Capital Audiofest (CAF) 2019 Show Report
CAF 2019 Show Report By Enjoy the Music.com

Attending CAF 2019 Was A Musical Treat!
Capital Audiofest 2019 Report By Dr. Matthew Clott

Credo, VPI, Emm Labs, And Kimber
Credo Cinema LTM speakers, Emm Labs DV2 integrated DAC, Emm PRE stereo preamp, Emm MTRX2 monoblocks, Emm NS1 streamer, VPI HW40 table. Natural and Unconstrained. Great depth.

Speakers were too far apart for my tastes but I understand why. Natural rhythm. Coherent. Dynamics were unconstrained. Didn't disappear the way I would like or expect.

Truman With CAT And KEF
True to the source. Blades sounded amongst the best I've ever heard. A tad warm to my tastes, but more about one's personal taste needs to be factored in of course. Depth and width of stage well expressed well.

Depth is evident, yet perhaps room setup or caused it to lack punch to my ears. May have found the culprit as the room got mushy when overdriven, but never harsh or offensive.

Robyatt Audio With Electrostatic Solutions, Butler, VPI, Miyajima, Shroeder, And Sutherland
 Robyn Wyatt reminds us all what Quad's done right can do right. And he's a master of the Quad's of yore. He spun vinyl on a super modified bare bones VPI HW40 and literally transported the listeners to a world of jazz, classical and blues nirvana. His room is always terrific but this one shined.

This room was about musicianship, not hi-fi. Robyn is a natural resource in our industry, and a staple. He's a wonderful guy and a brilliant system designer. If Quads, vinyl, and yummy tubes is your cub of tea, then you can't do much better than engage Robyn in a conversation. Careful though, his conversations usually end with a deposit; you have been warned!

The Voice That Is, Tidal, Innuos, And Vertere Acoustics
Doug White is the nicest guy in Audio and always puts a Fantastic room together for all to enjoy. Refined. Textural. Delicate. Elegant. Musical. Dynamic. Wonderfully engaging.

He needs to put a dance floor in his room, cuz you can't stop moving to the music once you pass the double doors. No single component can ever be credited or identified as carrying the system. Doug designs and displays complete systems, which is a rarity at the show. I look forward to his room at every show, and he did not disappoint.

Gayle Sanders Eikon And Aurender N10
Wonderfully compact. Toe tapping and alive! It's a very expensive lifestyle audiophile speaker. I thought they broke up just a scootch on harder rock, but held it together well with AC/DC; never over saturated.

They handle all genres well. Nice decay. Develop and portray harmonic complexity nicely with well recorded source. Just add source and be enraptured. Quite petite, and pleasing to the eyes. A high WAF, and great choice for a wonderfully simple living room or family room system.

Cube, TW Acoustic Raven, Schroeder, Soundmith, And Emia
Was really looking forward to hearing the Cube speakers with Emia electronics. But the speakers (acoustically) appeared to be wired out of phase, and I felt it fair to pass and come back later. I didn't have time to come back so I can't comment.

ModWright And Studio Electric
Studio Electric F2 speakers ($6900), ModWright KWH 225i integrated ($8500), ModWright 9.0 phonostage ($2900), SOTA Cosmos table ($9,700) with Origin Live arm ($4600), and Dynavector DRX XV-1 cartridge ($5650) plus Skogrand cables ($3750). These 2.5-way front ported speaker from this small manufacturer and ModWright gear have proven themselves time and again to reliably punch well above their weight in performance for the dollar.

Low frequency extension is taught. Nice rhythmic involvement too! Well portrayed stage front to back. Organic and involving sound. Nice value room. It's almost crazy that this is considered a "budget" room these days, but the truth is that most of us could have this room and never really want for more.

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