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

Devialet
Jonathan Destouches from Devialet was very informative and gave me a more complete story than I obtained at their room in Toronto. Devialet is making a resurgent effort in North America with the introduction of its new Astra model. It is an all-in-one device with a phono stage, DAC, streamer, pre, and power amp for $20k. It is also available in a gold-leaf "Opera National de Paris" finish for $25k for those who demand haute couture product. The standard finish is also available bundled with a YG Acoustics Carmel Mk III speaker (MKI reviewed here) in that same finish (Astra $20k, speaker $30k). A single Astra puts out 300 Wpc in Class D, but a pair were used as monoblocks delivering 600 Watts each to drive the YG speakers (not that they needed that much power.)

The Devialet full-range speaker next to the YG is an active speaker that uses the same technology as the Astra (DAC, phono stage, pre and power amps.) The YG Carmel is a great speaker for those who want an unimposing speaker for a smaller room, yet it will play large, too.

ReVox Deutschland GmbH
The Revox room featured a Trompe-l'śil backdrop that maybe fooled the eye, but did not fool the ear. Nonetheless, the music was good, sourced from their reborn B-77 Mk III tape deck.

What surprised me here was that the entire rig (except maybe the cables) was from Revox.

Prior to Revox re-entering the U.S. market about a year ago, I didn't even know they made a turntable. While it looks like an entry-level table with its straightforward architecture and dust cover, coming from Switzerland, it is priced well above entry-level. It's also nice that it doesn't weigh 300 pounds.

There was a limited edition of Alice Cooper tape decks and turntables that put thousands of dollars into Alice's coffers for each one sold. It featured a classic image of Alice not unlike the poster shown here. I was hoping to see one in person, but I was told there were only two such tape decks left at the time of the show. They will likely draw a premium on the used market when their current owners give up the ghost. If there are any left, they can be ordered through the Revox website.

2WA Group
2WA Group is a new name for two well-known distributors, Fidelis Distribution and Nexus Audio Technologies, who have joined forces. The principals are Walter Schofield and Walter Swanbon. I got to meet their PR guy, Adam Sohmer, who has been on my radar for at least a decade.

The system playing when I visited wasn't comprised entirely of brands they represent—the  VPI turntable and the small Aurender, specifically. The Trilogy preamp and monoblocks were quite familiar from the Canadian shows, but the Aequo speakers from the Netherlands were new and certainly deserve to be reviewed, given their $50k price.

On the bottom shelf was likely an Ideon DAC hiding behind the LPs, which is one of the highly regarded 2WA brands.

On the side wall was a second rig with Falcon monitors driven by SPL electronics, which I've also heard frequently at the Canadian shows.

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