Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part 8
The 3rd Floor Large Rooms Part A
Show Report By Rick Becker

Jefferson Room   Acora Acoustics
My exposure to Acora Acoustics goes way back to their early days when I first encountered them at Rocky Mountain Audiofest in 2018 or 2019. They have always been among the top rooms at the shows I've covered, collecting many Best Rooms recognitions. Until now, Val Cora has always sponsored his rooms for the company and brought together outstanding components from a variety of companies over the years. Earlier this year, he bought the struggling Audio Research company and has been working hard to right that ship.

At Capital Audiofest 2023, Acora teamed up with a Titan Direct turntable ($60k) at the front end with a  van den Hul Crimson XGW Stradivarius MC Cartridge ($5595). The Titan is equipped with dual platters, direct and magnetic drive, and a chassis made of layers of aluminum and machined acrylic. It was shown with a pair of Fatboy turntables with 12" 3D printed tonearms.

A collection of Audio Research products which you can see in the background of the photo above, included a  REF 3SE phono stage ($19,500) and Reference 6 SE line stage ($19,500), and a pair of Reference 750 monoblocks ($85,000/pair).

With more direct lighting on the Acora VRC flagship speakers ($218k), the more sparkly nature of the granite used exclusively on this model was revealed, unlike his previous presentations, which were dimly lit. This was also a much smaller room than I've heard this speaker in the past. At first, the music didn't reach out and grab me with the excellence I first heard in the Chicago show. But after settling into a chair and listening for a minute, it began to shine. Val indulged me by playing a cut from my favorite Rickie Lee Jones album, giving me a common denominator with my previous exposure to the VRC.

Perhaps my reaction was because this was a smaller, more congested, damped room with more "furnishings" or maybe it was because I had heard so many fine systems at this show. In any case, I still hold this speaker in very high regard as one of the very few that draw me closest to believing I am in the presence of live musicians.

That the form factor of this speaker equals the acoustic excellence without an overpowering visual presence in the room is a plus, though it does have considerable weight. And with 94.5dB/W/m sensitivity, allowing for SET amplification as well as mammoth solid state amps, make that +2.

Speaking of room damping, I noticed a couple of wall treatments sitting on a counter off to one side that offered an appealing image of an acoustic guitar. I thought they might have been from Stillpoints, but I couldn't get any verification. I'll have more to say about room treatments and Acora speakers in an upcoming review of a much less expensive model early next year.

Adams Room  MCAudiotech
The other room was visually more to my liking with windows across the front wall and a hint of jungle created by trees spread across those windows for dispersion of the backwaves. It reminded me of my listening room, except my window is half as wide, my rig is more condensed, and my speakers are only half as far forward from the front wall. But man, wouldn't I love to have that kind of space behind the rack to swap the cable connections?

Those were the MC Audiotech speakers like I had seen in room 311 (Part 7) earlier that morning and they were sounding great with all that space and driven by the PrimaLuna Evo 400 monoblocks ($5,295 stereo; $10,590 monoblocks, as shown). The monoblocks put out 82 Watts, each, in triode, and 140 Watts in ultralinear. The speaker cables looked like Nordost Odin. Those were branded butcher block amp stands with special footers as well as racks.

That looked like an Avenger Direct turntable with a 12" 3D gimbal tonearm on the left and a Dragon turntable with a red vinyl wrap on the plinth and a Prime Gimbal 10-3D tonearm on the right with an AC drive with dual belts.

On a table in the hallway outside their rooms, VPI was exhibiting isolation bases with special footers at a Show Special price of $1200 or $1500, according to Matt Weisfeld. In the upper right of the photo above was an isolation base with a cutout for the motor. The same isolation footers are used on the isolation bases as well as on some turntables. Gorgeous woodwork on the plinth in the upper right corner!

Above was a complete turntable with a butcher block plinth made of cherry wood, about $6000.

And here was one with a plinth that looked to be made out of a solid surface countertop material.

LTA Headphone Lounge
Returning to the hallway that was the home of the LTA Headphone Lounge, on the end table I discovered Veera-Fi Audio with their Vera-Link, a $199 solution to convert your passive speakers to active with Bluetooth connectivity. Yes, those little black boxes are power amplifiers that put out 50W into 4 Ohms, and 25W into 8 Ohms, more than enough for a bedroom, dorm, or home office use. And yes, they are Class D amps and they can be used in multi-zone setups.

As I am not a headphone geek, I kept my voyeurism to a minimum and just took a few photos to document their presence. I understand there was a large headphone show in another part of the country on this same weekend, so the headphone presence was marginal here. And this being toward the end of the show on Sunday the crowd was also minimal.

On the tan table on the left, you can see the Vera-Fi Bluetooth monoblocks hooked up to the black monitors. Dana Robbins of Dana Cable is apparently into headphone cables.

...as was Axios.

Audeze had the largest display and attracted the most attention at this hour.

Anticables and the LTA tables across the aisle drew less attention. A flyer suggested there would be headphones from Audeze, Meze, iBasso ZMF and more in the Headphone Lounge, but I didn't have time to take an inventory. 

More To Come From Capital Audiofest 2023
While there is still another hallway with some great rooms ahead on the 3rd Floor, I'll send Part 8 out for publication to give you some fresh reading over the Christmas weekend. The Atrium and three great rooms around its periphery are also yet to come. Plus my selection of the Best Rooms at the show.

I wish you all serenity over Christmas, and peace on our little spaceship Earth, and I'll be hustling to wrap up these Capital Audiofest Chronicles before year's end.

May your S/N ratio and your spirits be high.

---> Onward to Part 9 of Rick Becker's Capital Audiofest 2023 report.

---> Back to the main Capital Audiofest 2023 show report homepage.