Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022
Musical mastery within the 3rd floor Meeting Rooms.
CAF 2022 Show Report By Rick Becker

Plaza III (very large) Arion Audio
Plaza III was one of the four "very large" rooms at the show. None of these seemed to provide optimal sound for the rigs that were in them. Whether it was simply too much volume to pressurize the room, unfortunate dimensions, or simply poor set-up, I can't say for sure, though I certainly have my suspicions.

Arion Audio is responsible for the speakers here. These were the Apollo 12 system with full DSP and advanced room correction for $49,900. The short towers on the outside were the Arion Dual-Pack Woofer Package with two additional woofers plus an amplifier ($8,900).

They look pleasant enough from the front, but they get rather unsightly from behind as they are open baffle designs. The towers each feature a dozen of their proprietary HVT high-velocity transducers) with efficiency in the vicinity of 105dB/W/m. They are made in-house and are featured on several other (smaller) models that are available. There is also a nine-driver model of the Apollo and a stand-mounted monitor.

The bass towers each include pair of opposed woofers whose facing fronts are vented to the front of the enclosure while the backs of the cones are vented to the rear. The sensitivity of the bass modules is 89.5dB/W/m. This is why you can drive the towers with as little as a few Watts while the bass modules are driven with 1000 Wpc (into 4 Ohms).

The layout here shows a pair of Phasemation MA-2000 monoblocks, each with a pair of 300B tubes ($51,500). Phasemation also had the CM-1000 preamp ($51,500), EA-1000 phono stage ($18k), and PP-2000 phono cartridge on hand. An alternate cartridge from Analog Relax EX-1000 ($17,750) was also said to be in the room. A VPI Industries Avenger Direct turntable ($36k) was also on the list though I don't recall the source in use at the time. A Wolf Audio Systems Red Wolf 2 SX music server ($16,500) along with a T+A SD 3100 HV Reference DAC was on the digital side of the fence.

Also prominent in the photo above was a Synergistic Research PowerCell SX ($10,495) front and center, a Black Box (shown in white) ($1995), three Tranquility Base Carbon XL tuning platforms under the components in the front row, a couple of cable risers, many of their power cords and a world premiere of their Foundation SX cables which I just reviewed.

I'm not sure if this headphone rig was in this room, but it was likely. There were a pair of T+A headphones with a T+A headphone amp and a Wolf server set up for listening with everything plugged into a T+A power strip along the back of the table.

Randolph Room  Daedalus Audio
I've heard Daedalus Audio at shows for a handful of years now and I think this was the best I've ever heard them. The Apollo 11 v.3 is a complete redesign of their flagship system, starting at $27,500. They do very fine woodwork as evidenced by the stripe on the baffle below the woofer and the beveled vertical front edges of the passive 12" Bow subwoofer with outboard crossover ($2690, ea). I noted the angled backside on the sub. Even the external crossover was in a gorgeous dovetailed wooden box to the left of the speaker. With 96dB efficiency and a flat 6 Ohm impedance, these should be an easy drive for low-powered SET amps with 300B tubes.

Power here came from an LTA MicroZOTL preamp ($4,450) and LTA Ultralinear monoblocks at $6,800 each which were David Berning's latest designs. The DAC was listed as a LampizatOr Pacific, but it was actually their new flagship Horizon ($50k). A LampizatOr Super Komputer statement music server starting at $8,500 was the front end. Is it any wonder this rig sounded so good? WyWires made the connections with Diamond Series interconnects ($4,495), Platinum Series power cords ($1k), special WyWires / Daedalus speaker cables ($1995), Diamond series digital cables ($1699), and WyWires / Daedalus Power Broker AC distribution unit ($2,495). And finally, a Parasound New Classic 2250 v.2 amp ($1,599) was powering the Bow sub.

The midrange driver of the Daedalus with its wrinkled / folded cone caught my eye (and ear). It wouldn't surprise me to find more of these within loudspeakers from other manufacturers in the coming year. I heard a nice cut from Elton John and another by Dire Straits.

Out in the hall were a couple of tables set up with local representatives of local retailers, but there was nothing in the price range of a fine amplifier at the show.

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