Part 3: Capital Audiofest 2024 Rooms 702 to 733
Impressive stereo systems on the 7th floor at CAF 2024.
Capital Audiofest 2024 Show Report By Rick Becker

711  GTT Audio
It's always a pleasure to see Bill Parish but I was a bit disappointed. He had invited me to visit his showroom for the introduction of the massive Vivid Moya M1 speaker with the designer, Lawrence Dickey. The timing was wrong for me but I was hoping he might bring those monsters to the show. Unfortunately, Bill couldn't book the Fantasy Suite at the Hilton for the $465k Moya M1. I had to settle for Vivid G3 s2 ($47,800) with its familiar silhouette that has been around for at least a decade.

The G3 is one of four sizes in this series with one smaller and two larger versions to suit your room size. The sophisticated evergreen finish was one of several shades I've seen on expensive speakers at Toronto and CAF this fall. Burmester was another that comes to mind, so it qualifies as a trend. In an age where brand desirability is crucial for the survival of luxury brands, major manufacturers must consider catering to current design trends.

On top of the rack in light chassis was the US Premiere of Master Fidelity NADAC C&D ($50.5k). Below that was the AURALIC Audio Aries G2.2 streamer ($6100). Kubala-Sosna Elation series cables included the speaker cable ($8k, one-meter, $1800 add meter), interconnect ($8k first meter, $1800 add. m), power cords ($2,350 one-meter, $600 add m), Ethernet cable ($2.9k one-meter, $700 add m), and Realization USB cable ($4.5k one-meter, $800 add m). The Elation! Series is one down from their new flagship Realization series.

The big amp on the floor (near the top of this web page) was from TLA (True Life Audio) a Greek company with roots that go back to the manufacture of transformers back in the 1950s. The TSI-300 Signature is essentially a hybrid with two tube preamps feeding two power amps all in one chassis. At $53,700 you can expect the highest build quality. It delivers two channels at 150 Watt @ 8 Ohms, 300W @ 4 Ohms. Weighing 121 lbs, you will need friends to move it, though I expect Bill will have it delivered for you. He's the U.S. distributor for both TLA and Vivid Audio.

714 Luminous Audio (Paradigm And Anthem)
This room was very familiar. It wasn't Luminous Audio as listed on the floor plan; they had moved to the Adams room on the 3rd Floor. Rather, it was the same Paradigm / Anthem rig (or close to it) I had just seen at the Toronto Audiofest weeks earlier. As I've said repeatedly, this was decent sound, but the upper-tier Paradigm speakers deserve to be shown with a higher class of electronics. Paradigm owns Anthem (and Martin Logan), so that's why this keeps happening. Actually, the speakers were different. The ones in Toronto were blue. These are either the Persona 9H ($37k) or the Persona 7F ($27k).

Suite 719 Robyatt Audio
Walking into the Robyatt Audio room was almost as exciting as last year when they took a Best Rooms Award. The smaller Quad 2812 electrostatic speaker ($10k) was swapped out for the larger 2912 model ($12k) which stands 18" taller at 58" and digs 5Hz deeper in the bass down to 28Hz. It sounds bigger, too, and is well worth the extra $2k. The footprint is identical and it is only 20 pounds more.

As the sign said, the cabling was by Finley Audio who also made the cool and configurable wooden cable risers seen close to the wall.

This year they showed the Java HiFi Double Shot ($16k) in the Carbon finish – carbon fiber, which gives it a more contemporary or techy look than the more Art Deco woodgrain finish that I like so much.

The VPI HW-RA direct drive turntable ($18k) was new, also. It was fitted with the unique Bird of Prey tonearm ($16k) that was fitted with a TZAR DST V1 cartridge ($10k), a big step up from the analog rig presented last year. A Robyatt Audio SUT RA1 step-up transformer ($995) was also used here. But for all the analog glory that was sitting there, the music streaming at the time was coming through a Sonore Signature Renu music player ($5,350). Nonetheless, it was still a very convincing rig and a fun stop on this floor.

721  Elite Audio Solutions
Not to be confused with Elite A/V Distribution in Room 612 to be seen later on.

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