2017 Capital Audio Fest - Report and Pics

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nature boy

2017 Capital Audio Fest - Report and Pics
« on: 6 Nov 2017, 04:33 pm »
Greetings,

I had the pleasure of attending the 2017 CAF show.  More than 60 Exhibitors on 3 floors @ the Hilton Twinbrook.  Met a lot of great people at the show and most systems I heard sounded good, although some exhibitors encountered room related issues. Over 2,000 people attended. 

Here are a few take away notes, before my pictures, based on my observations & biases (I prefer tube based systems that sound like music):


1) Show logistics and experience was very good.
2) Seemed to be growing interest in headphone based systems with good foot/ear traffic in the CanMania large room with many top notch amp, digital, and headphone manufacturers represented.
3) Digital equipment is sounding better IMHO, particularly low priced DAC's
3) Four standout rooms IMHO:
Daedalus Audio - Modwright Insturments - VPI - WyWires
Volti Audio - Border Patrol Electronics - Triode Wire
Salk - Wells Audio - Exogal DAC - Danacables - Gingko Audio ARCH treatments
Tenacious Audio - NAIM electronics - TAD Micro's - Isotek PC's and conditioned (no pictures)



Daedalus-Modwright-VPI-WyWires set up



Daedalus Apollo 11's


Volti Rival Compact Horns


Border Patrol-Volti


Salk Speakers


Odyssey-VPI


Odyssey Lorelei Speakers


Bricasti-Tidal

I fell in love with Lou's Daedalus Apollo loudspeakers and spent most of my time listening in this room.  Also, the Border Patrol SE DAC was outstanding and a real bargain.

Condolences to Klaus Bunge who ended up with a room with awful acoustics.  Truly great sounding stuff at an unbelievable price.  He could not even demo his top of the line speakers due to bass overload issues in the room on Saturday.

NB







nature boy

Re: 2017 Capital Audio Fest - Report and Pics
« Reply #1 on: 6 Nov 2017, 04:36 pm »
BTW,

Only made two purchases, a set of Daedalus DID's for my incoming DAC/streamer and a set of Gingko ARCH treatments to try under my Omega SAHO speakers.

NB