Capital AudioFest Chronicles 2022
3rd Floor Meeting Rooms, Atrium, Plus The Best Rooms At CAF 2022!
CAF 2022 Show Report By Rick Becker

Atrium Level Room & Booths
Walking past Olive's Restaurant into the main foyer, I descended the stairs into the Atrium. I'll cover the three large rooms off the Atrium first, but hang in there for my coverage of a few of the booths which had some very informative presentations. Following that will be my selection of the Best Rooms at the show.

Potomac Room  The Audio Company  (VAC, VonSchweikert, et. al.)
This is the big room that most reviewers rave about. It's huge, it draws lots of listeners, it is glamorous in a techy sort of way and it sounds pretty impressive for a room that qualifies as a ballroom. It's a wonderful room to visit but it is an audiophile equivalent to a debutant ball. Most of us don't live on this scale in real life. And personally, I prefer to listen to music in a more intimate setting.

VAC amplification, Von Schweikert speakers (and subwoofers behind the curtains), Esoteric and Aurender digital front end, Kronos turntable (with a Hana Umami Red cartridge, only $3,900). That totaled almost $791,000, but there was no price given for the Critical Mass Ultra Q racks (They're expensive.) or the very lengthy Masterbuilt Ultra cables, which are also very expensive. I'm out of my league, but I'd guess it's easily more than a million-dollar rig. The folks at the audio company will be happy to talk with you if you're interested. And they can help you downsize this rig if your room or your budget isn't quite this large.

VAC History
In the proscenium between the glass wall of the Potomac Room and the floor of the Atrium was an interesting display of early VAC amplifiers with a bit of their history thrown in.

Shown above is the first VAC amp, constructed in three separate chassis. The small print reads:

Designed and constructed by Channing and Kevin Hayes between 1987 and 1990, this 35-Watt/channel modular amplifier was the seed that in late 1990 grew into VAC's first products, the PA45 and PA90.

This humble display shows why I relish covering upstart companies at audio shows. You never know who is going to become the next star of this niche industry. Kevin got started just before I stumbled into the High End in 1991, and I first met him when his amps were powering the first Magico stand-mounted monitors carved out of layers of plywood — two companies that have come a long, long way since that time.

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