Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part 9
The 3rd Floor Large Rooms Part B.
Show Report By Rick Becker

Executive Lounge  Now Listen Here
Continuing around the corner, heading toward Olive's Restaurant and the main lobby, the entrance to the Executive lounge is set back on the left. I recall there were enough banners to catch your attention as you were walking by. It was quite dark inside with the only lights being on the banner on the front wall. Now Listen Here runs brick-and-mortar stores in Harrisburg, PA, and Falls Church, VA, and offers the brands seen on the banner covering the front wall... and probably more. They also had a smaller room in Suite 319 in Part 7.

The emm labs MTRS stereo amp ($65k) was massive and more than adequate to drive the Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene speaker ($44k). The smaller box on the right was an ISOL-8 SubStation HC power conditioner ($5k). Along the front wall here were the Finley Audio cable lifters that I mentioned several shows ago. This modular design has multiple cut-outs that can be stacked between the vertical poles for holding various-sized cables. I was impressed to see how this looked in an actual rig. Very tidy.

Wilson Audio and Von Schweikert Audio were early developers of the monitor-on-woofer concept, but it is Jeff Joseph who has refined the concept to the Nth degree. However, I see he is still reluctant to follow the trend of vibration-absorbing footers, so there is still room for growth. Superbly finished and superbly sounding, it can be driven by both solid-state and tube amplifiers if they have sufficient power.

From the top was the Pure Fidelity Horizon turntable ($10k) with an Origin Live Illustrious SE tonearm upgrade (+$1,300), equipped with a DS Audio W3 cartridge (+$5k). The little component below the turntable was the power supply for the turntable with push buttons for 33 and 45 rpm.

The DS optical cartridges require a special phono equalizer and here, rather than using one of DS Audio's equalizers, they offered emm labs' DS-EQ1 phono equalizer ($12.5k). Below that was the emm labs PRE preamp ($25k), followed by the emm labs DA2 DAC ($30k).

Off to the side of the rack was an Innuos Pulsar streamer ($8k) and an Innuos ZEN server ($3649).

The cables were Finley Audio Cirrus cables including speaker cables ($3685), XLR 1m interconnects ($1485), USB cable ($1185), and power cord ($1,585). Jeff Joseph typically uses all Cardas cabling in his rooms, but without a direct comparison, I'd venture to say his speaker did just as well with the Finley cables. This was a very fine-sounding system with the digital front end that I heard, as well as it should, coming in at over $200k with both front ends.

Stay Tuned For Part 10: Best Rooms Of CAF 2023!
That's it for the big rooms on the 3rd Floor. In Part 10 I will dive down into the Atrium to visit the booths and cover the final three rooms that were accessible from that level. I will also review all the rooms at the show, about 120, and select a bunch of rooms I felt worthy of Best Rooms nomination, not only based on sound but other notable metrics as well.

It looks like I won't wrap this show up until shortly after New Year's, so I wish you all a safe and happy holiday. May your power stay on, no matter what the weather brings, and your music ring loud and clear.

---> Onward to Part 10 of Rick Becker's Capital Audiofest 2023 report.

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