The Capital Audiofest 2022 Fab Five
My selection of the Top Five best sounds of CAF 2022.
Capital Audiofest 2022 Show Report By Greg Weaver

Best Of CAF 2022 Number One
The Potomac Room – The Audio Company / VAC / VSA
Now, before you have the urge to say, "Oh no, not that room again," let me explain. Just a week ago, last Sunday evening, I had the immense pleasure of attending the local Elkhart Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of its Music Director, Soo Han, joined by the Camerata Singers and the Goshen College Choirs, as they performed Beethoven's glorious Ninth Symphony in Sauder Hall, at Goshen College, just minutes from my home in Goshen, Indiana.

Sauder Hall is a magically engaging concert space, so well-regarded in fact that a magazine editor made several recordings there over the years. But Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and in particular, its fourth movement, known as "The Ode To Joy," is to me, the single most powerful piece of music I have ever heard.

Sitting fifth-row center, hearing a full orchestra playing this dynamic and evocative symphony, with the influence of over one hundred voices contributing to the majesty and power of this experience, live – is completely indescribable. You simply must experience it to begin to understand, and even then, it may be so overwhelming and exhilarating that you still may not be able to find words to describe the deeply moving and emotional connection you feel in its presence.

My point is this. There are many wonderful combinations of sources, electronics, and loudspeakers out there that can bring pleasure to your listening. But if you don't listen to live music regularly, and until that extraordinary experience becomes the reference for what you expect your stereo system to be able to replicate, you've no idea what your system may not be delivering. This live experience is what I live for, and what I insist that my "stereo system" recreate for me. In all the decades I've been enjoying live music and have been in and around this industry, the systems assembled routinely by this group of partners recreate the sensation, the acoustic space, as well as the dynamic and emotional power, of that live experience more closely than any others I have yet encountered at any show - period.

With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that the partners in this massive fifty-four by fifty-four-foot space have taken the "Best Sound of the Show," yet again. This year is the first time that they have shown any product at this show in the Potomac Room other than either their three-hundred sixty-five thousand dollar ULTRA 11, or their two hundred fifty thousand dollar ULTRA 9, instead choosing to highlight the newest Ultra product, the superlative ULTRA 7. And as well as the beautiful static displays to the left and right of the two doorways into this enchanting listening experience, this year, they chose to include the entire Potomac Foyer space, which, combined with the Potomac Room, was an area over some six thousand square feet! Yeah, go big or go home, right?

Sources
- Kronos Pro Limited-Edition turntable ($42,000)
- Kronos Black Beauty tonearm ($10,000)
- Kronos SCPS-1 Power Supply ($15,000)
- Hana Umami Red MC cartridge ($3,950)
- Aurender W20SE music server/streamer/renderer ($25,000)
- Esoteric N-01XD streamer/renderer/DAC ($20,000)
- Esoteric G-01 Clock ($20,000)
- Esoteric K1 Grandioso CD/SACD player ($31,000)
Electronics
- VAC Statement two chassis Phono Preamplifier / obsidian finish ($80,000)
- VAC Statement two chassis Line Preamplifier / obsidian finish ($80,000)
- VAC Statement 452 iQ Amplifiers ($75,000 each/four used for bi-amplification)
- Von Schweikert Ultra 7 speakers ($180,000/pr.)
- Von Schweikert Shockwave 12 subwoofers ($15,000/each, two used)
Cables/Ancillaries
- Master-Built Ultra Series digital, interconnects, speaker cables, and power
- All resting on Critical Mass Ultra-Q racks, nine used (price TBA) *USA Premiere

You may recall my mentioning the clever use of the space of the Eisenhower Room by the Ideon and Acora Acoustics partners in part one of this show report. But theirs was not the first or the only such application of this more inclusive and inviting approach to be seen at this event. The extra thirty-five hundred odd feet of the Potomac Foyer space was pressed into service as an enticing display space, showcasing more than a dozen pieces of VAC equipment, hosting a big screen running a continuous video presentation, and severing as a lounge/meeting space for the team members and showgoers. And not only was it impressive to experience, but it was well appreciated by everyone I spoke with. Nice move.

This system delivered it all, truthful timbre, vivid tone, rich texture, and full, deep, pitch-defined bass. Its remarkably refined, delicate expression of resolution and transparency allows you to be witness to the subtle inflections of every instrumental voice. It exhibits an expressiveness of nuance that can move you to tears one moment, and the next, its explosive scaling and a driving sense of pace can get you on your feet dancing. It places the performers and their instruments in their proper space and reconstructs them with properly sized voices, recording permitting.

When combined with its remarkable ability to regenerate the sonic tapestry of recordings with a palpable expression of the body and bloom of the performance, the resultant musical envelope allows you to temporarily suspend disbelief and succumb to the illusion that what you are hearing is the music as it was created in its original space and not merely a recreation of that event by a complex reconstruction engine, a conglomeration of electro-mechanical devices. Isn't that what we all really want from our music reproduction systems?

As usual, the underlying convincing reality of the sonic portrayal generated by this remarkable system just must be heard to be understood. In fact, one new-to-the-industry member, one who had previously stated that he never really "got" what all the fuss was over the sonic results of the exceptional systems assembled by these partners, took the time to give this system a serious listen. After his session – after really listening and taking in every subtlety and nuance this system had to offer, with wild-eyed enthusiasm, he publicly described the remarkable experience as "surreal." He had finally gotten it.

Such results are not surprising to music-loving showgoers like me, listeners whose only reference for evaluating a music reproduction system's worth is the live event. We've recognized their exceptional contributions, having heard this magic repeatedly, at dozens of shows, around the world.

In fact, the term surreal would not be the term I would use for the level of sonic accomplishment attained by this system, as the sensation is as close to that of a live performance as I, or any of the colleagues, friends, or industry insiders I know, have ever experienced at a show... period. If you are truly experienced with the sound and sensation you get and feel hearing live music, then you would completely understand just how damn realistic this system is.

You all owe it to yourself to get your butts to a show to experience this traveling marvel while you can. And honestly, once you experience this level of accomplishment, you will begin to understand the allure and emotional involvement you can only experience with this level of gear.

No, I'm not saying you can't put together an engaging, musically stratifying system for a whole lot less dough. But once you hear what can be accomplished by a system of this caliber, at this level of state-of-the-art performance, you will forever understand just how monumentally engaging and moving the very best gear, properly assembled and set up, can provide you with a similar empirical experience and emotional connection to your recorded music as you listen at home.

Best Of Capital Audiofest 2022 Video By Greg Weaver