Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022
Fine music on the 5th floor Part A.
Show Report By By Rick Becker

Room 508 Treehaus Audiolab
Rich Pinto was back again this year, this time with his National Treasure open baffle speaker in Box Elder. (It starts at $16k in walnut or elm.) Of course, every pair comes from a hand-selected mirror image pair of boards, but this year, instead of using a rare field-coil woofer, he used a conventional 15" driver along with a less expensive version of the full-range renovated vintage driver in the center, the Atelier Rullit 10" "Aero".

And yes, that's a Fostex T90A super tweeter just above it. I was so impressed with his presentation last year that I asked him to let me review it. The wood slabs here were spectacular with evidence of black and red mold beginning to form along the veins of the wood. The live edges were also authentically smoothed out but retained the original organic lines of the tree trunk.

I started with the speakers because they were the most eye-catching of the entire show, but Rich's artistic sensibility carries over to his electronics as well. The power supply for the full-range field coil drivers, as well as the tube preamp and power amp, were also crafted by him using time-honored circuitry. The acid-etched faceplates and top plates are a signature element of the Treehaus brand. New this year was the SUT step-up-transformer ($3k) with folded copper shielding for moving coil cartridges. The equipment racks were also of his design.

On the left of the top shelf was the Sakuma Architecture 300B amplifier with Western Electric 300B tubes ($17,500) with its separate tube rectified power supply (center) that power the full-range drivers and super tweeter. The unit to the right of that in a chassis to match the speaker finish is the variable voltage tube-rectified field coil power supply.

On the left side of the middle shelf is the tube preamp ($16k) with a separate power supply. And to the right of that was a modified Concert Fidelity DA-040 DAC. The Henry Ho H2O woofer amp was in the center of the lower shelf and a PS Audio P3 power plant was to its right. Cabling was by Iconoclast, a relatively new company that has emerged from the joint venture of Belden with BlueJeans cables as a higher tier brand, much like Lexus is to Toyota.

The music was open, transparent, resolved, and very listenable, yet had a slightly different tone than the Phantom of Luxury model that I reviewed. This was probably due to the different set of drivers, which is to be expected. Yet overall, the "Wow" factor, craftsmanship, and uniqueness of Treehaus are seldom matched and rarely exceeded in the high end — but only at a much higher price.

Room 509 Dr. Vinyl
This was the second room hosted by Dr. Vinyl. I didn't catch the name of this turntable, but it had a Funk Firm achromat and FX3 tonearm. The combination of wood and acrylic (?) on the plinth was beautiful. The speakers here were a larger Heretic concentric design that reminded me of the vintage Altec Voice of the Theater speakers I once owned. This pair, being taller than the Heretic model I heard a few weeks ago at the Toronto show projected sound with the performers at eye level. They have a pro-audio/loft living aesthetic that should hold up well in households with lots of kids or that move frequently, brandishing their scars as if they had been on tour with a famous rock band. With high sensitivity, they can be driven by low-power SET amps and really rock a party.

The music here had a very inviting sound just as other retro recreations of speakers from the 1960s and 1970s do today. Listening to my video notes from this room made me want to get up and dance. For those who want to get off the audiophile merry-go-round and just enjoy their music, this might be just the ticket. Robert Gabourey from Montreal, Canada is a well-known designer from the Great White North, though I didn't catch him at this show.

Room 512 McGary Audio & Salk Sound
Mike McGary and Jim Salk teamed up once again for this outstanding room. The Salk BePure3 speaker ($20k, starting price) was a modern take on the Wilson Watt/Puppy and early VonSchweikert designs with separate cabinets for the woofers. Not only did it sound better than those earlier speakers, but it also looked a lot nicer than them, too. It uses a Satori Be (beryllium) tweeter and a Purifi 6.5" midrange that looks like it had been aged in the desert. There was a sign alerting show-goers that the wrinkled surround was actually central to the design of this outstanding midrange driver. The woofer was an 8" from Purifi also but had a more typical surround. There were also passive radiators on both sides of the woofer modules.

The butterfly wood veneer on the sides of the speakers, stained in grey, looked stunning in combination with the painted front baffles. Also noted were serious constrained-layer damping footers between the modules—something that I had suggested to Albert Von Schweikert back in the day. I've heard numerous presentations with Salk speakers over the past handful of years, including another at this show, and BePure3 is the best one yet. It is very competitive in its price range, both acoustically and aesthetically.

The McGary monoblocks with KT90 tubes must have had something to do with the excellence heard here. It's not listed on their website so it is likely a new model. Also noted on the rack were a Holo Audio Spring 3 DAC, a Salk Stream(er?), and a Tripp-Lite Isobar HT7300PC indicating voltage in the room was down to 111V and the system was pulling 3.4 amps. Cabling was by AntiCables.

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