Part 5: Rooms 601 To 633 At CAF 2024
More rooms, and more magical music!
Capital Audiofest 2024 Show Report By Rick Becker

625 Verastarr & e11even stereophonic
The sign at the entrance to the Verastarr and e11even stereophonic room set the tone for my experience in room 625. First of all, as a writer, I have to say I hate these companies who insist on using small letters at the start of their name…or SOLID CAPS! It is a pain in the fingernails to type like that and it is a visual nightmare when trying to find a non-capitalized name in the middle of a paragraph when re-writing the text. The use of three styles of text in the signage was indicative of the visual schism in the rig. As a guy who worked in a Department of Psychiatry for a couple of decades, I have to wonder about the "OCD HiFi Guy" who hand prints his message on the official signage for the room.

So here's a look at the room. It's pretty well laid out but the elegant Sistrum Rhythm Platforms, rack, and stands are just too large for the diminutive components they support. Maybe that's the idea – to show off more of the rack and stands, but they are deserving of much more elegant components like, say, mbl in gloss black that actually fill up the space. It also struck me that these stands were similar to what I saw on Live-Vibe Audio table on the balcony just outside this room. Maybe there's a connection?

A NAT Se1 monoblock ($12,500/pr) using GM70 tubes for 50 Wpc Class A SET came from Serbia to drive the Fisher and Fisher monitors. The knob on the front switches between low and zero feedback for either 4 or 8 Ohm speakers. Very cool.

The Audio Analog DAC ($5k) on top has a built-in volume control and it was fed from the emm labs NS-1streamer ($4,500) below it. On the bottom shelf was an Audio Analog AADrive CD drive ($2k) using a modified TEAC transport similar to what is used in TEAC's higher-line Esoteric brand.

Mike Powell (OCD HiFi Guy) who has turned a manufacturing and vlogging career into an online/phone-line retail business, was kind enough to pour some light on the Fisher & Fisher two-way monitors ($4,500) from Germany so my camera could capture the finely crafted slate cabinets. Using a second order crossover, these not only looked outstanding but sounded outstanding, too. I noticed one of my peers at Enjoy the Music.com has already given this room a Best Rooms award, which echoed the sentiment of many show-goers recorded on video and posted on the 11stereo.com website. I must concur, but I would certainly not mix these components with the Sistrum Rhythm stands and rack, as good as they may be.

Verastarr is the cable brand from which e11even stereo evolved. Mike originally began in the manufacturing sector. The description on the website talks about foil cable design, though the more affordable models used in this system appear round. That's just the outside. Unfortunately, cable models, specifications, and pricing are unavailable on the website.

626 Supreme Acoustic Systems
This was the first of six rooms in a row sponsored by Supreme Acoustic Systems either in full or partnered with another company. They were all very solid presentations.

Despite the disproportionate size of the YG Acoustic XX 3 speakers($235k), this room sounded very good. I noted that the speakers were pulled out farther from the front wall than most and this resulted in a very good and very deep soundstage. The gold anodized finish may appeal to the oligarch class, but I prefer the silver finish on YG speakers. I had not seen the cable risers used here before.

The Hifistay racks from South Korea were filled with Soul Note electronics from Japan, a company founded by former employees of Marantz. On the racks were the Soul Note P3 preamp ($23k), E2 Phono Equalizer ($8,500), D3 DAC ($23k), Z3 Network Transport ($14.5k), and the M3 monoblock power amp beside the rack ($22k ea.) The cabling was all by Cardas.

The turntable was a Benny Audio Odyssey with a single arm ($36,190) fitted with a Hana Umami cartridge ($3,950).

Note the red knurled screws to match the Hana Umami Red cartridge. They sure look heavy but they must make it easier to mount the cartridge.

Note the hemispherical slotted columns along the wall to break up the first reflections for the seating area. This seemed to work well in this room. That the considerable weight of YG speakers is supported on only three spikes has always been anxiety-provoking for me yet I'm sure if I bumped into a speaker this heavy, it would be unlikely to topple.

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