Capital Audiofest (CAF) 2016 Show Report
Bricasti, Tidal And The Voice That Is
Report By Kemper Holt

  Bringing out the big guns, the Tidal Agora speakers ($110,000 per pair) in Midnight Black were within the large Truman room and had a full Bricasti system powering them. Bricasti's Brian Zolner introduced their new all in one M12 Dual Mono Source Controller ($15,995), which combines the M1se DAC with a preamp that has analog inputs, analog level control, plus it adds a network interface as a cherry on top. Brian added a pair of Bricasti's M28 Mono Block amplifiers ($15,000 per pair), Oyaide cables, and a Silver Circle Tchaik power conditioner to finish the system.

I was mesmerized by a piano version of The Beatles' "Blackbird" played by Brad Mehldau. His take on the song is beautiful with piano, which is tough to reproduce, sounded clear with great micro and macro dynamics. This allowed me to feel the emotion brought to the interpretation by Brad. Brian then played a song from the soundtrack of Fifty Shades of Grey by The Weeknd, "Earned it", haunting vocals and huge dynamics delivered without any hint of stress. There was an effortless pouring out music and I could have stayed here all afternoon.

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