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

High Water Sound
Jeff Catalano shook things up, as he does at most shows, with new gear and speakers placed along the long wall. An analog source is a constant in his award-winning rooms. Jeffrey has a sense of interior design that equals the design excellence of the components he sells. His rooms are a "must see" even if you can't afford the goods.

The preamp, amp, and speakers were from Zeiler Audio, a boutique manufacturer in Switzerland. The power amp on the left puts out 10 Wpc in triode mode from a Tung Sol KT150 tube from Russia. The preamp is on the right. The speakers, with a full-range driver and high efficiency, were very dynamic.

The Torqueo Audio turntable with a Glanz arm and Ortofon SPU cartridge has a contemporary look heavily inspired by mid-century modern. The very real Shun Mook legacy record clamp puts a finishing touch on the sound.

Gramophone
This is the Gramophone with brick and mortar stores in Maryland and Washington, DC, though with Vince Bruzzese from Totem Acoustics as host, you might have thought about the Gramophone in Edmonton, Canada.

The system here was very straightforward but appeared to have a Chord preamp and power amp, rather than the Chord Ultima Integrated amp mentioned by the poster. It also included an AudioQuest power conditioner on the bottom shelf. Overall, this was a good, real-world system that seemed to draw a lot of attention both times I stopped in.

It was great to shake hands with Vince again, as I rarely get to see him at the Canadian shows, where I always get to his room on Sundays when he has turned the room over to his son for the day. That's Vince on the right, and another friend, David Solomon, formerly with Qobuz, and now with Gramophone, standing on the left.

Infigo Audio
I noticed the Infigo Blue Slipper footers on the gear here were offered at a show special price. The components include both the clear and aluminum top plates, if you wish to change them at any time.

I see the special silver paint job was a cool $5k upcharge.

KLAUDIO And PranaFidelity
Someone had a sense of humor to post a note reading "Look at this guy's rack!" right below the peephole on this gorgeous wood door. It certainly raised my curiosity, but I was destined to enter anyway.

It was a surprise to find Steven Norber of PranaFidelity in Denver inside, as the room was sponsored by KLAUDIO. That's pronounced as one word, "Klaudio", I was informed—the makers of the incredible turntable seen here, that comes from Auburn, WA. The music was finely resolved, transparent, and dynamic with credit due to careful system building around the solid state PranaFidelity preamp ($14.5k w/phono stage),  power amp ($10.5k, stable down to 2 Ohms), and Dhara two-way monitors ($9.5k w/stands), along with some Silversmith Audio Fidelium balanced interconnects ($1,125/pr.), Furutech AC power cords ($2,400/2m), and Furutech speaker cables ($2,900/3m).

The equipment rack was by Clear Note Audio, dual-width ($9k), in Killingly, CT, though I couldn't find a website for them.

Aside from the outstanding sound quality, most people were stunned by the Klaudio Magnezar turntable with magnetic bearings and direct drive. This model at $68k had a magical clamping system that grips the LP at the lip and at the center. It works somewhat like a camera shutter, and at a speed that was too fast for me to observe. A somewhat less expensive model does away with the clamping system and was shown in Room 723, which I will come to, eventually.

The Klaudio tangential tonearm was also awe-inspiring, mounted on the laser pod. The tonearm incorporates a physical slide that prevents the tonearm from accidentally landing on the peripheral clamp. The tonearm incorporates electronic descent at the start and automatic lift at the end of playback. You can raise or lower the tonearm at will with the press of a button, a feature many folks with a tremble in their hand can appreciate. You can also mount a second, more conventional tonearm at the left rear corner. I'll fill in some more details when I encounter the second Klaudio turntable. That said, this room was one of the highlights of the show for me.

Recording engineer Charles King was also in the room with his Stellavox tape recorder, on which he occasionally played some of his master tapes. I've had the pleasure of meeting him at several shows.

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