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

Cascade11 – Joseph, Doshi, And Cardas
An Aurender A20 Server/DAC ($15,000) served up files, while a modified Technics Open Reel (with a new JRF magnetic sciences Flux Magnetics head installation) fed a Doshi Audio Tape Stage ($19,995) for open reel playback. Electronics were the Doshi Audio Evolution Line Stage ($19,995), and the Doshi Audio Evolution Mono Amplifiers ($41,995/pr).

Speakers were the Joseph Audio Pearl Graphene's ($44,999/pr), and all cabling and power distribution was from Cardas, with the Clear Beyond interconnects and speaker cables, the Clear Beyond XL Power Cords, and their Nautilus Power Strips.

If you've followed my show reports, it should be clear that the symbiosis between Nick Doshi's exquisite electronics with Jeff Joseph's beautiful loudspeakers is routinely magical. And that pairing may never have been better than at this year's AXPONA 2023.

And yet again, here in Seattle, the system offered its undeniable sense of ease and naturalness while being equally capable of delivering music with all its relevant detail. The stage width was staggering wide, yet not in an exaggerated manner, with both accurate placement of instruments, presented with a solid location and corporal body. Listening to Dylan's "Man in the Long Black Coat" was haunting!

Evergreen Foyer – Baun
I first met the gifted speaker designer extraordinaire Benno BaunMeldgaard when he was the owner and designer of Denmark's GamuT products. I was lucky enough to live with and review the GamuT flagship loudspeaker, the Zodiac – which was on display in the Evergreen 4 Room at this show; more on that to follow. Benno sold GamuT to Dantex of Denmark, which represents GamuT, Raidho, and Scansonic. For a while, he worked redesigning and upgrading the Raidho line of products, with great success, before moving on to design briefly at The Gryphon. He has since moved out on his own to form Baun, a new speaker company where he is developing a whole new concept for his loudspeakers.

We saw the enclosure that will embody the first Baun loudspeaker, the Hydra, which should be ready later this fall. This is one new loudspeaker that I am eagerly awaiting and will report on as soon as it is available to me. And Benno was kind enough to find the time to share a brief video interview discussing the technology behind this new, very promising loudspeaker, which will be available on my channel soon.

The Exceptional
1370 – Innuos
Friday night presented me with a first. Valerio Cora, founder of Acora Acoustics Corporation and the director of the privately-owned Delaware-based company AR Tube Audio Corporation, who just purchased the Audio Research Corporation (ARC), had invited me to deliver one of my After-Hours Music Sessions in that room. There was one hitch! I normally play LPs from my collection, and this room would be all-digital only! After thinking about it, I told Val that I'd love to give it a try. I searched my NAS for some of my favorite digital files, ranging from 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC to DSD256, and we spent nearly three hours, with a full room, jamming to great music. I got to share some behind-the-scenes stories about some of the music, and everyone in attendance, me included, had an absolute blast.

The front end included the Innuos Statement Music Server with Next-Gen Power Supply ($21,700), the Innuos Pulsar Network Player ($6,899), and an Innuos PhoenixNET Audiophile Network Switch ($3,749) for streaming, all feeding the Audio Research DAC9 ($10,000).

Electronics included the Audio Research Reference Phono 3SE Phono Stage ($22,500), Reference 6SE Line Stage Preamplifier ($19,500) and the beautiful Audio Research REF 160M Mono Amps ($38,000/pr). Speakers were the recently introduced Acora Acoustics VRC-1 loudspeakers ($218,000/pr). The VRC-1 is a 430-pound truncated pyramid fabricated in Acora's signature granite that stands about fifty-two inches tall and is rated at 95dB/W/m efficiency and 4 Ohms nominal.

They use what appears to be a pair of twelve-inch paper cone woofers down low on the front baffle and two five-and-a-quarter inch paper midranges, one above, and one below, the one-inch dome tweeter near the top of the front baffle, D'Appolito style. I'm guessing at the driver info, as I've seen nothing officially describing the drivers used. Frequency response is given as being flat from 18 Hz to 40 kHz, with useful output down as low as 16 Hz.

The room was treated liberally with ASC Tube Traps, the gear rested on the Acora Acoustics racks ($8,500), and the system used all Cardas Audio Cables and Nautilus Power Strips.

But our listening session on Friday evening was both well attended and an absolute blast. I played some of my favorite classic rock, with a mix of some prog metal thrown in just to liven things up to an absolutely wonderful and gracious crowd. Everyone was as equally taken with the playlist as they were by the sound in this space, which was much smaller than the Acora VRC-1 has previously been shown in.

The system seemed to be remarkably well-balanced across any and all playback levels. And let me tell you, Val likes it loud, maybe even a bit louder than yours truly! But we had a variety of showgoers, manufacturers, and journalists in attendance over the three hours of the session, and everyone was taken with the sound and the show. Thanks for the invite, Val! You and I had as much fun as the rest of the crowd!

Evergreen 4 – Ideon, JMF, And Gamut
Beyond getting to catch up with my good friend Michael Vamos, the principal of Audio Skies distribution in Los Angeles, there would also be the promise of several world premieres, and even more North American premieres, from JMF Audio of France and Ideon Audio of Greece.

Digital was again provided by the exceptional Ideon Absolute suite, including the Absolute Stream server ($20,000), the world premiere of the Absolute Signature V re-clocker ($22,000), and the Absolute Epsilon DAC ($47,000). This was also the North American premiere of their EOS DAC, but no price was given.

Electronics included the North American premiere of JMF Audio's new PRS 1.5 dual-mono preamplifier and the world premiere of the JMF Audio HQS 7001 mono power amplifiers ($77,000/pair). While the show also featured the World premiere of the JMF Audio PHS 7.2 Dual-mono phono stage (again, no price given), there was no analog front end in this system with which to demo it.

Loudspeakers were the enchanting GamuT Zodiacs ($175,000/pair), the creation of then GamuT owner and designer Benno Baun Meldgaard – the same cat I talked about who is developing the new speakers at Baun. He and Michael had been to my home to install a pair of Zodiacs for me to review and live for over a year back in 2016-2017.

Equipment sat on the HRS EXR-Doublewide-3V rack ($10,295) and M3X2 amp stands ($14,165). The cabling was mostly from JMF and included their SR8 Speaker cables ($16,000/2.5 meters), their CM4 XLR interconnects ($5,000/1.5 meters), and their PC3 power cables ($5,000/1.5 meters). One exception was the Shunyata Omega USB cable ($3,500/1.5 meters). The JMF Audio PCD 102 Power line filter ($19,000) addressed power cleanup.

Michael had invited me to share some of my music with listeners in this room Saturday afternoon starting at 5:00 PM, and we ran a little past the show's closing time. But the sound regenerated by this system was simply exquisite, placing it among the most engaging and finest-sounding rooms at Pacific Audio Fest 2023. It offered insanely good resolution with an amazing sense of soundstage depth and a delicacy to vocal inflection that was infectious, and its dynamic expressiveness and scaling were absolutely world-class. I'm looking forward to reviewing the JMF Line stage and amplifiers in the near future.

And Michael was kind enough to let me shoot a video interview about this room, with a walk-through discussing the technology – and a recording of the system, which will also be featured on my Channel very soon.

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