Capital Audiofest (CAF) 2017 & CanMania Show Report
DC Hi-Fi Group
CAF 2017 Show Report By Kemper Holt

  New is the DC Hi-Fi Group founded about a 18 months ago to get like-minded music lovers to meet new people and exchange ideas, listen to manufacturer presentations, take field trips to member's systems, and retailers and manufacturers, learn about new kit, go to live music concerts, eat and drink a few beers. Along with the DC DIY'ers the group supplied volunteers to help Gary Gill man the registration tables.

The star of the show in this room was the home made pair of speakers that paid homage to the Waveform Research brand of speakers specifically the Mach 17 model that used the Egg shape for their midrange and tweeter, sitting atop a pyramid bass enclosure.

Tom Perazella, a frequent contributor to audioXpress magazine, was looking for a perfect use for some new drivers from SB Acoustics' Satori line and figured he'd build a pair with the Mach 17s in mind, and not do it the easy way with CNC milling etc. but with just hand tools and lots of elbow grease proving anyone could make them, if they were so determined. The egg shape is a near perfect solution to both internal reflections, external diffractions. The Satori beryllium tweeters and 6.5" midranges occupy the egg, and a pair of 12" Dayton woofers in the sealed pyramid base. Dave Raden supplied a Mirror Image amp and hand built interconnects, Tom brought his "Cherry Bomb" amp and homebuilt speaker cables, John Gatski ( Founder of the DC Group) supplied Essential Sound Products' power cables, DACs from Benchmark and Prism, and some choice DMP music including Warren Bernhardt and Flim and the BBs.

The room was constantly filled and everyone wanted to see and hear those "Egg" speakers, and it was worth any wait. The system had precise imaging with instruments occupying their own sense of space, voices were dead center and very revealed, the speakers vanished completely making the wide and deep soundstage believable, had plenty of detail without being etched or brittle, the bass was a little dependent on where you were sitting with some rows better than others, expressed wide dynamics, and could be played loud without glare. Like myself, many listeners came back for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th visits just because the system was fun to listen to and the hosts were open to any questions about the equipment and build, and they had free snacks, great room guys.

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