Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part 6
The 6th Floor Part B
Show Report By Rick Becker

Room 655  Belleson, The Audio Hunters, And The Vinyl Revivers
Belleson is an electronics manufacturing company in Greer, SC, specializing in voltage regulators and such — the kind of parts that go into somebody else's components. They also have an affection for analog playback because they have created a phono stage with a remote control. Remember when I wrote, "Who else does that?"  Well, they assembled two rigs to show off their first component here at Capital Audiofest 2023, apparently in conjunction with The Audio Hunters & The Vinyl Revivers who are both retailers and purveyors of vinyl and CDs. They may be co-habitators in Simpsonville, MD, halfway between Rockville and Baltimore. They sell a lot of brands and also offer repair services and record cleaning services.

Beneath the Rega P8 turntable ($6645 w/Aphelia 3 MC cartridge) is the Belleson Brilliance phono stage (with the Rega power supply tucked in on top of it. The retail price is $8500 but the show price was $7650. It is a handsome piece with a unique look. Those look like Symposium Acoustics vibration-absorbing shelves between the components and Solidsteel rack shelves. There was a Hegel H-190 integrated amp with a close-out price of $2800 and a Hegel H-390 ($6500) just below. The speakers looked very serious with coaxial tweeter and midrange above a woofer, dressed in gloss black. They were KEF Reference 1 Metas ($9k with the stands). An IsoTek Sigma power conditioner ($4k) was offered at a demo price of $3k.

On the wall to the right was a second rack with a Dr. Feickert Volare turntable fitted with an Origin Live tonearm and Ortofon 2M Black cartridge ($4850 for the display model). Below that was another Brilliance phono stage, followed by a Bryston BR20 preamp that starts at $6795, but the display model was $8595, so it must have had some add-ons. Below the preamp was a Bryston 4B3(cubed) power amp ($7495). Sonner Audio Legato Unums in cherry finish ($5870, including stands were listed, but I don't recall seeing them.

A young man told me there was a remote for the Brilliance phono stage, but could only show me a picture of it in his cell phone (above). It was a little disorganized in this room and I'm not sure I heard any music, but these guys sure seemed to be trying hard. I suspect we will be hearing more about the Belleson Brilliance phono stage in the future. It seems to hold promise.

Room 659  D.C. Hi-Fi Group
The D.C. Hi-Fi Club had a few guys shooting the breeze who convinced me to take a membership application. Individual annual dues are $80, bi-annual are $140. For more details e-mail John Gatski if you live a little closer. During CV a few years ago, I was graciously invited to participate in Zoom meetings by clubs in New York and Los Angeles, which I greatly appreciated. It was fun meeting other serious and knowledgeable audiophiles and sharing a little camaraderie.

Room 661  Clayton Shaw Acoustic Lab
Walking into Clayton Shaw's room made me feel like a Back Door Man as I encountered the engineering side of his new open baffle Caladan speaker.

As the initial reviewer of PureAudioProject and Treehaus speakers, I fell in love with these new speakers as soon as I entered the room. That the price has jumped from $2950 at the show to $3295 currently, does not surprise me. The back-orders have filled their February production schedule and they are now taking orders for March delivery.

With a 1.5" solid hardwood baffle in your choice of maple, walnut, white oak, or cherry, populated with a pair of 12" mid/woofers and a silk dome tweeter at a 1kHz crossover, the simplicity speaks for itself. With the cloth-covered wiring and second-order crossover tucked away in routed pockets in the baffle, this speaker speaks with a smooth presentation from a claimed 32Hz to 20kHz. The 93dB/W/m sensitivity, even with its 4 Ohm impedance means you can drive this speaker with low-powered SET tube amps and most likely revel in musical excellence.

They went with a Linear Tube Audio Ultralinear+ integrated ($7650) with LTA's first ever DAC, the Aero DAC ($3600) fed by the INNuos Zen Mk3 Network Streamer (($3649+) and a small collection of affordable AntiCables including a Level 3.3 USB ($215), Level 5.3 XLR interconnects ($900), Level 4.2 FLEX speaker wires ($640), and Level 3 Power Cords ($330 each). It also caught my eye that Gaia vibration-absorbing footers were used on the speakers as standard equipment. What a great combo for a reasonably priced system.

I had seen the LTA Aero DAC earlier in the show but came to learn here that it has a Class A ZOTL output stage (tube, obviously) as well as an R2R non-oversampling DAC, no negative feedback, and six isolated power supplies. This looks to be a very serious effort that I'm sure we will be reading about in the future.

Clayton was busy with customers when I visited, so I didn't get a chance to chat with him, but it wasn't necessary. The speakers and the entire rig spoke for themselves.

Coming Soon: The Third Floor
That wraps up the 6th floor and Part 6. In Part 7 I will drop down to the 3rd floor (which is street level at this hotel) and hit the eleven smaller rooms tucked behind the open atrium before finally tackling the large rooms at the show. Keep checking back for the many great rooms that are to be reported on within my next Capital Audiofest 2023 show report segment.

---> Onward to Part 7 of Rick Becker's Capital Audiofest 2023 report.

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