Inside CAF 2025 Luxury Hi-Fi Show Part 1 — Capital Audiofest's Top Floors With 84 Rooms
New trends you need to know about, the latest audio gear, and not to be missed rooms!
Capital Audiofest 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker

GT Audio Works
GT Audio Works displayed a tall planar magnetic speaker mated with open baffle subwoofers. Finished in light wood, this was the most finished version of their open baffle speaker I've seen over many years. The grille of one driver on the subwoofer was removed for display purposes, but the use of grille foam greatly enhances the look of these open baffle subs.

There was no sheet for this room, but those look like Westminster Labs monoblocks on the large black platforms. Those look like rather large tubes on what might be the Tara 30 preamplifier. The LampizatOr DAC was the Genya with trickle-down technology from their flagship and no frills in order to make a potent, singular-purpose DAC at a more reasonable price. On the bottom shelf was a Sonore Signature Rendu.

Robyatt Audio
Robin Wyatt put together a visually and audibly delightful room that I found to be a lot of fun to listen to.

The Simco One loudspeaker ($15,950) was an eye and ear catcher, seeming to be a domesticated Altec Voice of the Theater with a mid-century modern flair. If not a perfectly flat response, it had plenty of resolution and dynamics to make it very engaging—enough to make you want to get up and dance.

Some fun options to make the Simcoe One fit into a variety of décor.

Robin had a variety of novel toys to show me, such as his Step-up-Transformer above.

The tonearm was listed as a 12" Neumann DZT SAK, modified, I believe, by Alfred Bokrand. It is based on the original Neumann DZT from the 1950s. It is also available in a 297mm mounting distance. It featured an adjustment to let you extend the arm to accommodate headshells, SME/SPU-G, SPU-A, Daniel Kim, and Neumann DST 62. Above you see it closed with a ZYX headshell; below you see it extended. It also allows for azimuth adjustment, I believe. Search for the YouTube under Alfred Bokrand tonearms.

Robin tweaked the tonearm weight by drilling it out and inserting weights that would keep the azimuth correct once it has been set.

The turntable is listed as a direct drive VPI "in a can", but I should have asked more questions about it. Note the thick copper platter mat ($1650).

Robin delights in chatting up his rig for visitors.

The $450 Finley distribution box was on sale for $400. It features solid copper bars and contact points that are first silver, then rhodium-plated. The wiring is their top Cirrus series wire, which is a blend of silver and copper. I was invited to insert a power cord and remove it, and I found it to be as tight as any of the top brands of duplex outlets I have used. Finley cables and their clever cable risers were used throughout the system in this room.

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