Pacific Audio Fest 2023 Show Report
An audio triumph in the Pacific Northwest!
PAF 2023 Show Report By Greg Weaver

2219 – The Cardas Retro Flashback Lounge
Yes, there were a pair of the new JBL 100's hitched to some vintage gear, but this room wasn't about sound; it was about the music and the camaraderie that the love of music should breed among music lovers. Populated with all kinds of nostalgic 1980s items, including LPs, skateboards, lava lights, posters, other wall hangings, a TV playing MTV, a couple of Eddie Van Halen "Frankenstrat" look-alikes, and even an Apple IIe, this was just a room to decompress and enjoy each other's company.

Oh, and the offer of an adult beverage upon entry didn't hurt any, either! Thanks to Angela, Josh, and Luke for hosting a room that focused on what this industry should be about and for "getting it" in general.

2206 - Dutch & Dutch
I will say that I was looking forward to hearing the Dutch & Dutch 8c ($15,000), a connected all-in-one system, including amplification and DACs. This is a growing, logical, and intelligent approach to both limiting the space taken up by, and the total cost of a system. by reducing the number of components and connections necessary, following the successful lead of the breakthrough Kii Three. This system needs only a source, which in this room was a laptop.

Each of the two cabinets is nineteen inches tall, by ten-and-a-half inches wide, by fifteen inches deep, and weighs fifty-seven pounds. The sides and top panels are roughly three-quarter inch solid oak over a similarly thich birch internal construction, with a damped, injection-molded ABS front baffle. That front baffle holds the eight-inch midrange aluminum cone, and the one-inch aluminum/magnesium alloy dome tweeter. The rear baffle holds two eight-inch aluminum coned woofers. Besides the drivers, the 8c's small footprint presence holds high-end DACs, amps, subwoofers, and DSP capabilities. The system also includes room matching and streaming capabilities.

Powered by Class-D, power factor corrected, hybrid cooled amplification, the system features individual 250-Watt amps for the midrange and tweeter, and a 500-Watt amp for the two woofers. They have very versatile connectivity options, including balanced analog and AESe over XLR inputs, and offers AES3 loopthrough over XLR and a DSP-controlled output for active subwoofers, and is Roon ready. They have an RJ45 Ethernet connection, and after the 8c's are automatically discovered on your LAN, you'll have full control of settings like gain, distance to front and side walls, updates, and parametric filters.

As demonstrated, this system offered surprisingly rich tonality with good texture. I was quite impressed with how well it maintained its pitch definition as it descended into its very strong low-end performance. The system was well-defined and had plenty of definition and impact. I was especially taken by the way it managed to very faithfully express the weight of the piano, as well as vocal presence.

2210 – LTA, Spatial Audio Labs, And AntiCables
Walking into this room, I found an Innuos ZENmini Mk3 music server ($1,599 to $1,999), serving the wildly popular Holo Audio May KTE (or Kitsune Tuned Edition) DAC ($5,598). The delightful Linear Tube Audio Z40+ Integrated Amplifier ($7,650 to $8,250) was driving a prototype of the Spatial Audio Lab Q6 Open Baffle Loudspeaker ($4,995, with a $4,500 pre-order price as a PAF show special).

All cabling was ANTICABLES (no pricing given; instead, they ask you to see options and pricing at their site). A Puritan Audio Laboratories PSM156 Studio Master Mains Purifier ($2,300) handled AC conditioning. The room also enjoyed the use of Acoustic Sciences Corporation Tube Traps and featured Bill Stierhout's Add-Power Wizard ($1995.95) harmonic resonator. The Wizard utilizes both a toroid transformer interface to the AC line as well as some proprietary digital amplifier circuitry under algorithm control. The result is that the AC line is "re-referenced" with low-frequency harmonics to increase the S/N ratio. I'm assuming this is along the lines of some form of analog dithering, but that is just my hypothesis.

I was immediately taken by this systems absolutely superb staging and imaging, which, while shallow, as was nearly every system in these rooms, was extremely corporal. Many systems tend to lean towards offering either extremely good detail and resolution, or highlight tonality and textures. This room offered a surprisingly remarkable balance of both, exposing remarkably distinct definition, while providing plenty of texture, with nicely dense tone and body. It was a very convincing blend of rich harmonic bloom with relevant musical enumeration.

Olympic 1 – Nola And VAC
The source in this room was remarkably well put together after the planned digital system suffered excessive shipping damage on its way to the event. The role was filled by an AudioLab 9000CDT transport ($1,499), feeding the superb Ideon IΩN DAC ($17,900).

This system featured another new product introduction, with Kevin Hayes of the Valve Amplification Company introducing its new, entry-level Essence products, including the VAC Essence 80 Monoblocks ($9,000/each) and the matching VAC Essence Line Stage ($7,000). While there is also a matching Essence Phono Stage ($7,000) introduction, it was not in play at this event.

The digital front-end was isolated using the Nola split ball bearing Isolation System ($2,000/ea.), the linestage was isolated using the Nola ball bearing Isolation ($1,000), and each amplifier was isolated using the Nola Maverick Inverted ball bearing Isolator ($TBA).

Nola's Carl Marchisotto was showing the Nola Baby Grand Reference Gold 3 ($150,000/pr.), and all cables were Nordost Oden 2. And what a system!

This room offered one of the deepest, most spacious soundstages at this show. The system offered a very nice representation of musical weight and slam, with very good scaling. I was especially taken by how well horn "blat" was rendered across several examples and found the upper midrange harmonics to be exceptional. The treble was nicely rendered with delicacy and detail. This system was a standout and just missed out on inclusion in the Exceptional category.

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