Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part 4
The 7th Floor Part B
CAF 2023 Show Report By Rick Becker

Room 740 Songer Audio
Ken Songer greeted me with appreciation for the recognition as one of the Best Rooms at CAF last year, and he had another fine-sounding room again with a different rig. Seen here was the newly updated S1 speaker with his V3 field coil driver producing phase-perfect full-range sound (32Hz to 20kHz) from a cabinet built of solid hardwood in his shop back in Oregon.

No fancy footers or equipment racks here. The two units below the amp were the power supplies for the field coil drivers in the speakers. On the rack to the right was a LampizatOr DAC and below that was a Taiko Extreme server, starting at $30k, courtesy of DSG.

The Songer Audio S1 floorstanding loudspeaker was reviewed by my colleague, Bob Grossman, in April of this year and received a Best of 2023 Blue Note Award from Bob. The polished retaining ring around the field coil driver with twelve screws adds elegance to the straightforward design of the speaker.

With an efficiency of 93dB/W/m, the S1 speaker ($37k) was easily driven by this Trafomatic Rhapsody tube amp ($19,800, courtesy of Hear This) featuring a quartet of LinLai 300B tubes. I've heard from people who know that the LinLai tubes are the evolutionary tube manufacturer of choice now from China. (Check out Rachel at Grant Fidelity.)

The new Poseidon DAC from LampizatOr replaces 12 different DAC models in their lineup. Featuring trickle-down technology from their flagship Horizon DAC, it is only half the price at $25k. It is also customizable as seen here with a frosted glass (?) top on the chassis that will surely create an interesting visual element in your darkened listening room. The OLED display looks very similar to the one on the LampizatOr Amber 4 DAC I reviewed and it is very readable from 12' away, if not even further. The Poseidon features a unique remote volume control that is located in the tube scheme. This is one of a small handful of components I keep thinking about, weeks after the show.

Off to the side were another pair of open baffle field coil speakers which were present last year. They are much more expensive than the S1 and unfortunately, I wasn't able to return to this room to hear them.

Room 741 Triangle Art
The Triangle Art room has continuity of presentation like few other rooms at the audio shows.

Turntables are their only source of choice here and they typically show three models. Seen here, near to far, were the Anubis ($18k), Ultimate SE ($130k), and the Maestro ($9k). The first two were equipped with the Osiris Mk2 Diamond 12" tonearm ($9k), while out of sight was the Horus 12" tonearm ($4,400). The respective cartridges included the Apollo MC ($9k) and the Zeus MC ($4800). A P200 Phono Stage ($18k) led to the L200 Mk2 dual mono preamplifier ($25k).

M100 monoblocks ($25k), sitting on thick wood amp stands in front of the turntables, drove the Triangle Art Metis speakers ($60k) with large wooden horns. In addition to the KT120 Russian tubes, the amps feature an adjustable input attenuator, an item that is rarely seen.

The wood horns are for the 6.5" midrange drivers while the gloss black cabinets contain a RAAL ribbon tweeter and a 15" woofer. The frequency range is 20 Hz to 60 kHz and efficiency is 95dB/W/m with an 8 Ohm impedance, obviously very tube friendly. As you might expect, the system was very refined with excellent transparency and lots of air.

New here was the RA Ultimate power conditioner ($12k), but it was not visible in the photos. The units off the ends of the turntable rows were likely the power supplies for the turntables. Cables were Triangle's Rhea series with the Ultimate ($7500) and Reference ($3k) power cords, Reference interconnects ($3k), and Reference speaker cables ($6k).

how Special prices were offered on the demo units, but were not published. At this price and quality level, the discount will pay for your trip to the show. Bring a trailer and some helping hands.

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