[lonewolfny42]

Scott....

Nice...

Next time don't forget the beer....

[Phil A]

Paolo Audio's main problem was the source (cheapo CD player was below the night stand).  He should have gone next door to Everything Audio Network/Benchmark and borrowed a DAC.  I would have liked to hear them with a good source.

[doug s.]

Paolo Audio's main problem was the source (cheapo CD player was below the night stand).  He should have gone next door to Everything Audio Network/Benchmark and borrowed a DAC.  I would have liked to hear them with a good source.

i agree the source was not the best, but no front end would have made those speakers sound natural in that room, imo...  (or in any room?)  a poor digital source has a tendency to flatten soundstage and make the sonic presentation thin, brittle, etched, etc.  (so do good digital sources, in comparison to analog, imo, but that's a different discussion! )  this was not the problem w/this room.  it was way too fat, bloated and warm.

doug s.

[Letitroll98]

Had a great day at the show, the new connector Rt200 toll road from I95 was the highlight, sorry, I just love being able to miss the beltway traffic.  2nd best was dinner at Dogfish Head Inn, great beer, good food, and acceptable company.  (j/k the company was great, I couldn't have enjoyed myself more, just flat out enjoyable people to hang with)  On to the show:

Here's my best sound at show, the Devore Fidelity Oragutan O/96 Speakers driven by an LM Audio Integrated and VPI Classic table.  Full range sound from the low 30's up, holographic imaging, beautiful tone.

               

My second fav was AJ's Soundfield Audio speakers room with amps from Cary and Audience cables/conditioner from Kevin Kemp Audio.  Full range magic that sounded like music, no hi-fi brightness or false detail, very relaxing.  Bass was a little full, perhaps the room or lack of treatment.  (Had to get a jab at AJ on that one)


               
 

Third favorite was the Volti Audio Veretta speakers driven by Deja Vu tube amps and a tube DAC of some type.  Limited in bass extension and dynamics, but for what it did produce it was wonderful.  Immediate, detailed, yet completely sweet and tranquil at the same time.  Tonal balance was dead on, it sounded like music.


               

Fourth was Jeff Catalano's High Water Sound room with the fantastic Horning Hybrid Speakers and TW Acoustic Turntable.  Jeff is one of the trippiest dudes in high end and a welcome relief from corporate speak.  The system was luscious and powerful with the delicacy of the 4" Lowther driver supplying the mid-range and 8" x 8 bass drivers in each speaker producing the awesome bass power.  However his setup wasn't as good as last year, losing a touch of the magic.


               

The Voice That Is had a high dollar set up fronting Tidal Contriva Diacera SE speakers and Tidal amps that was producing very nice sounds.


               

I really liked the Lenehan Audio bookshelfs that Rollo had at the Swap Meet Audio room.  Triode Pete gave out a Diet Coke with a nice cozzy around it.


               

I'll get some more pic's up tonight.


 

[Phil A]

"Had a great day at the show, the new connector Rt200 toll road from I95 was the highlight, sorry"

I thought it was dinner at Dogfish   Seriously lots of great stuff.  Like last year, I even missed some things and I spent a few hours there Friday afternoon in addition to after lunch Saturday and Sunday.

[Dave G]

Great show reports and great pics!  Thanks to all of you.

[Scottdazzle]

The best pars of the show for me were the getting to have some great company and getting to take home my own pair of Daedalus Athenas.  I was there all three days and made it to every room at least once.  Heard some great and not so great gear and music.  I won't call out the stuff I didn't like because the builders are obviously sincere in trying to recreate music in the home and I don't want to rain on anyone's parade publicly. PM's are a different matter!

The rooms that I enjoyed the best were Daedalus/Purity/Carver (no surprise there as I bought the speakers!); VPI/DSA/Berning (great demo of the VPI Traveler which produces utterly amazing vinyl quality for a modest sum; the DSA phono preamp is a drool-inducer too); and AJ's Soundfield room.  AJ did as good a job as anyone with getting his speakers to work in the hotel room acoustics.

Honorable mention to Charles and Pete in the Swap Meet/Triode Wire room for the best combination of hospitality and music.

It was a real pleasure to get to spend some time talking to some of my designer/builder idols: Harry Weisfeld of VPI, Lou Hinkley of Daedalus, and Bill Baker of Purity. It's so great not to have to fly to Denver to rub elbows with them.  It was also a bit of a surprise to find out what a hotbed of high end audio the DC area is.  Berning, Sophia, DSA, Deja Vu, and on and on.

Finally, a tip of the cap to a bunch of ACers I got to visit with.  In order of my aging memory only: DougS, Nature Boy, Rollo, Phil A, HAL, Mix4fix, Woodsyi, Triode Pete, AJinFL, Letitroll.  I'm sure I'm forgetting someone and I apologize.

Scottdazzle - a happy man today

[HAL]

Scott,
It was great to meet you and the rest of the ACer's during the show.  The setup in that room did sound really good during my listening session.

I can attest to how good the DSA Phono Two is.  I have one of the early DSA ONE phono stages, it's predecessor, at my place with my refurbished Oracle Delphi, SME Series III arm and Shure Ultra 500 catridge.  It makes wonderful music!  The new one has nice extra features! 

[dB Cooper]

Glad everyone put their pics up as I missed many of the rooms because I couldn't go Friday. Then, when I got there on Saturday, as I was going past the Woo Audio room, someone from there threw a sack over my head, dragged me into the room, tied me up in a chair, and put a pair of headphones on me, I guess to keep me quiet. I realized I had better shut up and go along, so I sat there quietly, biding my time, looking for a way to escape as they forced me to listen to almost every set of headphones in the room.

The Stockholm syndrome must have been setting in because after awhile I didn't want to leave. I remember being particularly impressed by the Sennheiser 800's and audeze LCD2's. Finally they untied me and I went to another room. I decided not to press charges because, well, the sound was really good. But I did lose a lot of time in there that I might otherwise have spent listening to other systems..

[Afterimage]

Doug, what kind of rack is that in the aj room, the one with the Cary and Audience gear?  thanks. 

[Phil A]

Doug, what kind of rack is that in the aj room, the one with the Cary and Audience gear?  thanks.

Adona

[rollo]

Love those bookshelves.

  Thanks for the photo. The Lenehan S2Rs are quite something, especially driven by the Arion HS500 Class "D" hybrids.  BTW it was the Swap Meet Audio Room, Triode Wire Labs shared some space.
   The hit of the room was the BSG QOL. It just made everything sound wonderfull. The Miracle Audio Phonatic phono stage made the Kuzma sing.
   To everyone who stopped in thanks. Was nice meeting some of the AC posters in person. It was a blast. We will be back next year.
  Gary Gill ran a great show. Live music every night, a laid back atmosphere. Easy access and the hotel staff very helpfull.
  Lots of good sound at the show, thanks for the kind words.



charles

[DTB300]

   The hit of the room was the BSG QOL. It just made everything sound wonderfull.

I was there Friday listening to the Qol.   After listening for a bit and switching back and forth between engaged and bypass, I asked why the low end was not changed when engaged?  I was told the low end was not engaged with the unit, just mids and highs.

Unfortunately I did not have the time to stop back in the room later in the day as family issues arose where I had to leave, and I could not make it back over the weekend.   

Did the Qol make the sound better or different?  Hard to say at this time for myself with the limited time and frequency coverage.

Maybe some local shops carry it where I could listen to it running full range in the future.

[roscoeiii]

Rollo, what is the MSRP on that Phono Stage?

[AJinFLA]

Charles, thanks again for dinner Fri, was a pleasure meeting you. Once again had a great time. Phil, Doug, Hal, all who stopped in, thanks again. I really enjoyed meeting you all, sincerely..I don't do this for a living..and never will. Dan, great seeing you again. Not sure if you're the one who deprived me of Newcastles late into the proceedings Sat, but that'll teach me not to have a stash of my own. As always, I was super busy with little time to spare. Would have loved to visit all of the other rooms, including Dennis Murphy's downstairs...but alas. Btw Dan, those were Cary amps, Kevin Kemp (great guy!!!) provided the Audience cabling and conditioners, as well as the rack. And just to be clear, those are coaxes on the front of the 1812s, fullrange driver on rear.
I'll (bass) treat the room next year with some carefully placed Helmholtz resonators...in the form of some empty beer bottles

cheers,

AJ

[AJinFLA]

Did the Qol make the sound better or different?  Hard to say at this time for myself with the limited time and frequency coverage.
Maybe some local shops carry it where I could listen to it running full range in the future.

I was speaking with John Atkinson in the lobby on Friday and I believe he has one under review at the moment, to be published some time soon.

cheers,

AJ

[StereoNut]

I've posted these comments elsewhere (re: what other rooms at the C.A.F. had good sounding stuff besides the Swap Meet Audio room) but after thinking about it, I realized there maybe fellow audiophiles who only participate here on the AC forum.  So, FWIW...

Positive vibes

• Tidal "Piano Diacera" Speakers ($58K/pair) and Audio Power Labs Monoblocks ($178K/pair) - Great sound, but "stupid" expensive!  (I rather buy my summer beach bungalow somewhere for that kinda dough!)

• Devore "Orangutangs" - Beautiful to look at & listen to, but not $$$ cheap!  (At least for my budget!)

• Joseph Audio "Perspective" (I think?) - Kinda strange... one day they were great, another not so much!?!

• Classic Audio T-3.4's & AtmaSphere Amps - Wonderfully sculptured speakers.  Dynamic, yet sensuous music.

• Daedalus "Athena" (I think?) & Carver Amps - Exquisite woodwork, great tone and plenty of tube power.

Personal favorites

• Swap Meet Audio "Lenahan S2R monitors" - The more I listened to other speakers at the show, the more I realized what a value the Lenahans are at $3450.00.  Miracle Audio sub system was a great addition to them, but it almost doubled the overall cost.

• Oasis - Their floor-standers sounded great. Very unique! My winner for the most unusual design award!

• Soundfield Audio "Overtures" - Great range, very dynamic and well balanced overall. Worth saving up your $$$ for!

• GT Audio Works "GTA-2's" - Ribbon/planar/dynamic driver "hybrid" towers (with separate sub-woof cabinets for each side) that sounded real, real nice. Very well integrated, with cohesive sound top to bottom. Nice cabinet work, clean lines and a "no-brainer" price of $2995.00.  My winner for the "Biggest Bang for the Buck" award!

• Conn Church Organ Pipes with Bogen amps - Room filling sound. A huge soundstage isn't enough to describe what you're hearing here.  It's more like a Phil Spector-like "Wall of Sound" !!! My winner for the "Most Creative in Audio Repurposing" award!

Thanks for "listening" to my opinions.  

[Saturn94]

Last year's CAF and this year's CAF are the only shows I've attended.  I've notice no one seems to show subs.  Any particular reason for his?

[GT Audio Works]

Thanks for spending time in my room Stereo Nut...GT Audio Works

[Bill Baker]

It was great seeing and meeting all the AC guys. This show was full of a great bunch of people.

We were also honored to be showing with some great manufacturers.

I must say say the most interesting thing to see and hear were the organ pipes. The way these worked was equally interesting.