoyed the Fyne/Chord room, TAD room, GT Audio Works panels room, JBL with VPI, Tidal room.

Aurender’s were everywhere. Saw a few Taiko’s too.

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**Ritmo** · November 6, 2021, 02:47 PM

Thanks for the coverage and pictures Mike. Looks like CAF has a good number of rooms and quality systems. Nicely done!

**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 03:06 PM

Originally Posted by Ritmo

Thanks for the coverage and pictures Mike. Looks like CAF has a good number of rooms and quality systems. Nicely done!

Thanks Mike. Turn out was amazing! Rooms were jammed. Time for folks to get out from under their beds and get back to the shows.

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**nc42acc** · November 6, 2021, 04:04 PM

Hey I see the QLN Prestige 5 in the room with Gryphon. I see Perlisten has the s7t with the massive subs. Anybody get a listen?

**KeithR** · November 6, 2021, 04:05 PM

How were the Cubes?

**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by KeithR

How were the Cubes?

?

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**Audio 1** · November 6, 2021, 05:18 PM

Mike thank you for bringing us back to what many of us love so much!!

**Calvin** · November 6, 2021, 05:53 PM

I heard some QLN Prestige 5 speakers just a month or so ago. They are some nice speakers - great sound. Sounds really good with tubes.

Originally Posted by nc42acc

Hey I see the QLN Prestige 5 in the room with Gryphon. I see Perlisten has the s7t with the massive subs. Anybody get a listen?

**Dizzie** · November 6, 2021, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by Mike

Packed rooms and an excellent turn out on Saturday!

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A good omen for the Florida Audio Expo February 18-20, 2022.

**KeithR** · November 6, 2021, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by Mike

?

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Cube Audio Nenuphar (looked to have active bass though in your pic above)

Has a cultish following right now.

**nc42acc** · November 6, 2021, 07:33 PM

For people like me who has not heard of these yet.

Simply the best fullrange drivers and loudspeakers

Originally Posted by KeithR

Cube Audio Nenuphar (looked to have active bass though in your pic above)

Has a cultish following right now.

**Mike** · November 6, 2021, 08:06 PM

Originally Posted by KeithR

Cube Audio Nenuphar (looked to have active bass though in your pic above)

Has a cultish following right now.

Yes. Not my cup of tea.

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**CPP** · November 7, 2021, 11:05 AM

Thank you Mike for the coverage. As always well done.

**nc42acc** · November 7, 2021, 11:11 AM

Yes, thank you Mike for the great pictures of the show. See you in FL soon.

Originally Posted by CPP

Thank you Mike for the coverage. As always well done.

**RDSChicago** · November 7, 2021, 11:12 AM

Thanks Mike. Glad you had fun!

**Mr Peabody** · November 7, 2021, 12:05 PM

My thanks as well for the reporting. I have also seen some photos on social media, I agree Aurender looks to be well represented, as well as some using Lampizator and more than one with VAC.

Mike, did you attend the after hours LP playback session with VAC? That looked like it would be fun. Someone had a claimed great pressing of DSOTM and later another guy had a good pressing of LZ II.

**Mike** · November 7, 2021, 06:41 PM

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

My thanks as well for the reporting. I have also seen some photos on social media, I agree Aurender looks to be well represented, as well as some using Lampizator and more than one with VAC.

Mike, did you attend the after hours LP playback session with VAC? That looked like it would be fun. Someone had a claimed great pressing of DSOTM and later another guy had a good pressing of LZ II.

Yes I did. It was amazing. They played some great tunes.

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**RDSChicago** · November 7, 2021, 07:40 PM

Originally Posted by Mike

Awful

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Ken Micalef liked them. “ The sound of this system put me in mind of Art Dudley and Herb Reichert, both of whom would have been tempted to close the door and call it a day, listening to the wee hours, but instead would have kept working the show. Tone was deep and the sound was tactile, with textures you could almost touch. The bass was soft, but the sweetness of the system’s sound was special and moving.”

**a.wayne** · November 8, 2021, 06:11 AM

Originally Posted by Mike

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**Alrainbow** · November 8, 2021, 08:01 AM

On

**Alrainbow** · November 8, 2021, 08:02 AM

For

**Alrainbow** · November 8, 2021, 08:15 AM

No

**Mike** · November 8, 2021, 08:46 AM

Al, I read your question. For the top rooms, many times. For the smaller, DIY type rooms. Once, maybe twice at the most.

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**a.wayne** · November 8, 2021, 08:53 AM

Rainbow is warming up , he will soon hit the full Bias and necessary NFB levels needed for a proper response ..!!!

**asindc** · November 8, 2021, 10:54 AM

My favorite rooms:

1) 20/20 Evolution, dealer in Maryland- Kharma MIDI and dB9-S speakers with CJ and Lampi DAC. The dB9-Ss were sublime! The room applauded after one piece was played!

2) Dr. Vinyl, also local dealer- QMA bookshelfs with McGary Audio components and Reed turntable. Those bookshelfs completely disappeared and sounded wonderful even in a crowded, small room. Interesting that I’m not generally a fan of tube amps but my top two CAF 2021 rooms were all tube setups.

3) Salk Audio-Both of his speakers sounded great. I didn’t get the model #s, as they ran of out of programs.

Biggest takeaway: The number of young people, especially women, increased dramatically from recent years. In previous years you could count the number of women on your fingers and still have a few leftover. This year they might have made up about 15-20% of the attendees! Among my regular audiophiles buddies, we have a 30-something within our ranks. He is a member of a local Facebook group that is attracting quite of few younger people to the hobby, and they were out in force this weekend! Good to see for the future of the hobby.

Biggest surprise: The turnout in general. The parking garage was full when I arrived early Saturday and they had already run out of programs! I guess after a 2-year wait folks were eager to mix and mingle again.

Interesting trend: Tower speakers with woofer arrays. The main VPI room had Arian Audio towers with a 3-woofer array per side, while there was the GT Audio room with their GTA3R planars with 4-woofer array per side. I’m calling this a trend as REL has recently started advocating stacking their subs in a 2 or 3-sub array per side configuration. I enjoyed both rooms when they were playing music to my tastes.

All in all, a great weekend. I usually only attend the Saturday session, but this year I went back on Sunday, primarily to hear the Kharmas again. Those speakers have me thinking…. Mike, I thought I would run into you but alas, our paths didn’t cross. I think the success of CAF 2021 bodes well for your upcoming Florida Audio Expo.

**Alpinist** · November 8, 2021, 11:38 AM

Originally Posted by Mike

My top 3 rooms:

1. Kharma midis with CJ and Aurender
2. VAC with VS, Esoteric, Aurender and Critical Mass
3. Magico S5 mk2 with CAT amps

My top three were all tube rooms.

So many good rooms. Really enjoyed the Fyne/Chord room, TAD room, GT Audio Works panels room, JBL with VPI, Tidal room.

Aurender’s were everywhere. Saw a few Taiko’s too.

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Hi Mike,

I totally agree with your top 3 rooms. I felt the Tidal room was right in the mix too. It was a fun time!

Thanks again,
Ken

**Mikado463** · November 8, 2021, 01:55 PM

Mike (and all who commented as well), again thanks for your pics, room impressions etc.

I noticed you provide a pic of the Philharmonic room, thoughts ?

**ACHiPo** · November 8, 2021, 02:18 PM

Originally Posted by Mike;

Awful

Originally Posted by RDSChicago

Ken Micalef liked them. “ The sound of this system put me in mind of Art Dudley and Herb Reichert, both of whom would have been tempted to close the door and call it a day, listening to the wee hours, but instead would have kept working the show. Tone was deep and the sound was tactile, with textures you could almost touch. The bass was soft, but the sweetness of the system’s sound was special and moving.”

Well file that under disparate opinions!

**the professor** · November 8, 2021, 02:24 PM

Nice to see pics from an Audio show.

Thanks Mike!!!

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