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Capital Audiofest (CAF) 2022 Show Report -- CAF 2022 premium luxury audio event coverage.

Capital Audiofest (CAF) 2022 Show Report
CAF 2022 premium luxury audio event coverage.

 

Capital Audiofest (CAF) 2022 Show Report

 

  Capital Audiofest (CAF) started out in 2010 as a very casual show and has evolved into a well-organized and well-attended event. CAF is recognized as a fun, friendly, and family-oriented show where you often see families strolling from room to room listening to music and auditioning gear. You could also browse the multiple bins of vinyl LP records, CDs, and hi-fi accessories in the Atrium Marketplace. During the event there was wonderful live music plus Enjoy the Music.com sponsored the Thursday night vendor / press party with live music and free drinks for attendees! With 92 listening rooms and over 50 booths spanning more than four floors of amazing audio gear, this year marks the largest CAF to date! Capital Audiofest 2022 was held from November 11th through 13th at the Twinbrook Hilton in Rockville Maryland.

 

CAF 2022 Show Reports

Capital Audiofest 2022 Photofest Ron Nagle photofest featuring over 100 pics! CAF 2022 Show Report By Ron Nagle

Capital Audiofest 2022 Photofest
Ron Nagle photofest featuring over 100 pics!
CAF 2022 Show Report By Ron Nagle
We owe thanks to Enjoy the Music.com's Ron Nagle for taking many CAF 2022 pics. Ron loves to visit shows and chat with many of his industry friends and fans alike. He has many years of experience as a reviewer and we're happy to have his photo report of the Capital Audiofest 2022 online. With over 100 photos spanning an impressive 10 web pages, we're sure you'll see something you love. As always... enjoy the music.
---> Capital Audiofest 2022 Photofest.

 

 

Capital AudioFest 2022 Show Coverage Always fun and educational to see how things have evolved... and to see old friends. CAF 2022 Show Report By Bob Grossman

Capital AudioFest 2022 Show Coverage
Always fun and educational to see how things have evolved... and to see old friends.
CAF 2022 Show Report By Bob Grossman
The Capital Audio Fest (CAF) 2022 was a tremendously exciting experience and a musically thrilling time. My memories and thoughts of the event are filled with a sense of camaraderie, stories, humor, kindness, and welcoming sense of joie de vivre from fellow enthusiastic audiophile attendees along with the presenters in each room and hosts at the festival. My heartfelt thanks to my best friend and musical audiophile buddy Ken Sternberg that took all these pictures and shared attendance at the weekend festival. This was my first public event since the Covid Pandemic, and I felt as liberated as a prisoner being set free.
---> Capital Audio Fest 2022 Show Coverage By Bob Grossman.

 

 

Greg Weaver's CAF 2022 Show Report

The Audio Analyst's Capital Audiofest 2022 Show Report One of the best shows on the calendar, and remarkably successful too! CAF 2022 Show Report By Greg Weaver

The Audio Analyst's Capital Audiofest 2022 Show Report
One of the best shows on the calendar, and remarkably successful too!
CAF 2022 Show Report By Greg Weaver
Well, the 2022 Capital Audiofest is in the history books, and what an exceptional show it was! I got in Thursday night in time to catch the Exhibitor's Welcome Party at Olive's, the restaurant at the Twinbrook Hilton where the event is held. Enjoy the Music.com sponsors this gala annually, and for several shows. Attendance and spirits were high, hors d'oeuvres went quickly and the alcohol flowed steadily, as did the remarkable conversations and discussions. I was able to take part this year and enjoyed chatting with many manufacturers and colleagues I'd not seen face to face since before the Pandemic lockdowns of 2020!
---> The Audio Analyst's Capital Audiofest 2022 Show Report.

 

 

The Capital Audiofest 2022 Fab Five My selection of the Top Five best sounds of CAF 2022. Capital Audiofest 2022 Show Report By Greg Weaver

The Capital Audiofest 2022 Fab Five
My selection of the Top Five best sounds of CAF 2022.
Capital Audiofest 2022 Show Report By Greg Weaver
Welcome to the reveal of my Fab Five, the five most accomplished, most musically engaging systems that I encountered at this year's Capital Audiofest. Have you ever wondered criteria I use to make these selections? Well, it comes down to a symbiosis of many attributes. I listen for faithful replication of instrumental tonality, is it presented with vibrance, color, and texture? I listen for the level of authentic dynamism that a system can recreate, how well can it convey subtle nuance and shading in the most tranquil of passages, and by contrast, how faithfully is it able to portray realistic scale and dimension on the most energetic. Then too, there is the importance of resolution and the resultant transparency that it affords.
---> The Capital Audiofest 2022 Fab Five.

 

 

 

Rick Becker's Extensive CAF 2022 Show Report

Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022 Rick Begins... 6th Floor Part A Show Report By By Rick Becker

Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022
Rick Begins... 6th Floor Part A
Show Report By By Rick Becker
A year ago there were maybe 45 rooms at Capital Audiofest and almost everyone wore a mask. Then Gary Gill quit his day job and helped organize the Pacific Audio Fest in Seattle that occurred in August. This past weekend, Capital jumped up to the league occupied by AXPONA and featured around 92 rooms. It was a big-league show, at least by North American standards. Enjoy the Music.com sponsored an industry get-together on Thursday night for the people who toiled that day setting up their rigs. I rolled into town, arriving an hour late for the event after making two wrong turns without the aid of GPS or a co-pilot. Gary offered me several tickets for drinks. I picked one and the bartender set me up with a Fat Tire. I milled around, bumping elbows, and snapped a few photos.
---> Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022 Rick Begins... 6th Floor Part A. 

 

 

Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022 Rick continues with the 6th Floor Part B.

Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022
Rick continues with the 6th floor Part B.
Show Report By Rick Becker
Here a Margules I-240 tube integrated power amp ($6k), operating in Class A, produces 25 Watts into 8 Ohms per channel to drive a tall Scansonic speaker nicely with good resolution and very nice bloom. Below that was a Margules DAC or streamer. An RSX Max Power Cord ($1850) was identified, but the information was sparse. The Scansonic speaker, a more affordable sub-brand of Raidho from Denmark, seemed to be their flagship MB6 B model. In the next AV Luxury Group room was a Raidho Acoustics TD2.2speaker driven by a Jeff Rowland 1500 Wpc Daemon Super Integrated amp. That was a beautiful Oracle CD player on top of an Aurender n20 streamer and on the shelf below that was Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Reference Series 3 that was running with a USB re-clocker behind it.
---> Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022 6th Floor Part B.

 

 

Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022 Fine music on the 5th floor Part A. Show Report By By Rick Becker

Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022
Fine music on the 5th floor Part A.
Show Report By By Rick Becker
Jarred Dunkerson of Black Ice was in when I visited and this year he was running his Black Ice gear with Klipsch Forte IV speakers, a popular speaker among entry-level audiophiles who are likely to aspire to the Black Ice gear. Last year I was particularly impressed with the Fusion F360 preamp which has controls for the spatial imaging of the soundscape. The Foz Phono Stage below it has individual adjustments for left and right channels as well as a bypass. His new introduction was the black Aries headphone amp with built-in DAC projected to be $2500 to $3k, with two phone jacks that will appear early next year.
---> Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022 5th floor Part A.

 

 

Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022 Beautiful sounds on the 5th Floor Part B. Show Report By Rick Becker

Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022
Beautiful sounds on the 5th Floor Part B.
Show Report By Rick Becker
After a quick trip to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving and a couple of wins by the Buffalo Bills, let's get back to the 5th Floor of the Hilton. Alma Music and Audio is an established purveyor of high-end lines in San Diego, CA, that has, or soon will open a store just across the Potomac River from Rockville in Sterling, VA. The first of several Alma rooms sounded very good with Qln Signature monitors in a piano burl walnut finish ($24k) on stands (($2k). This was a gorgeous speaker that begged the question "Why not just have a floorstander?" at this price. They were driven by a pair of Nagra Classic stereo/mono amps ($19.5 each) and a Nagra Classic tube preamp with a separate power supply ($19.5k).
---> Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022 5th Floor Part B.

 

 

Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022 Thoughts on the 3rd floor listening rooms. CAF 2022 Show Report By Rick Becker

Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022
Thoughts on the 3rd floor listening rooms.
CAF 2022 Show Report By Rick Becker
I promised I'd be going to the big rooms in this chapter but I forgot about the ten hotel rooms on the opposite side of the Atrium from the Lobby & Registration. Let's deal with those first. At the Toronto show, I got to see a real Audio Note UK Ongaku amp and lamented that I have never heard one. I almost had my wish come true here with the Audio Note Tomei integrated amp ($59,600) which is identical except for using silver-plated copper instead of all silver wiring. At the front end was a TT Three turntable with PSU1 ($9410) equipped with an Arm Three/II tonearm ($2465) and an IQ 3 MM phono cartridge. This trickled down to their R Zero phono stage ($2035). On the digital side was their CD5.1 integrated CD player ($30,850).
---> Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022 3rd Floor.

 

 

Capital Audiofest 2022 Show Report Musical mastery within the 3rd floor Meeting Rooms.

Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022
Musical mastery within the 3rd floor Meeting Rooms.
CAF 2022 Show Report By Rick Becker
In this edition of the Chronicles, I cover the meeting rooms on the 3rd Floor, following along in a logical path starting in the lobby over by Olive's Restaurant. There were three basic room sizes here. The first few, including a dozen of the total, were what I call 'standard-size' meeting rooms. Most of these were very good-sounding rooms as they were put together by long-established companies with many of the best names in High-End. If I didn't identify the size of the room, assume it was a standard size meeting room. Then, at the other end of the spectrum were what I call 'large' rooms. There were four of them and three of those four were problematic while the fourth was somewhat below their typical performance.
---> Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022 3rd Floor Meeting Rooms.

 

 

Best Of Capital Audiofest 2022

Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022
3rd Floor Meeting Rooms, Atrium, Plus The Best Rooms At CAF 2022!
CAF 2022 Show Report By Rick Becker
I've heard Acora speakers at RMAF, Axpona, Montreal, Toronto, and the previous Capital Audiofest and in most (if not all) instances they've been among the Best Rooms I've awarded at each show. Valerio Cora has done a very nice job of mixing up the rig and selecting which of his three speakers to present according to the size of the room he was in. At Axpona earlier this year the rig was over half-million dollars. Here at the Capital Audiofest 2022 show, it was toned down considerably. And while it was a very fine-sounding room, it seemed to fall below his normal excellence. This was one of the four big rooms and I felt none of them were outstanding. From my past exposure to Acora speakers, I have no doubt the room was the culprit.
---> CAF 2022 3rd Floor Meeting Rooms, Atrium, Plus The Best Rooms!

 

 

 

Enjoy the Music.com Sponsors Capital Audiofest  2022 Happy Hour

Enjoy the Music.com Sponsors Capital Audiofest 2022 Happy Hour
Enjoy the Music.com, high-end audio's celebrated online site since 1995 and a leader in providing industry news, gear reviews, and show reports is pleased to announce that we're sponsoring Capital Audiofest's 'Happy Hour'. Vendors and members of the press will join us for complimentary food and beverage on Thursday night. Enjoy the Music.com loves luxury premium audio, and so we're inviting both exhibitors and members of the press to join us from 6:00 pm through 8:00 pm at the Hilton Hotel Olive's Restaurant / Bar on Thursday night. We look forward to seeing you there!
---> Enjoy the Music.com Sponsors Capital Audiofest 2022 Happy Hour.

 

 

 

Pre-CAF Video From Our Senior Editor Greg Weaver

 

 

More About CAF 2022
CAF has opened up many new floors during 2022 with over 150 exhibitors representing hundreds of premium luxury audio brands from around the world. There may also be over 50 Atrium Marketplace vendors including at least two dozen vinyl/LP sellers, making the show a veritable Record Fair. Qobuz may once again set up a Listening Lounge in the Plaza II Ballroom, for show-goers to sample streaming and turntable set-ups with headphones, and just hang out and chill, with free Wi-Fi.

 

Capital Audiofest (CAF) 2019 Show Report

 

Amazing Prizes And Giveaways!
Various giveaways every night and many of the exhibitors will have special Demo times, Show Specials and other promotions.

 

 

Qobuz Sponsors Capital Audiofest 2022
Qobuz, the music lover's go-to for true lossless Hi-Res Music streaming and download platform, will be the official sponsor of the Capital Audiofest in Washington DC. Qobuz will be featured in many of the best rooms and VP of Business Development and Chief Hi-Res Music Evangelist David Solomon will be working the floors, giving a seminar, and performing multiple flash DJ sessions a day. For this conference, David Solomon's seminar will cover the topic of getting the most out of lossless Hi-Resolution Music streaming. After the session, attendees will be invited to a special flash DJ session in The Audio Company room (which consistently wins Best of Show at events nationwide), featuring the best from Von Schweikert speakers and VAC electronics.

 

 

Show Schedule
Show Day 1
Friday, November 11
12pm to 8pm: CAF Open to General Public

Show Day 2
Saturday, November 12
10am to 6pm: CAF Open to General Public

Show Day 3
Sunday, November 13
10am to 4pm: CAF Open to General Public

 

Where
Hilton Hotel Rockville
Located at the Twinbrook Metro Station
1750 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852

 

 

Previous Capital Audiofest Show Reports
Enjoy the Music.com's previous CAF coverage includes Capital Audiofest 2021, Capital Audiofest 2019, Capital Audiofest 2018, CAF/CanMania 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, and 2012 High-End Audio Show Report.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     
 

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