Part 6: Rooms 637 To 661 At Capital Audiofest 2024
More wonderful music on the 6th floor at CAF 2024.
Capital Audiofest 2024 Show Report By Rick Becker

Suite 650  Overture Audio
Overture, located in sales-tax-free Delaware, sells from an elevated playing field and has been around since the early 1990s. A 250-mile radius around their store encompasses a lot of audiophiles, well within a one-day round trip. Their room here gave me a fresh listen to the Estelon Aura speaker ($22.9k) which had not impressed me the first time I heard them at a previous show. The room here was tastefully decorated and very well laid out. The rig backing the Auras was also very high quality.

Atop the HRS rack ($8,175) was an Acoustic Signature Hurricane Neo turntable ($13K) equipped with TA-2000 Neo black 9" tonearms ($4,195 ea.), one with a Lyra Kleos cartridge ($4k) and the other with a van den Hul Crimson Stradivarius. The turntable was mounted on an additional HRS isolation base ($1,695). Also seen here was the DS Audio Ion-001 Vinyl Ionizer at the side of the turntable to eliminate static charges on the LPs. I liked the way the components were discretely labeled with black cards with gold lettering that blended in with the HRS rack.

Below the turntable was a Vitus RI-101 Mk II integrated amplifier ($20k) finished in an extra-cost Midnight Blue finish ($3k). An HRS damping plate ($345) was placed on top. The Vitus amp has a remote control, but I didn't see it lying around. This Danish integrated is among the very best in the world and erases the tube vs. solid state dichotomy. It also goes a long way toward vanquishing the integrated vs. separate components argument.

On the next shelf down was a Sutherland 20/20 phono preamp ($2,200) with an LPS linear power supply ($450) on top which had a smaller HRS DPII damping plate ($270) on top to keep it from floating away.

On the bottom shelf was an MSB Discrete DAC ($12,500) with a standard power supply and an Aurender N200 music server ($6300) sandwiched between them. A USB to ISL adapter to access their Pro ISL input module ($990 ea.) was also in play but out of sight. While there was an LP on the turntable, I think the streamed music was the order of the day. The power supply for the Acoustic Signature turntable was sitting on the carpet beneath the rack. I know just the footers that would have cured that problem.

To the left of the rack was a Shunyata Gemini 8 power conditioner ($2,495) sitting on another HRS isolation base. It was equipped with a Shunyata Theta XC power cable and the other components were fitted with Shunyata Theta NR power cables, all at $998 each. Theta series speaker cables ($2k, 2.5-meter) and interconnects ($1k, 1-meter RCA, and $1.5k, 2m XLR) were also used. I was somewhat surprised that they were not using a higher series of cables, but with an unfamiliar rig, it can be difficult to know the difference unless you have a direct comparison. David Bowie's "I Can't Give Everything Away" was musically complex and not a song I was familiar with so I can't say this room was great, but it very well could have been.

I thought the Aura looked better in gloss black than in the lighter colors that revealed the contours of its design more readily. The slender silhouette was appropriate for a room of this size, but its larger, more expensive brethren are simply gorgeous. That said, the Aura acquitted itself very well in a room of this size and with its down-firing 10" woofer, could play well in a larger room with equal grace.

I've seen humidifiers in rooms before at shows, but this was the first I've seen an air purifier. If you have such a problem in your listening room, the Winix shown here was $160. I couldn't verify its S/N ratio.

Suite 651  Audioshield Distribution
This room was a consortium of Fidelity Farm, a retailer in central NJ who works by appointment, LTA, and Audioshield, the U.S. distributor for Credo Audio speakers of Switzerland, EMM Labs, Meitner Audio, and van den Hul. LTA and Audioshield Distribution were found elsewhere on this floor and at lower elevations at the show.

The system here was very presentable but the Credo speakers cried out for flora to accentuate their gorgeous veneers.

The Dr. FeickertVolare turntable with an Origin Live silver Mk4 tonearm ($4,495) was fitted with a DS Audio W3 optical phono cartridge($5k). Note that it accommodates 78 rpm records and it was sitting on an IsoAcoustics zaZen II isolation platform.

Originally, DS Audio cartridges were used with DS dedicated phono stages but other companies have come out with phono stages to work with these cartridges, Meitner among them.

Below the turntable was a HiFi Rose RS130 Network Transport ($5,195). On the next shelf down was a Meitner DS-EQ2 Optical Cartridge Equalizer ($5k), a Meitner PRE preamp ($7,500), and their new MA3i integrated DAC ($11.5k). An IsoTek power conditioner was on the bottom shelf.

Here is a closer look at the Meitner gear.

If you look closely at the Credo EV1202 Reference Shop Loudspeaker ($24k) you will notice the high gloss finish that is extremely transparent, reflecting the wall to the left and the cables on the floor. If such beauty is not important to you, the speaker is also offered in charcoal or white at $17k, though I would still recommend adding greenery to your surroundings as it disperses sound and cleans the air. An EV900 Reference speaker ($14k) and an EV350 Reference bookshelf speaker ($7k) were also listed so some folks might have heard those over the weekend.

The speakers were driven by LTA (Linear Tube Audio) ZOTL40 Reference+ monoblocks ($6,800 ea.). The cables were by van den Hul (likely for the turntable, at least) and Cardas (for the speakers, for sure.) The rack was from Modolo.

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