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

Suite 851  Lone Mountain Audio And ATC Loudspeakers
As I sat in awe of the recording studio photo used as a backdrop for the ATC loudspeakers I leaned toward the guy next to me and said "That looks just like my listening room!" Thousands of blocks of wood of varying lengths, pointing at me from every direction would create a little too much tension for enjoying my music. Anyhow, the ATC monitors here sounded exactly like you would expect studio monitors to sound — tonally accurate, very dynamic, and very revealing. They were the SCM50ASL active speakers in oak ($22k) driven by the ATC CA2 Stereo preamp ($3249). A passive version of the speaker is also available if you'd like to color your sound differently with your amplifier.

In another room of the suite was a more typical floorstanding model, SCM19A active speaker in cherry veneer ($7k) that was wired to a CDA2 Mk II CD / Preamplifier / DAC ($5k) that was not playing at the time.

The news here was the ATC ‘most-in-one' CDA2 Mk II CD player / preamplifier / DAC which you can use directly with the active ATC speakers. The small black box atop the ATC was a Mutec MC3+USB synchronizable digital audio master clock and audio re-clocker and USB interface with plenty of little lights to tell you exactly what's going on. There wasn't any literature to help me out with this unit.

Room 852  Synergistic Research
Synergistic Research and Scott Walker Audio of Anaheim, CA, and the Dallas/Fort Worth area typically team up with one another at shows. The 852 room had a static display of many cables and room conditioning products Synergistic manufactures. It was a quiet place where Ted Denny or Andy Weiderspahn could interface with interested attendees without disrupting the listening going on in the next room.

As it was, the two rooms were designed for unobtrusive observation with a one-way mirror between them. If the lights had been off in the room from which I took the photo above, the people in the Synergistic room would not have been able to see or hear me. This is a typical forensic or psychiatric interviewing arrangement that was quite familiar to me in a previous occupation.

Anyhow, I've been fortunate to have been able to review many Synergistic Research cables and tweaks over the years and continue to use many of those in my reference rig.

Room 853  Scott Walker Audio
In the Scott Walker listening room, I encountered Ted Denney (L) talking with a couple of serious customers. Synergistic products range from entry-level to the highest level in some categories such as cables, so a serious couple could be anywhere along that spectrum. Ted is both approachable and happy to talk with people about his unparalleled products which often incorporate his unique technology.

The rig itself had a familiar look with the brilliant blue Estelon speakers framing a pair of Synergistic (SR) racks with shelves being their Tranquility Base Carbon XL units designed to quell internal electronic noise within components. But there were some differences, too. Among them were the JMF pre- and power amplifiers and the Berkeley Alpha DAC Reference, Series 3 ($28k).

The big ‘new and good' story from Synergistic Research was their new Voodoo server, which will be priced into five figures, I'm told. Not being into streaming, someone else will certainly be reviewing this enticing-looking component with copper mesh grills inlaid in the carbon fiber top plate.

Also in use was the new Galileo SX MkII Ground Block ($8k) which has had a serious make-over and enough tricks to embarrass a circus clown, plus 70 ports to ground everything in your rig, including your stands.

Lest you think that the quality of the sound in this room was entirely due to the major components in the rig, on a return visit later in the show I caught Ted Denney with tuning dots on his fingernails, skillfully applying them to specific cables in the rig. Some other significant Synergistic products that were visible were the Galileo PowerCell SX ($28k w/6' SRX power cord) on the stand in front of the racks, the Black Box Frequency Resonator Array with UEF Tech ($1995) for dealing with bass room nodes. The FEQ Carbon third-generation, two-channel acoustic field generator ($1695) sitting next to the tape deck in the photo further above, and my personal favorite, the Vibratron, the thin 70" tall rod with two resonators sitting just in front of the two racks ($3995).

The Vibratron was one of the two most impressive components for me at a show last year and it was $214k less expensive than the other one. My review will appear shortly in the December issue. Unless this product is demonstrated by removing it from the room, you will not understand what a breakthrough it is. It was a key player in why this room sounded so good.

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