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

Suite 319  Now Listen Here
Now Listen Here, a retailer with brick-and-mortar stores in Harrisburg, PA, and Falls Church, VA has hosted a couple of rooms at each CAF for the past few years. This one had a familiar sound as it featured my new reference speaker, the Acora QRC-2 speaker ($37k) made with quartz rather than the black granite of the nearly identical SRC-2 ($48k). The quartz version might be slightly less resolving than the granite version, and it comes in fewer finishes – the white seen here, and a medium gray which disappears when listening in the dark. But the price difference can more than make up the difference in sound quality if applied elsewhere in your rig. (Stay tuned for my upcoming review of LessLoss Giant Steps.)

The Acora was driven by Ayre solid state gear which may seem the obvious choice given the 4 Ohm impedance of the speaker, but my tube reference amps drive these speakers phenomenally well with 20 Watts in triode in a room that is at least three times the size of the one here. The Phil Collins song "In The Air Tonight" resonated very well here streamed from an Innuos PULSAR ($8k) to an EMM Labs DA2i DAC ($35k).

Unfortunately, for this vinyl lover, the Rega Naia turntable ($13k) fitted with an Audio Technica ART1000X cartridge ($5.5k) was not in use at the time.

Here's the room list with the other components, though the Solidsteel racks were not mentioned – and say, were those early versions of Cardas cable lifters under the Ayre gear? Now Listen Here is also a dealer for Backert Labs preamplifiers which has become my reference this past year.

As 319 was a suite, there was a second room in which I spotted this silent display of Ayre components and an Acora QRB monitor ($15k) on an Acora stand. A separate Acora BedRock powered bass module is available to replace the stand shown here and convert the monitor to a three-way, full-range speaker. I heard this three-way combination at the Toronto show in a very large room and it was excellent, playing even deeper bass than the QRC-2.

The other Now Here This room was the Executive Lounge, which I will cover in the final part of this series.

321  Audio Thesis
Derek "Skip" Skipworth changed things up in his room this year, swapping the Norma electronics he imports from Italy with T + A electronics from Germany to drive the Siena Series 2 speaker from Rosso Fiorentino in Italy. Turnbull Audio supplied the cables.

The Siena Series 2 is steeped in design. That little gold "emblem" at the top of the baffle was a super-tweeter. The red sides of the lower chassis are alligator leather. Custom materials and colors abound with this Italian company. In the past, I've heard more synergy between the Rosso Fiorentino speakers and Norma amplification than what I heard here with T + A. They are both highly regarded brands, but not an optimal combination, lacking some of the air and bloom achieved with the Norma.

On top of the rack was the T + A SDV 3100 HV Reference Streaming DAC Preamp and below it was the matching A 3000 HV power amp putting out 300 Wpc into 8 Ohms and 500 Wpc into 4 Ohms. On the bottom shelf of the HRS stand was a Bonn SX Pro Ethernet Switch ($4k) and a matching Forester FX adaptive power supply ($4k) from Silent Angel.

---> Next Page.