The Audio Analyst's Capital Audiofest 2022 Show Report
One of the best shows on the calendar, and remarkably successful too!
CAF 2022 Show Report By Greg Weaver

Regency - Nola / Dr. Vinyl
This setup was in a really large room. According to the Hilton's website, the Regency Room is 47' x 42', and the setup schema used for the Nola Baby Grand towers seemed to follow the rule of thirds. Jose Ramirez, who does business as Dr. Vinyl of Middle River, Maryland, had asked me to let him know when I was stopping by, as he had a "special" record he wanted to play for me.

Sources
- J.Sikora Reference Turntable ($48,000)
- Integrity Tru Glider tonearm ($5,400)
- DS Audio Grand Master Optical cartridge and two-box energizer/equalizer system ($60,000)
- Audio Research CD Player (no price given)

Electronics
- Valve Amplification Company Master Preamplifier ($30,000)
- Valve Amplification Company Master 300iQ  run in mono mode ($37,000 each)

Loudspeakers
- Nola Baby Grand ($150,000/pr.)

Cables / Ancillaries
- Nordost Silver Speaker Cables, Interconnects, and Power Cords ($80,000)
- Puritan Audio Psm 412 ($5,200)
- AddPowerSorcer ($4,000)
- Computer Audio Devices Ground Control GDC 1 ($1,250)

We took a front-row seat after he proceeded to cue side two of his original promo copy of Pink Floyd's 1979 masterpiece, The Wall. Jose knows that I also have an original US Promo copy of this LP and wanted to make sure I was familiar with the material he was playing for me. The space, air, weight, and impact of this record were presented in a remarkably faithful manner in this almost cavernous space, some nearly 2000 square feet.

When it was over, he cued up the Mobile Fidelity UD1S release of Santana's 1970 sophomore release, Abraxas. I've often spoken of how remarkably closely this LP comes to delivering the sonic equivalent of a master tape. Not surprisingly, this system stretched out into this pressing and gave the listeners in the room the chills one typically only experiences with the best master tape playback.

While I had been awaiting Jose's arrival, I listened to a 2013 release of Bach's Toscana and Fuge. This system, in this enormous room, had no issue conveying the power, pressure, and finesse of the lowest registers of the organ. Overall, the system was able to convey lovely texture, and offered a proper sense of space and dimensionality, remaining incredibly open and relaxed regardless of the material it was fed.

While it conveyed delightful delicate detail, it gave up just a bit of final microdynamic expressiveness and suffered just the slightest loss of corporal reality, as noted with Mark Knopfler's voice from, "You and Your Friend," from the sixth Dire Straits studio LP, On Every Street.

Something New
657-GTT Audio
This was my first real listen to YG Acoustic's newly released PEAK series TOR, a stand-mounted monitor. While Bill Parish, principal at GTT Audio of Long Valley, NJ, had shown them in the smaller, secondary room in his exhibit last April at AXPONA, I had fallen hard for the floor-standing flagship of the PEAKS line featured in his main room, the Summit, and never really got to give the TOR a fair shake!

Source
- AURALiC Aries G2.1 ($5,699)
- Mola-Mola Tambaqui DAC ($13,400)

Electronics
- Audionet Watt (167 watts 8) ($18,800)

Loudspeakers
- Peaks Series TOR Monitors ($10,500) with matching stands ($1,500)

Cables/Ancillaries
- Kubala-Sosna Elation cables throughout

The TOR is a compact, attractive monitor that represents the first step-up from the entry point into the YG Acoustics family of remarkable loudspeakers, the PEAKS CAIRN monitor. It employs a wood veneer over a resin cabinet made by a European fabricator, and features their ForgeCore tweeter and 7" BilletCore mid-bass driver. At 40 pounds each, with a rated response of 37Hz to 40kHz, and at about 17" tall, by 9" wide, and not quite 12" deep, it turned in a stunning performance, driven by the rest of the equally exceptional gear used in this room.

Listening to "Exactly Like You" by the Ray Brown Trio, this system treated listeners to a remarkably vibrant rendition of the piano, bursting with its percussive attack and shimmer. Moreover, I was very taken with its ability to reveal expressive and abundantly nuanced microdynamics.

While there was no question that as a stand-mounted monitor it gave up a bit in terms of absolute bass extension, I was very surprised at the remarkable extension this system could deliver. When combined with its ability to recreate convincing and remarkably faithful texture with tracks like Christian McBride's "Night Train," I was truly impressed. This system was able to play realistically low enough to recreate an authentic sense of his double bass's body from this track. Nice.

Every bit as magical was its ability to render the wily charm and growl of Rickie Lee Jones' vocals from her interpretation of Steely Dan's "Show Biz Kids," presenting her with remarkable dimension, breathy yet corporal at the same time, and convincingly natural.

Moving to "Aja," I was taken yet again by this system's ability to accurately regenerate the space of this complex arrangement while also maintaining faithful instrumental tone color. I'm not really a "monitor" guy, but I will say this remarkable TOR turned in a very accomplished performance.

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