Inside CAF 2025 Luxury Hi-Fi Show Part 2 — Capital Audiofest's Large Exhibit Rooms And Lobby Displays
Fresh trends, the hottest audio equipment, and rooms everyone's talking about.
Capital Audiofest 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker

DC Area Audiophiles & High End Home Theater Enthusiasts
I've wondered about the Library that I've seen on the floor maps over the years. I never seemed to find the door. It turns out you need to climb the stairs to get to this little hideaway with bookshelves largely devoid of books. Maybe next year I'll donate my archives of audio magazines to fill them up.

There, I ran into Michael Manousselis, President Americas at Dynaudio North America who loves reading Enjoy the Music.com, and who has been an acquaintance since the very early days in high-end audio for both of us. Celebrating our 30th anniversary in 2025, the support for Enjoy the Music.com over the decades from many manufacturers, distributors, and dealers is inspiring!

Michael was quite proud of the Dynaudio Confidence 20A speakers ($24k) in high gloss black being demonstrated with a dCS front end. He is the dealer, afterall. No other components were needed because at the back of the stand pillar were digital and analog inputs for the built-in amplification and Hi-Res Audio DSP. All this, plus the Shunayta Eiger power conditioner, made for a powerful, minimalist system. It's also available in gloss white with a black baffle for the drivers. The mild rap music was tight, dynamic, and ready for more people than they could possibly stuff into the "library."

LTA Headphone Lounge
To reiterate what I've said many times, I'm not a headphone geek, so I didn't spend much time in the LTA Headphone Lounge, other than to snap a few photos. Mostly, I just hang with my workhorse Grado SR 80e, a $100 headphone back in the day, that is now in its fourth generation as the SR 80x for $125. I understand there are many situations where a set of fine headphones is desirable, and I'm glad they are available, but it is not a lifestyle I'm into at this point.

The Capra Audio table shown above was the only non-LTA table in the space this year. There were lots of other headphone displays throughout the show, but the show lacked a truly cohesive space for headphones. Maybe a large room, such as the Eisenhower room, could be dedicated to headphones. This would also allow for access to headphone geeks for a modest admission fee who were not interested in touring the entire show. I've also suggested free admission for women on Sundays as a way to encourage more women to participate in the high end. There's a need for some creative thinking in this direction.

LTA partnered with SJY Audio, Capra Audio, and Aurorus Audio to create this headphone experience featuring headphones from Audeze, Meze, Dan Clark Audio, ZMF, and ABYSS—all driven by LTA amplification.

The Listening Room
The Washington Theater was converted from usage for seminars to a listening room with tiered seating, hosted by The Listening Room from Chestertown, MD. They've been around since 1978, and they also had three rooms up on the 7th Floor. It was a treat to hear the large 30.7 Magnepan speakers from the new X series here.

On top of the rack was Aurender's N50 flagship streamer, a three-box design. The amplification below was from Audia Flight from the west coast of Italy, a little north of Rome.

The pièce de resistance here was the rather industrial-looking turntable from Wilson Benesch, notwithstanding the touches of carbon fiber and the tonearm. It's one of those products you can't afford if you have to ask the price. It played the Master Recording of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms very well, a big fave of Enjoy the Music.com. It's full of aerospace-level technology, and its development was partially funded by the British government.

The tonearm was anything but bland-looking. While it might appear that it is suspended from the fixed arm above it, that arm supports the tonearm cables and keeps them from influencing the motion of the tonearm in any way. That record clamp was pretty trick, too, but probably not available without the turntable.

The Voice That Is
I made a point of introducing myself to Doug White this year, and talking with him for a few minutes showed me why he is so successful in selling such high-priced brands. The room this year was outstanding for both its visual and acoustic presentation, as usual, but there were some valuable things to learn here.

The Tidal Audio Piano G3 speaker ($64k) was paired with the new REL Carbon Special Black Label subwoofer ($5k, ea.). First, it has been rare to encounter systems with REL subwoofers demonstrated, although at AXPONA this year, REL presented a rig with a 6-pack of S 510 subs that clearly demonstrated the efficacy of such a configuration. The Carbon Special came very close to producing the effect of the 6-Pack of S 510s, and it accomplished that in a much larger room at Capital Audiofest 2025. I would say the inner detail of the Carbon Special here was even greater. Let's say I was very impressed with the sound quality. (They played a cut with a very deep male vocal that was astoundingly visceral, "Hoist the Colors High.")

Secondly, it's difficult to visualize the size of a subwoofer from dimensions on a page. The Piano G3 speaker is even larger than my Acora speakers, and the REL looked big next to the Piano. The Carbon Special Black Label is larger than the old S 812, but the entire Serie S has been redesigned and is now larger and comes with attractive wood grilles. I expect the sound quality to increase across the entire Serie S, but it asks for more floor space, too.

The subs were connected with Siltech Classic Legend 680L REL sub cables, a new design, but Siltech makes special REL-specific cables in many other series of cables.

From left to right in the photo above were the new Tidal Ferios G2 amplifier ($95k/pr), an Equitech 2RQ balanced power conditioner upgraded to The Voice That Is specifications ($8k), the Tidal Contros digital controller (preamp) ($61k) on top of the Ictra Design Proto rack ($27k), the new Turnbull Power Distributor on the lower shelf, and a stack of Silent Angel NX, GX, and FX ($11,900) for the digital signals. Critical Mass Systems Ultra-Diamond platforms ($3,390 ea.) were used beneath the monoblocks.

The Turnbull Prestige Power Distributor ($90k) has a power conditioner and self-contained, isolated ground reservoirs. The vertical pairs of ground inputs, seen at the right side of the back, increase in effectiveness as you move from right to left. They are used for your speakers or racks. The grounding cables ($4,600/ea., 4' length) have conductor geometry optimized for grounding. There are separate grounding systems for the AC inlets. The chassis is made with a new Vibragon alloy to reduce resonances.

Very interesting was the separate bar placed behind the unit to support the AC plugs. They even have little curved spacers as seen on the sole power cable plugged in to perfectly space the two plugs in each duplex so the top one doesn't sag. This is something that should turn the lightbulb on for all the DIYers out there who are looking for something to do when it's 9-below zero outside this winter.

Convergent Audio Technology
The CAT room was considerably more focused this year, with just a stereo rig. No modern immersivephile, just good ol' fashion legacy stereo. Being next door to one of the nicest dressed rooms at the show, it appeared rather stark, and the lighting was rather like Fritz Lang's Metropolis from Germany in 1927. The Nero Assoluto stone on the impressive Acora Acoustics VRC floorstanding loudspeaker ($218k), one of six stock colors, added to the visual effect.

It was good to see the Acora VRC dressed in this stone as black (or something close to it) is always a ‘go-to' color for almost any décor. And the standard price doesn't hurt as much as the limited, rare upgrade stone. Ken Stevens' Black Path ASC speaker cables were tethered to his CAT JL5HPA stereo power amp ($35k) when I visited. His aSC cables use amorphous gold and silver. This triode amp drove the speaker with ease from top to bottom, but the speaker placement, closer to the front wall than the other rooms along this corridor, didn't allow the sense of air that I'm accustomed to hearing from this speaker.

The CAT SL1 Legend Extreme aSC preamp ($100k) looked pretty much the same for decades, as Ken has upgraded the circuitry and wire within. Two shelves down was a LampizatOr Atlantic DAC that received music from CDs in the vintage Audio Aero Capitole CD player.

Outboard from the rack were the CAT JL7HPA monoblocks ($75k) that have also been upgraded over the years and presumably were used on occasion over the weekend. I noticed they were sitting on Ginkgo ARCH (Acoustic Resonance Clarifier) footers that are made in a couple of variations for speakers and heavy equipment. I had a chance to test early prototypes of these footers. They are very effective and offer an alternate aesthetic presentation to everything else in this category. They come in three sizes for components up to 200 lbs. and vary in price from $159 to $209/set of 4.

Michael Griffin of Essential Sound Products in Rochester, MI, had a table with his power cords on display, as he has in years past. He does most of his business in the pro audio arena, but audiophiles are just as welcome.

The top of his line is up there with the big names in the audiophile world, and he makes rugged power distribution strips as well.

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