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

The Tower
1375 – Audio-Ultra
Greater Seattle area retailer Audio-Ultra's Edward DeVito showed a similar system to the one he presented very successfully at AXPONA this year, both in a smaller space and again with remarkable results. CH Precision's Head of International Sales, Kevin Wolff, was on hand running the demos in the smaller listening room, with Ed holding court with show-goers in the larger anti-room.

The system was sourced with either the Aurender N20 music server ($12,500) or the CH Precision 01.5 SACD / CD Transport / Player ($41,000). Also on hand was the remarkable Ideon Absolute suite, my current reference system, including the Ideon Absolute Epsilon Stream ($19,900), the upgraded clock, the Ideon Absolute Epsilon Time Signature V ($22,000), and the Ideon Absolute Epsilon DAC ($47,000).

Electronics were from CH Precision, including the l1 Line Stage ($34,500) and the A 1.5 amplifier - in stereo mode ($39,500), powered by their X1 Dual Power Supply ($20,500). Speakers were the entry-level Magico A1 two-way monitors in silver ($9,800) sitting on the Sound Anchor A1 stands ($572)!

Ed is one of the strongest proponents I know of the value of providing the cleanest power possible to a system, as he clearly understands how important that is to the result of any system. As such his room featured the Audio-Ultra Ultra Series 3000 portable sub-panel ($6,500), the SOtM Network Switch (loaded): sNH-10G with ClK-EX ($1,910), the SOtM Power Supply (loaded): sPS-500 ($920) and a SOtM Master Clock (loaded): sClK-OCX10 ($3,620).

Other accessories included a StromTank Quantum 2500 MKII ($27,500), and all cabling was from Audioquest, including Dragon, Thunderbird, and Pegasus Mythical series, using a Solidsteel S5 Audio Rack & S3 Amp Stands ($1,424), and Magico QPod Footers ($1,450/set of three).

While the room had its issues, the system performed remarkably well. I was struck by several things, including the insanely great texture, tonality, and corporality of the vocals with demos of Finneas and Buddy Holly tracks. This system's ability to portray a sense of openness and space was sublimely apparent and freaky.

Cascade 1 – Gershman Acoustics
Somehow, my pix of this room mysteriously vanished from my gallery of PAF images. However, this large-ish room on the second floor regularly altered its presentation between the Gershman XdB monitor on stands (S12,000) and the slight-ish yet floor-standing 30th Anniversary edition of the Gershman Grand Avant Garde loudspeakers ($18,000).

Music was sourced from the Wolf Audio Systems Alpha 3 SX music server ($10,495), the Pass Labs INT 250 integrated amplifier ($12,000) drove whichever pair of speakers were in use, and all cabling was Clear Beyond series from the Cardas Audio.

At just 39" tall and weighing only 82 pounds, with its gracefully tapered, truncated cabinet and sloping baffle, the 30th Anniversary Grand Avant Garde utilizes a one-inch soft-dome tweeter, a five-and-a-quarter inch carbon-fiber midrange, and an eight-inch dual-coil aluminum woofer. It also features Eli's new Patent Pending BCT, or Back-wave Control Technology design.

Essentially, in addition to the resistive line in the main bass enclosure, the speaker sits atop and vents into the shallow, ECT rectangular base that helps to create a pressure differential between it and the main cabinet. By venting the woofer's back wave into this additional "trap," it is "tricked" into "seeing" a larger volume, enhancing its ability to dissipate the rear wave, reducing intermodulation distortion and re-radiation back into the cone, and giving it about a 3 dB boost in output.

I was immediately drawn in by this system's surprisingly intimate presentation. As well as offering a disarming liquidity and remarkably faithful tone, its ability to present instrumental and vocal individuality was exceptional, placing it among the best performers in this price range that I have heard. Their unusually fine resolution, combined with this remarkable tonality and subtle dimensionality, afforded both a wonderful sense of the space of recordings and an enhanced level of musical transparency.

Finally, I was quite surprised by their extended and articulate bass performance, especially for their given size, driver complement, and the size of the Cascade room. The result was an exceptionally engaging and musical presentation. Well done.

Cascade 9 – Genesis Advanced Technologies
Saturday morning saw me arriving an hour before the show opened at the Cascade 9 space to meet with Genesis Advanced Technologies CEO and Chief Designer Gary Koh. This year, Gary had a treat for us all as he unveiled the Genesis Prime+ in its premier showing, his all-out assault on loudspeaker design that is the tenth Generation of the legendary Infinity Reference Standard. First designed by Arnie Nudell at Infinity for in-house reference in 1977, customer interest in the internal experimental speaker saw a commercial release of the IRS in 1980.

The Prime+ is comprised of four seven-and-a-half foot towers, two mid/treble wings, and two woofer towers. Each Wing has twenty-six one-inch ring radiator tweeters, twenty front-facing, and six more on the back, and uses a seventy-five-inch tall midrange ribbon! Each woofer tower has twelve twelve-inch ribbed aluminum servo-controlled woofers, six front-facing and six rear-firing. The system includes amplification and servo control circuitry to greatly help limit overhang, bloat, lack of tautness and definition, and a blurring of dynamic impact.

This new 2023 Prime+ adds an acoustic suspension system for the base of each enclosure to help decouple them from the influence of floor-borne vibrations, a new suspension system for the wings to decouple them from the midrange/tweeter panel, an improved Corian / HMWA sandwich for the midrange / tweeter panel, an improved carbon fiber/marine plywood / medium density fiberboard / high-density fiberboard constrained-layer sandwich for the wings and woofer towers, and an all-new re-designed crossover with improved capacitors.

The entire system included the VPI Avenger Direct Turntable ($36,000), with two arms, first the Genesis Wand of Origin with its interface cable ($TBA) and the Hyper Analogue Sonic X4 Cartridge ($TBA). The second arm was a VPI Prototype Tonearm ($TBA) fitted with the VPI Shyla Cartridge ($2,000). Two phono stages were employed, including the Genesis Premium Platinum Phonostage ($24,000), and the VPI Avenger Phono Battery Phonostage ($7,000).

Two open reel decks provided tape playback, a Studer A810 Tape Deck - at 30ips (priceless), and the Audio Analog Design TP-1000 Tape Deck - at 15ips ($20,000). The linestage was the Viola Sonata Preamplifier ($22,000), and a pair of Genesis Anniversary Monoblock Amplifiers ($28,500) were driving the mid-treble panels of the Genesis Prime+ Loudspeaker ($680,000/pair).

The gear sat on the Genesis Foundation Audio Racks (2 @ $15,000 each), power was managed by a Puritan Studio Master 156 Power Conditioner ($2,300), with the Puritan Groundmaster City Ground Conditioner ($290) in play, and a Puritan PSI08 Power Distribution system ($1,200) handled allocation of the power.

All cabling was from Genesis, including the Genesis Absolute Fidelity Power & Component Interfaces (3 @ $2,750 each), power Interfaces (starting at $2,750 for a 1.5m cord), Component Interfaces ($3,000 per 1.5m pair), and loudspeaker Interfaces ($5,000 per 2m pair).

The sense of effortlessness delivered by this colossal system is undeniable, and its dynamic scaling and nuance are just unbelievable. Staging presented some instruments seemingly as much as ten feet behind the front wall, and it offered a super wide stage, not just a single ten-inch wide sweet spot.

I was pleased to be able to present more detail on this world-premiere speaker system on my the audio analyst YouTube channel.

---> Next Page.