Capital Audiofest (CAF) 2023 Show Report
CAF 2023 premium luxury audio event coverage.

  Capital Audiofest (CAF) is the Northeast's favorite audio show! CAF started out in 2010 as a very casual show and has evolved into a well-organized and well-attended event that most everyone in the audio industry knows about. CAF is recognized as a fun, friendly and family-oriented show, where you often see families strolling from room to room listening to music, auditioning gear and browsing the multiple bins of vinyl records, CDs and accessories in the Atrium Marketplace. In the evenings we have live music in the bar and special live performers in the Theater, and local distillers offering tasting.

During the event was wonderful live music plus Enjoy the Music.com once again sponsored the Thursday night vendor / press party with free pizza and beer! In 2022 CAF had 92 listening rooms and over 50 booths spanning more than four floors of amazing audio gear, which was the largest CAF to date!

CAF 2023 Show Reports

Cruisin' 'Round The Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report
CAF 2023 was an amazing event!
CAF 2023 Show Report By Bob Grossman
The show circuit is expanding and growing in a big-time way with new and larger events occurring around various regions within the USA. The Capital Audio Fest (CAF) has expanded by 30% with well over 100 vendors in converted hotel rooms spread over four floors along with nearly 40 vendor booths crowded around the huge, large open floor of the Atrium. This weekend-long event also included many presentations and discussions from industry representatives covering topics about equipment designs, audio company developments, record production, and turntable setups. The range of products and displays ran the full gamut from beginner entry and budget types of affordable systems to extreme state-of-the-art presentations with massive sizes of speakers and myriad racks of dazzling equipment.
---> Cruisin' 'Round The Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report.

Rick Becker's Extensive CAF 2023 Coverage

Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part 1
The 8th Floor Part A
Show Report By Rick Becker
Wednesday night before the show I finished my nominations of Best Rooms at the Toronto Audiofest that had taken place just three weekends earlier. Thursday morning I loaded my CD player and an old Counterpoint amp into the Shooting Brake and headed south for Rockville at noon. By 6 p.m. I was in heavy traffic driving into Frederick, MD, and by 7 p.m. I was at the Hilton looking for the open bar sponsored by Enjoy the Music.com. Well, the bar at the Hilton was obviously too sedate for anything sponsored by Enjoy the Music.com. I asked around and learned the party was at a local bar about 100 yards to the east of the Hilton in a little strip mall. I walked over....
---> Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part 1.

Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part 2
The 8th Floor Part B
Show Report By Rick Becker
Rounding 2nd Bass was Room 833 which was the second AV Luxury Group room at the show. Bayz is based in Hungary, but manufacturing is done in Denmark. I've raved about the design before and mentioned that only the solid granite base of their speakers is the heavy part. It is not as difficult to install as it may seem. This is maybe the fourth show where I've seen it and I've grown accustomed to its unique presence. It is as much a piece of sculpture as it is a loudspeaker once you've become accustomed to it. As an omni-directional speaker (the sound radiates from the ultralight tubular tweeter that connects the ends of the large tube, right where the two woofers are mounted. So basically, this is just a two-way design with a very high-tech tweeter and exceptionally fast woofers. As you would expect from an omni design, the listening is good throughout the room. And the room need not be humongous as was proven here.
---> Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part 2.

Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part 3
The 7th Floor Part A
Show Report By Rick Becker
Percy Chase — remember that name — drifted into Capital Audiofest just like "A Sheep Out On The Foam" with a couple of prototype speakers that defy his background. I probably saw him in the room, but never suspected he was the Ultra-DIY person behind these two speakers that looked ready for Prime Time. I'm not sure I even heard them play. I have no video notes and no spec sheet for the room. I snapped a couple of shots and picked up a slick brochure, pressing on without even looking at it. As I read it over in my office I'm thinking "Good grief! Who is this company?" There is no website, address, or phone number. But these were not speakers built out of the back of a van. Each is a two-way design, though all the drivers are different. One has a soft dome tweeter, the other an "accordion-type" diaphragm driver.
---> Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part 3.

Capital Audiofest 2023 Show Report / Chronicles Part 4
The 7th Floor Part B
Show Report By Rick Becker
In their second room, Just Audio went further upstream with Spendor Classic 100 three-way stand-mount speakers ($14,800) speakers and an all-Cyrus Audio rig.
Seen here, paired up on standard-width shelves, was the current generation of Cyrus gear which I've found at other shows to be a noticeable improvement over the previous generation. Cyrus also has their own dedicated stand which stacks their components one above the other in a smaller footprint. I've also seen this gear parked side-by-side across a sofa table for a most elegant presentation. New, to me at least, was this TTP turntable with an integrated DC motor ($5800) with what looked like a Rega tonearm. I'd like to tell you how this rig sounded, but there was no music playing at the time and no host present.
---> Capital Audiofest Chronicles 2023 Part 4.

More Capital Audiofest 2023 show coverage will be online shortly, so check back daily for more.

Enjoy the Music.com Sponsors Capital Audiofest 2023
Enjoy the Music.com, premium audio's celebrated online site since 1995 and a leader in providing over 24 years of industry news, thousands of gear reviews, and more than 280 show reports, is pleased to announce that for the second year in a row, we're sponsoring the Capital Audiofest's Thursday night 'Happy Hour' before the event opens to the public. Scheduled to take place from November 10th through 12th at the Twinbrook Hilton in Rockville (Maryland), vendors and members of the press may join us for complimentary pizza and craft beer on Thursday night. Enjoy the Music.com loves luxurious premium high-end audio, and so we're inviting both exhibitors and members of the press to join us from 6 PM through 8 PM at the Rockville Pike – Craft Beer and Fine Wine, which is located next door to the Hilton Hotel. We look forward to seeing you there!
---> Enjoy the Music.com Sponsors Capital Audiofest 2023.

More About CAF 2023
CAF  opened up many new floors during 2022, and again in 2023, to make room for 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.

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

Show Schedule
Friday, November 10   10pm to 6pm
Saturday, November 11   10am to 6pm
Sunday, November 12   10am to 4pm

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 (CAF) 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, CAF / CanMania 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, and 2012.