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

Now Listen Here
Now Listen Here, from Harrisburg, PA, had two rooms at the show this year—this one, and the Executive Lounge, which I will come to later. The Vandersteen Quatro CT Evo speakers ($23,900) were driven by the new Ayre Acoustics AX-5 Twenty integrated amp ($18k). An Imersiv D-1 DAC ($12k) in the middle shelf of the right side rack, and below it, the new Innuos STREAM3 server ($8k), were the digital front end. The Imersiv D-1 DAC comes from Millenia Media, a pro audio company, and claims a whopping 170dB of dynamic range (28 bits of actual resolution).

Yet another Pure Fidelity Harmony turntable ($9,395, base price) was shown with an upgraded tonearm and finish ($12k). An Ayre Acoustics PX-8 MM / MC phono preamp ($6,500, base) was equipped with a DS Audio optional input, bringing the price to $9k. A DS Audio 003 cartridge ($2,750) was installed on the tonearm. That's the power supply for the turntable on the shelf below it.

The Vandersteen speaker had a very interesting veneer on it, and sounded very nice in this rig. Their speakers are known for being phase coherent, and the music was seamless. Dual 8" opposing woofers cancel vibrations and are powered internally by a 250-Watt amplifier with an 11-band equalizer. The crossovers for this speaker are now mounted inside the speaker, enabling use with integrated amplifiers, as was done here.

American Sound Distribution
Audio Thesis was listed in this room, and I was looking forward to another opportunity to hear their Rosso Fiorentino speakers and Norma Electronics, both from Italy. Their absence opened the door for Angi Lisi of American Sound Distribution in Toronto to add a small room to her very large presentation in the foreboding Regency room I will come to later on.

A Grimm MU2 server/DAC was the digital front end in this room, feeding the new  Synthesis FCO-300B integrated amplifier.

The Rethm Trishna speaker was the one I heard when I visited. Like all Rethm speakers, it features a wide-band driver on top. The mid-woofers below are powered by an internal Hypex UCD digital amp module. It is available in light, medium, or dark wood finish. It produced highly resolved, musical, and inviting music, but it is not best suited for loud rock music.

In a corner were two other models. The larger one, finished in black wood, was likely the new Saadhanna, a fully active model priced at $31,750. It features a Class D amp on the bass drivers and a hybrid Class AB amp with tubes for the input and driver stages to drive the wide-band driver on top.

Gestalt Fine Audio
Gestalt Fine Audio is a distributor in Nashville, TN. The first of their two rooms featured Wolf von Langa Son speakers supplemented with a Cinnamon Malabar VLF subwoofer ($16k)—the black box between the speakers with opposing woofers pushing sound out through the opening in the middle of the front and back sides. The high-efficiency Son speakers were driven by an SW1X Amp IV Special that put out 4 Wpc with 2A3 tubes.

A TW Acoustic Raven GT2 turntable and Raven 10.5 tonearm were fitted with a Fuuga MC cartridge. It fed a SW1X SUT II step-up transformer and phono stage. The turntable was on a Silent Running Audio (SRA) base that was on a Codia Acoustic Design Stage 3000 Diagon rack, as I use in my reference system. These racks can be configured in many ways using different finishes on the metal and wood elements to create an elegant presentation to suit your décor.

Gestalt Fine Audio
Next door was a more complex rig from Gestalt. Again, featuring only an analog front end. The speaker was a new model from Cinnamon, the Cassia. They had originally planned to use the subwoofer in the previous room here, but the Cassia supplied sufficient bass by itself with its large dual woofers.

I love the airiness of open baffle speakers and found it here with the Cassia. It has a formidable superstructure made from aluminum and has an external crossover that looks massive enough to be an amplifier.

I noticed the thin layer of cork between the black front baffle and the aluminum backplate. The wiring was cleverly concealed in the backbone of the speaker.

The grey cement-looking square pieces were the Cinnamon Galle phono stage, Galle SUT, and probably an external power supply.

The turntable was a Primary Control Kinea II from the Netherlands with their FCL (field-coil-loaded) 12" tonearm with a field-coil magnet to stabilize and load the unipivot bearing. It was fitted with another Fuuga MC cartridge. The imposing size of the plinth had a touch of elegance in black.

The SW1X Audio Design PRE V Signature was new at this show, and a pricy piece. Their 6-8 Watt monoblocks with 300B tubes were on SRA platforms in front of the table.

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