Capital Audio Fest 2016

There were many very nice sounding rooms at this year's CAF.  That makes 2 for 2 at the new venue, and considering that the sound quality for the several years previous was not as so uniformly good I have to conclude that the new quarters must have something to do with this.

For me there were 2 truly excellent experiences at the show.  The first was listening to cellist Vincent Belanger accompany himself via recorded tracks in the Audio Note room.  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to a live cello 6' away played by an accomplished musician.  (The Audio Note J-LX speakers sounded really nice too!).  The second great experience was listening to Dave Slagle demonstrate 3 different RIAA equalization topologies in his phono preamp---LR vs. LCR vs. RC---with all other aspects as constant as possible.  Very interesting!

Another interesting experience was hearing the new Volti Rival speaker which uses the same drivers as the Vittora but with a smaller bass reflex cabinet (and smaller price).  I hope this new speaker gives Greg Roberts the commercial success he deserves.

Lastly another measure of whether a hifi show was a success is how many LPs I heard that are now on my Need to Get ASAP list.  By that standard this CAF was a great success!

Larry,

Thanks for clarifying the open baffle design.  The second time I visited the room Aldo was demonstrating the system to Art Dudley and he had removed one of the speaker grilles.  That's how I saw the drivers on the front panel.  It has a horn tweeter mounted in the middle that appears to be a Jensen RP-302.  The 15" woofer looks like an Altec but that is just a guess.  The three drivers blended extremely well.

Larry,

I am a little confused by your description of the Deja Vu speaker as "open baffle."  The cabinets I saw appeared to be completely sealed front and back.  Did Vu switch speakers during the show perhaps?  The ones I heard on Friday and Saturday were rectangular boxes about the size of a medium refrigerator, very nicely finished, and had a black grill on the front.  If we are talking about the same speakers, I certainly agree this was a very fine system.  It also improved significantly in sound from Friday to Saturday by the way.  By Saturday it had a very smooth, warm, detailed and dynamic sound that suited to a T the jazz LPs I heard during my visit.  Aldo said the speaker used all vintage drivers but not Western Electric.  The midrange horn has an elliptical front and according to Aldo was made in Japan in the 1960s.

The story about the Brinkman demo is absolutely right.  When I entered the room, there was an empty seat in the front row on the center line of the speakers.  As I started to sit down, it was immediately evident that the sound was out-of-phase.  There was a hollowness in the entire bass range and a hollowness in the center image despite full-range sounds coming from each speaker.  There were only a few people in the room so I felt at liberty to say out loud to the room host that the speakers were out-of-phase.  He said they weren't but rather there was some sort of problem with the phono cartridge.  All I know is that I have been setting up stereo speakers for many years and I am quite familiar with and sensitive to the effects of an out-of-phase setup.  What I heard that day was definitely out-of-phase stereo speakers, and the sound was so strange, so disorienting, that I would have had a headache in minutes if I had stayed.  So I left.  It was most unfortunate since I was looking forward to hearing the Brinkman table.

Now it is possible the cartridge wires were connected out of phase rather than the speaker wires.  That would have the same effect.  But regardless of where the error occurred, somebody should have had enough sense to correct it before a public demonstration.

Well, that was an interesting follow-up to the problems in the Brinkman/Tidal room.  It certainly sounded like the channels were out of phase.  I am pleased the room sponsors were able to fix the problem before the end of the show.