Part 1: 8th Floor And More CAF 2024 Show Report
A great way to start the day at an audiophile / high-end audio event.
Capital Audiofest 2024 Show Report By Rick Becker

810 SVS Sound
I was grateful to finally get a listen to the new SVS speakers after being denied entry by throngs of worshipers at previous shows. I found them to be a decent speaker at their price which should garner the attention of younger audiophiles, but they are not giving you something for nothing. I like the style and the concept with supplemental rear-firing drivers. The fit and finish also seemed good. The system was a Hegel all-in-one which is a brand I have trouble warming up to, being the tube lover that I am, so that may be part of the reason for my reaction. The unit on the top shelf was an antenna to improve Wi-Fi reception.

In the corner was their new SB17-Ultra R|Evolution 17" sealed subwoofer ($2500) that was not likely very useful in a room this small and was probably used along with the stand-mounted monitors. Given the sheer size of these subs, I expect they will sell a lot of them to people who want to rock the neighborhood. Lots of control of the sub with their remote.

811 Semrad Audio
This room had "custom audio" written all over it. I've seen these speakers before – probably here last year. The woodworking is absolutely gorgeous and while the sound from these high-efficiency speakers was well-managed, it was more fun to imagine them in a much larger room with picture windows revealing a gorgeous view.

I like the clean look this speaker has from the side. That would be a full-range field coil driver on top with a power supply built into the cabinet – possibly a refurbished driver from Atelier Rullit in Germany(?). Perhaps even the 16" woofer?

Below the turntable on the middle shelf are Emia Audio's phono stage, passive volume control, and amplifiers. The passive volume control uses silver wire and an autoformer. On the right side are separate equalizers for left and right channels. The amps are the four units on the bottom shelf, each with a Type 50 tube putting out 4 to 4.5 Watts in front of a 300B tube likely putting out 8 Watts. You can switch between the two tubes to suit your needs. He was only using the outer two amps in the line, indicating the high-efficiency of these speakers. That was a Denon CD player on the top shelf.

The turntable was a Garrard Model 301 transcription turntable in a custom plinth. The black edges were each solid wood inlays to avoid having mitered edges or exposing any end grain of the solid wood surfaces. The turntable itself looked to have been fully refurbished. It looked practically brand new. I also noted the fine construction of the rack itself.

This is John Semrad, a very fine craftsman. I'll have to ask him if he also made the amps and phono stages. I suspect he might have.

814 Caprice Audio
Walking into the room I was greeted by Derek (Skip) Skipworth from Audiothesis who imports Norma electronics and Rosso Fiorentino speakers, both from Italy. He was called out of the room and I didn't catch up with him until the end of the show.

On the left in the back row was a Norma Revo Digital Source (DAC), a Norma Revo amplifier, and a white Lumin streamer. Up front on the butcher block was the Caprice Audio Coretessa, a $14k optimization system that I've reported on at previous shows. It is a passive system with cables that connect to the speakers and the amp in this particular implementation. It is a noise-reduction system that you can read more about on their website.

This was the new Rosso Fiorentino Arno speaker that is replacing the Volterra Series 2. It looks similar to earlier designs but features the first drivers that Rosso Fiorentino has designed and built in-house which allows them to offer more sound quality at a lower price. The cabinets are customizable in many ways with different paints, leather and other materials. Talk to Skip. If you've seen some of their other models at shows, you know what I mean. They are Italian, therefore, they design! I think Skip mentioned a price for this floorstander of less than $15k. Previous models I've heard with Norma electronics had more bloom and air which seemed to be missing at this show. Perhaps it was not fully broken in on this first day, or perhaps the Caprice Audio unit was altering the sound in some way. But keep an eye out for reviews. There will also be a new stand-mounted monitor and a center-channel speaker in this series for home theater buffs.

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