Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part 2
The 8th Floor Part B
Show Report By Rick Becker

Room 833  AV Luxury Group
Rounding 2nd Base was Room 833 which was the second AV Luxury Group room at the show. Bayz is based in Hungary, but manufacturing is done in Denmark.

I've raved about the design before and mentioned that only the solid granite base of their speakers is the heavy part. It is not as difficult to install as it may seem. This is maybe the fourth show where I've seen it and I've grown accustomed to its unique presence. It is as much a piece of sculpture as it is a loudspeaker once you've become accustomed to it. As an omni-directional speaker (the sound radiates from the ultra-light tubular tweeter that connects the ends of the large tube, right where the two woofers are mounted. So basically, this is just a two-way design with a very high-tech tweeter and exceptionally fast woofers. As you would expect from an omni design, the listening is good throughout the room. And the room need not be humongous as was proven here.

The Counterpoint 2.0 Reference speaker was $159k in the exposed carbon fiber finish shown. (The two speakers look like they have different finishes because of the uneven lighting in the room.) But you can get it for $100k in matt black or $106k in a matt RAL color, including Metalflake. It would be fun to see it in a color next year.

Bayz also has a less expensive model, the Courante 2.0 which varies from $43k to $60k depending on the finish. It is not clear from their website what the differences are between the two models. Being the flagship, the rig was first class, too, with a VAC preamp and stereo power amp, Aurender N20 server/streamer, Esoteric K-07Xs CD / SACD / DAC ($8k), Bayz XLR and speaker cables and a Bayz Audio power conditioner. With a 90dB/W/m sensitivity and 4 Ohm impedance, quality amplification over massive quantities is the order of the day with this fine speaker.

Zoltan insisted on taking a photo of the two of us with the speaker so I handed my camera off to a stranger. We adjourned to the hall and had a sympathetic political conversation about the situation in Hungary as well as throughout Europe. Hopefully, the tragedy will end soon.

Room 834  Déjà Vu Audio
Retailer Déjà Vu Audio was playing the stand-mounted Graham Audio speakers seen here, which explains why distributor Philip O'Hanlon was in the room.

Philip identified the tonearm on this Garrard 301 transcription turntable as a Triplanar, which I haven't seen in quite a while. The gorgeous plinth looked like it might have been from Jean Nantais, but there was no literature in this room.

The amplifier was from the Italian manufacturer Synthesis, an Action series  A100 Titan integrated amp putting out 100 Wpc in ultra-linear push-pull configuration from Russian Gold Lion KT66 (as per their website), though the labels on these tubes had been removed. Philip and I adjourned to the hall and talked motorcycles for a few enjoyable minutes before I had to move on.

Room 837  ELAC
ELAC had very engaging music coming from their Vela FS409 floorstanding speaker at a very reasonable price ($7400). The little stand-mounted speakers were listed as "Debut ConneX", a powered bookshelf model at a mere $600/pr.

The tall rack looked rather sparse with thin ELAC components including their Discovery music server ($500), Alchemy DDP — 2 DAC/Preamp ($2900), and Protek PR91 surge protector/power conditioner ($600). Cardas Clear speaker and interconnect cables were used in this system.

An ELAC Varro DS1000 Dual Reference Subwoofer($2500) featured a woofer on each side.

---> Next Page.