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Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part
9
Monroe Room 20/20
Evolution Systems
• Home Theater Installation
They will surely sell you equipment from top vendors but are also happy to modify it to suit your particular environmental needs or musical taste. The Kharma Diamond Elegance speaker, a limited edition of 10 DB9-DE with Truitt Physics capacitors, WBT connectors, silver wiring, diamond tweeter, and more ($100k) is an example of the modded gear they offer. I noticed the speakers were on what looked like doubled-up vibration-absorbing footers.
On the top right of the rack was a LampizatOr Horizon DAC with Truitt Physics capacitors (Price on request) which will be an upgrade over the standard issue ($49k). Below it was a Cambridge Audio CD transport to accommodate requests. And on the bottom shelf was a Taiko Music Server, hot-rodded with Truitt Physics capacitors and silver wiring ($40k). On the left side of the rack was a Kuzma Stabi Ref. 2 turntable ($14k) with a Kuzma 4Point 11" tonearm ($10.6k) fitted with a Kuzma CAR-50 cartridge ($7.5k). The Stabi Ref. 2 plinth is comprised of two plates, each of which is a sandwich of two aluminum layers with an acrylic layer between. There is a four-point suspension of a spring in an oil bath at each corner. The power supply next to it indicates it was running at 45 rpm in green numbers. Below the turntable was the c-j TEA1 Series 3 phono preamp with the c-j ART-88 Preamp (Limited Edition) ($28.5k) further down.
Amplification was by Conrad-Johnson and the Truitt Physics Edition ART-108A Class A monoblocks (price on request) is an example of what they love to do. Truitt Physics prototype cables (POR) were used.
The poster above, for expert phono cartridge and turntable set-up, is a service that needs to be expanded. Like any skill, the more you do, the better you get and the average audiophile has little experience — at least in comparison with the pros. "Anywhere, any time" can become expensive if you live far away, but perhaps more people with the proper set-up tools will jump into this niche market in the future. The same can hold for loudspeaker set-up as I experienced when a pro delivered some speakers to me for review. It sounded pretty good until he pulled out his laser tools and performed the critical alignment. Then it got really good. I've enjoyed listening to Kharma speakers in this room before, but the music during my visit here was an on-again, off-again experience that I couldn't settle in with. My reference speakers for the past twenty years have been Kharma speakers so this was a disappointment for me. And it is also a disappointment that they aren't more readily available in North America.
Lincoln Room High End By Oz
On rare occasions, I spot a father with his child touring the show and think "How cool is that?" The child may not remember the gear or the listening experience, but they will surely remember sharing time with their dad.
The Nuda speaker from Viva is available painted or veneered, offering a lot of potential for achieving a visually impressive loudspeaker. It is a four-way design with an active subwoofer, mid-bass horn driver, midrange horn driver, and a high-frequency unit mounted on top. They were possibly powered by a couple of black Viva monoblocks on the bottom shelves of the racks, or maybe those were the amps for the active subwoofer. The cabinetry, with the bridge above the woofer supporting the upper horn seems inordinately complex, but it offers some interesting design possibilities. The music I heard here, played on tape, didn't give me much to go on about the sound of this unusual rig.
The yellow Solista integrated SET amp features a quartet of 845 tubes putting out Class A power with zero negative feedback. This may have been the amp powering the Nuda speakers. The Viva amps, from Italy, are available in your favorite color by special order.
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High-Performance Audio Reviews
