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

Room 744 AGD Productions
Alberto Guerra returned to Capital again this year and brought with him the Ocean Way Audio Eureka monitors by Allen Sides that he has used from time to time. It's a great choice for this size room and really shows off the quality of the AGD products.

Seen above was the Andante Pre / DAC / Streamer / Phono ($13k) that I've reviewed very favorably. It allows you to select the amp that best fits your speaker while condensing a large system into a single beautiful component while remaining flexible as your front end choices evolve. In the center is the Gran Vivace monoblock (19k) which features a new version of the AGD KT120 GaNTube that puts out 400 Watts into 4 Ohms.

On the right is the new flagship AGD Solo ($23,500) that puts out 550 Watts into 4 Ohms with 50A peak output. This is a Limited Edition available by special order. It takes on a new look with solid wood side panels and adds an illuminated logo on a handsomely sculpted faceplate.

On the left is the new Audion Mk III with the third-generation 800KHz PWM GaNTube KT88 MKIII power tube which I reviewed in the November issue. It puts out 200 Watts into 4 Ohms and makes a very significant improvement over the Mk II tube. This amp is my solid-state reference amp — the only one to break into my circle of tube amplifiers.

Next to the Audion is the new AGD Duet monoblock ($11,500) which uses the GaNSound modular technology with a GaNFET power stage without the faux-tube architecture. It puts out 300 Watts into 4 Ohms and is fully upgradeable. Weighing a mere 10 pounds, it's a great way to downsize if that's in your future. It's a handsome addition in its polished chassis to the growing AGD line.

With the Sides speakers, the AGD room sounds similar to my dedicated listening room and always feels like home. It's been heartening to see this line grow over the past few years and experience Alberto's improvements in the GaNFET technology.

Room 745 Haniwa
The Haniwa room is another that seems to look the same at every show. The rig is set up on a table covered with a black tablecloth. The speakers always look the same, positioned off the ends of the table, just a little bit out from the front wall. Notice the non-descript subwoofer discretely positioned at each end of the table. The speakers and stands have looked pretty much the same, year after year. Their almost-gloss black finish cries out for artistic detail to keep it from looking like a tornado emergency warning siren. It is not until the music starts playing that you discover Haniwa is the real deal.

The new digital amp is now a GaNFET design.

There is a new tonearm that looks to be 12". If the design is similar to the old one, it has a magnetic fluid suspension/damping system. The belt drive motor is concealed beneath the platter, like on a Linn LP12. The shiny tower to the left of the turntable is the 20V AC power supply and speed controller.

Did I say this was a good-sounding system? It is, but they need some help to fill up the seats in this room to convince more people to come and listen.

Room749 Theoretica Applied Physics
I was looking forward to revisiting the Theoretica Applied Physics room and talking with Professor Edgar Choueiri this year after reviewing the Synergistic Research Vibratron SX, a hand-made multi-frequency resonator that has a profound impact on the listening experience. In previous exposure to the Theoretic system, I did not have a good seating position, nor an adequate explanation of the system due to the room being mobbed with people. At Capital, I hung around long enough to get a sufficient explanation, being one of two visitors at the time. However, I did not get to sit in the sweet spot, which is important for the optimal experience of the effect his ‘black box' creates.

The person in the sweet spot complained about the image height of the music — something I had noticed, too, from one seat over and one seat back. This resulted in Dr. C going through the entire calibration regimen with the other gentleman. This improved the effect for the gentleman but was barely noticeable for me.

In essence, Dr. C's technology eliminates the crosstalk the listener experiences when sitting in the sweet spot. He characterized the effect as if you were to place a large mattress vertically in front of the listener to prevent the music from the right speaker from reaching the left ear of the listener…and vice versa. The effect stabilizes and clarifies the soundstage via the complex $40k processor/amplifier that drives the conventional speakers.

I felt like I achieved a good grasp of the effect, even being a bit off-center of the sweet spot. The soundstage became more realistic as claimed, but the music still came from some distance away in an arc in front of the listener. The simulated reality of the musicians was still separated from the listener by a different reality — that of the listening room. This was different from the Vibratron which extends the simulated reality of the musician on the soundstage, right up to your listening position. That's one difference between the two.

The other difference is $36k, which Dr. Choueiri would someday like to diminish, if not eliminate. Both approaches are an enhancement of the listening experience and once you've been acclimated to either one, listening to most other systems without them will likely be a disappointment. At least that's my experience with the Vibratron. When I remove the review sample from time to time, it doesn't stay out of the system very long.

In my coverage of this room at the Chicago event in 2023 I wrote something worth repeating as it is easily overlooked when visiting this room:

"I've raved about the rig here before, giving it a Best Rooms award at Capital Audiofest as I recall. Just sitting in the chairs, much of the holographic sound quality goes to the JansZen speakers which have electrostatic divers in the middle of the front baffle as well as woofers above and below. But you can also see small side-firing speakers and I believe there is also a rear-firing driver as well which all contribute to creating a realistic ambient space for the music. The speaker is a great value on its own, and it is available without the side and rear-firing drivers if you wish to keep the cost down."

The JansZen is a speaker well worth looking into for medium to small rooms.

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