Thread: Capital Audiofest Pictures and Comments

Anyone hear the Merrill Audio room? I would like to hear the Element amplifiers. The price is up a lot from the prior series but are said to be quite an improvement in SQ.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...638d4b00c.jpgI


How was this room Mike ..?

Originally Posted by Mike

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Ok this one ..?

Originally Posted by a.wayne

Ok this one ..?

The Eikon audio was good. All active.


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Originally Posted by a.wayne

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...638d4b00c.jpgI


How was this room Mike ..?

I can’t open that link.


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Was at the show on Friday and Saturday. Fantastic. A bit smaller than a couple of years ago, but still terrific to see all the exhibitors.

Agreed...The Kharma room was my favorite. And in no particular order, I also very much enjoyed the Tidal room, C.A.T/Magico room and the Salk room when playing the SS 9.5's.

Mat Weisfeld of VPI stole the show on Friday evening in the JBL Everest room.

For the most memorable...the Eikon Audio room with their new floor standing speakers. I was not terribly impressed with the stand mounts shown in your picture, but the floor standing speakers were quite good, especially for the total cost of $12,000 to include the control unit. Great value for the money.

My friend also really enjoyed the Spatial Audio room with the M4's. Also a good value.

Was unfortunately quite disappointed in the B&W 801 D4 room. The bass was way too boomy, mainly due to poor room interactions. Maybe the 804 D4's would have worked in that room, but the 801's were way too big. That problem was not helped by the music choices that accentuated the flaw (Copeland "Fanfare for a Common Man" and other selections) and the "need" to turn the volume up way too loud. Definitely not writing off these speakers, but need to hear them properly set up and in an appropriate room.

All in all, though, a fantastic show. Bravo.

Originally Posted by Mike

The Eikon audio was good. All active.


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Not Eikon the top picture ..!

Originally Posted by a.wayne

Not Eikon the top picture ..!

Not my cup of tea.


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Originally Posted by Mike

Not my cup of tea.

Passive? What brand was that?
Any thoughts on the "Apollo" grey line array? Enquiring SAS minds want to know..

The JBL/VPI room has been mentioned a few times, what electronics drove the JBL speakers?

Originally Posted by AJ Soundfield

Passive? What brand was that?
Any thoughts on the "Apollo" grey line array? Enquiring SAS minds want to know..

They were ok. The Eikon Audio (Gayle Sanders) are active and sounded good for $12k all in, fed by an aurender.

The passive speakers were Goebel with Parasound.


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Thanks!!

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

The JBL/VPI room has been mentioned a few times, what electronics drove the JBL speakers?

T+A PA 3100 HV integrated amp. Mat and Harry were a tad lukewarm about the pairing. I personally would have loved a tube amp with those speakers.

Regardless, the room still sounded great.

Originally Posted by 4N6

T+A PA 3100 HV integrated amp. Mat and Harry were a tad lukewarm about the pairing. I personally would have loved a tube amp with those speakers.

Regardless, the room still sounded great.

Me too. I kept thinking VAC Master 300’s or CAT. I love the 3100, but the price now is nutty.


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Originally Posted by Mike

They were ok. The Eikon Audio (Gayle Sanders) are active and sounded good for $12k all in, fed by an aurender.

The passive speakers were Goebel with Parasound.


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Yea odd combo seeing Goebel’s paired with Parasound ....!

Nice to see many Lampizator DACs used as a source across the different rooms

Despite the sensitivity rating on some of the JBL they really need some current to come alive. With that being said I'd love to hear mine with a VAC integrated, to see the result.

Originally Posted by 4N6

T+A PA 3100 HV integrated amp. Mat and Harry were a tad lukewarm about the pairing. I personally would have loved a tube amp with those speakers.

Regardless, the room still sounded great.

Originally Posted by mep

Looks like they aren't enforcing the mask rule.

Friday no mask most guests had none
Saturday I was almost the only one not using one. i kept it in my pocket a few rooms asked but no matter what look I got no ask no mask lol.

Originally Posted by BobK

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

Can you post what rooms you liked ? And how often did you go f at all go back to hear again like or dislike please

Originally Posted by BobK

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.

To be what you like or not is fundamental to me. When they played digital 20 feet back off access it was still an amazing sound. On access was a event unlike most I have heard. now there analog while very expensive seemed To me to be way below its digital. but again it’s still an amazing setup over all.

Originally Posted by BobK

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

On Friday there room was good not as good as last show here though. On Saturday it was a set back no doubt. the voltage was issues for some venders. why for them I don’t know but it pains me to agree with you. I went to there room many times.
last show only the large vac von room I felt were better. again it was solid to me. I brought vinyl and digital what ever they played was very good. a note on scale while any good system should
Scale only large setups do it for me and can do the job well. for this reason both room I mentioned are above most all.

Originally Posted by Alrainbow

Can you post what rooms you liked ? And how often did you go f at all go back to hear again like or dislike please

Hi Al,

This was my wife's and my first audio show. We will definitely do things differently at our next show, the Florida Expo. In some ways I regret posting some of the negative feedback on some of the rooms. What we should have done, and will do next time, is not try to hear everything in one day. If we don't like the music selection, move on and come back when they are playing something more to our liking. Also, wait out the crowd to get a good seat in the room. Every one of our top rooms was playing great music and we had great seats.

The Kharma/CJ room blew us away. We went back twice...had to hear it one last time before we left. On the first visit, we listened to a live jazz recording...I was not familiar with it...that ended with a drum solo that honestly left me speechless! It was simply amazing. The other recordings were all classical and fantastic.

We also went to the Tidal room twice. Beautiful music and simply gorgeous equipment. This room was tied for us with the Joseph/EMM room. The music selection here was great, especially Rickie Lee Jones singing Steely Dan. My wife wanted to take this system home until I told her the price of those EMM amps!

And our fourth favorite was Volti Audio. Not a very expensive system, but the song selections were amazing for us. It didn't have the fireworks of the other systems, but was just so pleasant and relaxing.

The absolute worst for us was GTT Audio. My wife turned to me and told me how horrible it sounded, and I agreed completely. Rap music played too loud and was downright unpleasant. I made her sit through the song (she wanted to leave), but things did not improve. Second worst was the B&W/McIntosh room. Horribly recorded 80's pop played unbelievably loud. Both of these rooms played bad music way too loud for us. I should have given both of them another listen.

What was interesting is that Jay (the guy who buys new equipment weekly) picked the Joseph/EMM room as his favorite and the GTT as his second. I believe Mike also picked GTT as his #2. So go figure. But bottom line for us is song selection. Looking forward to Florida. Mike has some great stuff lined up.

Originally Posted by BobK

Hi Al,

This was my wife's and my first audio show. We will definitely do things differently at our next show, the Florida Expo. In some ways I regret posting some of the negative feedback on some of the rooms. What we should have done, and will do next time, is not try to hear everything in one day. If we don't like the music selection, move on and come back when they are playing something more to our liking. Also, wait out the crowd to get a good seat in the room. Every one of our top rooms was playing great music and we had great seats.

The Kharma/CJ room blew us away. We went back twice...had to hear it one last time before we left. On the first visit, we listened to a live jazz recording...I was not familiar with it...that ended with a drum solo that honestly left me speechless! It was simply amazing. The other recordings were all classical and fantastic.

We also went to the Tidal room twice. Beautiful music and simply gorgeous equipment. This room was tied for us with the Joseph/EMM room. The music selection here was great, especially Rickie Lee Jones singing Steely Dan. My wife wanted to take this system home until I told her the price of those EMM amps!

And our fourth favorite was Volti Audio. Not a very expensive system, but the song selections were amazing for us. It didn't have the fireworks of the other systems, but was just so pleasant and relaxing.

The absolute worst for us was GTT Audio. My wife turned to me and told me how horrible it sounded, and I agreed completely. Rap music played too loud and was downright unpleasant. I made her sit through the song (she wanted to leave), but things did not improve. Second worst was the B&W/McIntosh room. Horribly recorded 80's pop played unbelievably loud. Both of these rooms played bad music way too loud for us. I should have given both of them another listen.

What was interesting is that Jay (the guy who buys new equipment weekly) picked the Joseph/EMM room as his favorite and the GTT as his second. I believe Mike also picked GTT as his #2. So go figure. But bottom line for us is song selection. Looking forward to Florida. Mike has some great stuff lined up.

GTT Audio is Bill Parrish up in New Jersey; YG, Audionet, etc. Would be suprised if he was choosing rap... GT Audio is the speaker company. Was Bill and GTT Audio there?

My apologies if I mischaracterized the music. I called it Rap, but I guess you could also call it Hip-Hop or Urban. Sorry, it was a heavy bass line with spoken words, something I am not necessarily familiar with. I don't know who was there or playing the music as I don't know who Bill Parrish is, just that it was very loud, bright and unpleasant.

This was our second stop to the room. Earlier in the day, there were two gentlemen on their knees in front of the Pass phono, trying to figure out why the blue light wouldn't come on. They were obviously anxious and not happy about the situation, when one asked the other if it was plugged in. "Of course it is" responded the other. Then VPI guru Harry Weisfeld walks in and asks what the problem is, asks if it's plugged in, and states that Fremer is on his way. They are visibly and audibly highly frustrated at this point. Then a fourth guy walks up behind the rack and tells them that it is unplugged. He plugs it in and all is well. I chuckled since this has never happened to me!

Originally Posted by BobK

Hi Al,

This was my wife's and my first audio show. We will definitely do things differently at our next show, the Florida Expo. In some ways I regret posting some of the negative feedback on some of the rooms. What we should have done, and will do next time, is not try to hear everything in one day. If we don't like the music selection, move on and come back when they are playing something more to our liking. Also, wait out the crowd to get a good seat in the room. Every one of our top rooms was playing great music and we had great seats.

The Kharma/CJ room blew us away. We went back twice...had to hear it one last time before we left. On the first visit, we listened to a live jazz recording...I was not familiar with it...that ended with a drum solo that honestly left me speechless! It was simply amazing. The other recordings were all classical and fantastic.

We also went to the Tidal room twice. Beautiful music and simply gorgeous equipment. This room was tied for us with the Joseph/EMM room. The music selection here was great, especially Rickie Lee Jones singing Steely Dan. My wife wanted to take this system home until I told her the price of those EMM amps!

And our fourth favorite was Volti Audio. Not a very expensive system, but the song selections were amazing for us. It didn't have the fireworks of the other systems, but was just so pleasant and relaxing.

The absolute worst for us was GTT Audio. My wife turned to me and told me how horrible it sounded, and I agreed completely. Rap music played too loud and was downright unpleasant. I made her sit through the song (she wanted to leave), but things did not improve. Second worst was the B&W/McIntosh room. Horribly recorded 80's pop played unbelievably loud. Both of these rooms played bad music way too loud for us. I should have given both of them another listen.

What was interesting is that Jay (the guy who buys new equipment weekly) picked the Joseph/EMM room as his favorite and the GTT as his second. I believe Mike also picked GTT as his #2. So go figure. But bottom line for us is song selection. Looking forward to Florida. Mike has some great stuff lined up.

Thank you very much for replying audio is an odd thing all it’s own. One likes one hates no matter what. your views are your own and fine by me.

Originally Posted by BobK

My apologies if I mischaracterized the music. I called it Rap, but I guess you could also call it Hip-Hop or Urban. Sorry, it was a heavy bass line with spoken words, something I am not necessarily familiar with. I don't know who was there or playing the music as I don't know who Bill Parrish is, just that it was very loud, bright and unpleasant.

This was our second stop to the room. Earlier in the day, there were two gentlemen on their knees in front of the Pass phono, trying to figure out why the blue light wouldn't come on. They were obviously anxious and not happy about the situation, when one asked the other if it was plugged in. "Of course it is" responded the other. Then VPI guru Harry Weisfeld walks in and asks what the problem is, asks if it's plugged in, and states that Fremer is on his way. They are visibly and audibly highly frustrated at this point. Then a fourth guy walks up behind the rack and tells them that it is unplugged. He plugs it in and all is well. I chuckled since this has never happened to me!

They are great guys and shows can be stressful if you care and they do. last show the voltage got so low one amp went into hard feedback sounds. I’m glad I did not ask them or tell them it was unplugged lol.

Originally Posted by GT Audio Works

Thanks for stopping by and the great pics Mike...Sorry I missed you.
We will be at the Tampa show in Februrary we will be partnering with Infigo audios wonderful electronics.
See you there !
Greg

Great. I did say hi, but you ignored me….you were busy trying to impress Jay. . It’s all good, I’m married, I’m used to being ignored.

Yeah, I’ve heard something about this Tampa show…. . We’ve sold all the big rooms, will you be able to make a standard room work? The US Army didn’t renew their training rooms at the hotel, so it freed up a couple more larger rooms, but we sold those FAST and to legacy exhibitors.

Uh oh….I have my show hat on now.


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Originally Posted by GT Audio Works

Sorry I ignored you Mike...That confirms my wifes observation that I am a poor multitasker...I tend to get tunnel vision at these shows fully engrosing myself in one issue at at time and ignoringing all else. Jay was recording a video at the time.
I wish we had a bigger room for Tampa, but we will make due with the 13x18 suite we booked with Infigo Audio.
Who knows maybe we can move into something larger in coming years if something opens up.
We will size down the sub stacks for this room. I am sure it will work out fine.
I'll be on the lookout for you, 50 lashes with a speaker cable if I ignore you !!
Greg

Ha! It’s all good. I will have three rooms myself coupled with show activities, so I’ll be running around like a mad man. I’ll definitely try to stop by and see you.


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Originally Posted by GT Audio Works

Sorry I ignored you Mike...That confirms my wifes observation that I am a poor multitasker...I tend to get tunnel vision at these shows fully engrosing myself in one issue at at time and ignoringing all else. Jay was recording a video at the time.
I wish we had a bigger room for Tampa, but we will make due with the 13x18 suite we booked with Infigo Audio.
Who knows maybe we can move into something larger in coming years if something opens up.
We will size down the sub stacks for this room. I am sure it will work out fine.
I'll be on the lookout for you, 50 lashes with a speaker cable if I ignore you !!
Greg

Wow , Interesting you can make them work in a 13x18 room ..!


Regards ..