Part 7: Rooms 301 To 325 On The Third Floor
Thrilling stereo systems on the third floor.
Capital Audiofest 2024 Show Report By Rick Becker

Room 301  Audio Note UK
Dropping down from the 6th Floor to the 3rd, there was a hallway of sleeping rooms filled with some key players directly across from the lobby and registration. To access it you had to walk around the perimeter of the Atrium without descending into it. The first of these rooms, if you had walked around the left side of the Atrium, was the Audio Note UK room. This British company supports a strong presence at North American shows and I always see them in Montreal and Toronto, as well as Capital and AXPONA. I don't cover Western shows anymore, so I can't vouch for them.

Their sound is as consistent as pumpkin pie with a slightly warm, musical presentation with just the right amount of bloom for many people. This isn't the only sound quality preferred by audiophiles, but if you're new or relatively new to the hobby, it is a room you should visit and become familiar with as this company is a classic with over three decades of devoted followers. Audio Note almost always shows with their speakers tucked into the front corners of the room to reinforce the bass.

New at this show was the Meishu Phono 300B Konzertmeister integrated amp with phono stage puts out 8 Watts per channel from 300B tubes. They claim to be the world's largest manufacturer of high-end tube gear and they sell through a worldwide network. They make everything from phono cartridges to speakers, and even digital gear. Most of the parts are made in-house, too, which results in consistent sound from one show to the next.

Here's a list of what they had in the room at this show. Déjà Vu Audio in Vienna, VA was listed at the bottom as the closest dealer to the show. Prices were not given, but while their products are far above entry-level, they are not outlandishly priced either. They also have products at a range of prices, all with the same house sound.

Charles King on the left was preparing to play some of his master tapes on a Stellavox tape recorder to entertain visitors. With Charles was Adrian Ford-Crush of Audio Note UK. I've had the pleasure of hearing Charles' tapes at other shows so I moved along.

304  Voxativ
Voxativ from Berlin, Germany is better known for large, unusually shaped speakers with high efficiency, capable of being driven by low-powered tube amps. They took a different route with their new Alberich Array Hybrid active speaker with 100dB/W/m efficiency. The speaker was shown with an Alberich 2 active bass module with a 500 Watt Class D amplifier with crossover, phase, and gain adjustment. Three Hagen 2 full-range drivers had no crossovers and featured a 5" back-loaded horn design. The entire array is $30.9k. You can also buy the bass module with only one full-range driver for $16.9k.

I noted the cable binding posts and woofer adjustments on the outer side of the bass module. On the full-range modules note the unusual design on the whizzer cone and the slotted port across the bottom.

The Voxativ T211 SET integrated amp with 211 tubes delivers 12 Wpc in pure Class A for $23,900. I've commented on its unique design in the past. The Voxativ Rack was $3k and their Ampeggio Due speaker cable was $9,600. A Weiss DAC502 streaming Qobuz Hi-Res Music was $10.7k. All cabling was by Voxativ except for standard stock power cables. The total system price was listed as $73k. The immediacy of the music with such high-efficiency speakers was a pleasure and the form factor of the array was appealing.

---> Next Page.