Part 9: Capital Audiofest 2024 Large Rooms Part 2
Extensive CAF 2024 coverage of the large exhibit rooms.
Capital Audiofest 2024 Show Report By Rick Becker

Wilson  The Voice That Is
The Voice That Is was among the Best Rooms last year and the electric blues I heard sounded very precise and clean this year with outstanding transparency and presence. The room was beautifully laid out and the system was very well-lit with a black backdrop that allowed the gear to stand out visually. It was also the only room at the show with black and yellow tape across the floor asking people not to get close to the equipment.

Doug White runs this very high-end boutique retail business by appointment only in the Philadelphia area. While his core business is in the immediate surrounding states, he also serves distant states where his elite brands are not represented by local dealers. Doug is said to be a very personable guy, but we've never connected at the show – probably because we are both so busy attending to business.

I have read about the outstanding electronics and speakers in the Tidal Bugatti collection and never expected to see it on this side of the Atlantic. It wouldn't surprise me if the speakers were on back order, but I was pleasantly surprised to see what looked like matching pieces on the top and middle shelves with the three-dimensional "EB" logo on the carbon fiber inlay on top. One of these pieces was the world premiere of the MP-1 preamplifier. The other was apparently a digital streamer. At this level, branding is extremely important and you pay for the exclusivity as well as the excellence of the product. The HRS double-wide rack was not their most expensive, but it kept the focus on the components.

The Dohmann Helix One Mk III turntable blended in with the Tidal Bugatti gear in finish, if not in form. The tonearm looked like the one on the SAT turntable in the VAC room and from behind the tape on the floor,  the cartridge looked like an Air Tight PC-1, most likely the Supreme in a rig at this level. On the bottom shelf, two black Tidal Assoluta monoblocks consumed the space so tightly that I might have missed seeing them if it were not for the chrome stripe down the middle of the faceplate. On the floor to the right of the rack was a CAD (Computer Audio Design) grounding device, and to the left of the rack was an Equitech balanced power conditioner.

I loved the gold-plated miniature dumbbells used as cable risers. Class! The cabling in the room was the world premiere of the Turnbull Audio Prestige series, an expensive line as you might expect.

The Akira speakers from Tidal are pure elegance in piano gloss black with chrome surrounds on the drivers and foot extenders. It is also available in wood veneer if that warms your heart. It wasn't clear if these were vibration-absorbing footers – possibly with a concealed roller block design, but it was evident these were world-class speakers, along with the rest of the system.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to business, and substantial discounts were offered on numerous items:

Tidal Assoluta Mono amplifiers, regularly priced at $160k were marked down to $112k.
Tidal Ferios Mono amplifiers, regularly priced at $85k were marked down to $65k.
Tidal Akira Speakers, regularly priced at $255k were marked down to $155k.
There was even a Zesto Audio Andros Deluxe II phono stage marked down from $8,300 to $6k.

At the end of the show, you could have boasted to your significant other, "Honey, I saved over $100,000 at the show this weekend!" What a hero you would have been! I guess there is always "next year."

Truman  Convergent Audio Technology (CAT) & Essential Sound Products
The CAT room was a bit different this year, using Clarisys Audio speakers instead of the Magico of the previous two years. A gentleman was giving a talk about studio recording so I wandered about and took some photos.

On top of the rack was a VPI HW 40 direct drive turntable ($22k). Below it was the CAT SL1 Legend Extreme preamp with phono stage ($100k), followed by the vintage Audio Aero Capitole Classic CD Player they use every year. This year the CD player fed a LampizatOr DAC with a bright orange chassis that I couldn't identify. And on the bottom shelf was a CAT stereo power amp (JL5LE aGS Extreme, $35k). On either side of the rack was a CAT monoblock amp, probably the JL7SE aGS Extreme, $75k/pr. Also listed was the Statement aGS Extreme at $250k/pr. It looked like the smaller stereo amp was connected to the speakers when I was there. The interconnects were the Black Path aGS (amorphous gold/silver) "Hot Rods" (no shield, $8k) and the speaker cables were Black Path aGS, no price given, both from CAT.

The Clarisys Audio Studio+ full ribbon speakers ($69k from Switzerland were very attractive and I was excited to finally get a chance to hear them in a large room where I could get a good seat. (In the smaller hotel rooms where I've seen Clarysis speakers in the past, the seats have always been filled with people who didn't want to leave.) They are a full-range speaker (20Hz to 20+kHz) with a sensitivity of 88dB and an impedance of 5 Ohms. I've heard the CAT amps drive Magico speakers with ease, despite their reputation for being difficult to drive, so I expected the sound to excel here, too, with the Clarisys. It was good in a lot of technical ways, but it didn't grab me emotionally. You might think the CAT tube amps could pull some emotion out of them but I didn't feel it.

The build quality is excellent and the look is gorgeous, so I'm hoping I get a chance to hear them with some high-quality solid-state amplification. (On their website they show what looks like Solution amps driving their Atrium speakers at their Swiss showroom, so maybe that would be the way to go.) In this price range, you want to hear them before buying.

As in prior years, Ken Stevens has shared the room with Michael Griffin of Essential Sound Products, makers of the ESP Reference power cords ($2,500, 1.5m), ESP Renaissance ($5k,1.5m), and ESP Eloquence ($20k) for audiophiles – each of which is available with a power distribution box. For the pro-audio world, Michael has the MusicCord and MusicCord-PRO with a couple of variations named after well-known musicians.

Out in the hall, I had my annual chat with Ken Stevens, though he works a mere 8.5 miles from me. When I turned on my camera he scolded me for not coming by on Saturday when he was all dressed up. The key takeaway was he was hoping to get a pair of Acora speakers for his room next year. I'll have to invite him over for a listen.

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