2nd Annual Capital Audiofest

[svollmer]

No affiliation. Just wanting to let people within driving distance know of its existance. Last year's Audiofest went very well, especially considering it was the first audio show in DC in as long as I can remember.

Below is the email I received. Hope it's acceptable to post this.

Steve





Welcome to the 2011 Capital Audiofest!www.capitalaudiofest.com

The 1st CAF went so well that we are having a 2nd! The date is set for July 08-10, 2011 at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Rockville, MD just minutes outside of Washington DC. The rooms of this venue are laid out well for most any audio system and will suit intimate up to large scale systems. The rooms are furnished with carpeted floors and nine feet high ceilings throughout. For more information on the room configurations you can view the on-line floor plans.
The CAF 2011 will include quality audio ranging from the affordable to the exotic as well as vacuum tube and transistor equipment and analog and digital playback sources. Food and beverage is available from the hotel lobby and nearby restaurants and pubs. An open air tailgate audio Swap Meet on Sunday morning is set so be sure to bring your gear.
Why should you come to this event? Just look at the local and regional demographics for the Washington DC, midatlantic and northeastern region. Not only do we have some of the highest per capita of income and rates of population but are centrally located to other major cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Richmond and beyond. Last year we had attendees from Canada and as far south as Atlanta. We hope you can join us at the CAF for the second event so be sure to preregister to attend the event and to reserve your room!
For any questions please contact [email protected] or call Gary Gill at 703-839-5684.


If you have any questions please Call 703-532-7239 or email us today to make an appointment.

And don’t forget to keep up with new developments, as well as industry notes and our dealer specials on Facebook and Twitter !

Hope to see you soon!

[opimax]

looking forward to an even larger event, it was fun!

Mark

[svollmer]

Bump!

Looks like they're going to have a lot of good companies at the show.

http://www.capitalaudiofest.com/

[hjames]

Bump!

Looks like they're going to have a lot of good companies at the show.

http://www.capitalaudiofest.com/

No Martin Logan and no Magneplanars!

We'll just have to buck up and make the best of it!

[svollmer]

No Martin Logan and no Magneplanars!

We'll just have to buck up and make the best of it!

I know, I know! But they're just "mid-fi" companies.

I was disappointed that Admiral, Lloyds, Superscope, or Craig aren't attending either!

[hjames]

Some pictures from the Capital Audiofest today ...



The bespoke white gear is from MBL Audio - extreme high end gear - the silver bulb in the middle is the surface of the mid-bass radiator -
its got a voicecoil and spider at the bottom that pushes and pulls upward on that, which expands the diameter of that bulb.
a pair of huge 700 watt monoblocks on the floor ... just astonishing & beautiful stuff .. for a cool 1/4 mil




This was an interesting system - basically a full range driver at the top,
there is a peavy 15 inch bass driver in the middle on an open baffle just behind the front baffle ...
with a bass driver in a cabinet at the bottom.
Had a very nice open airy sound - looked like a very nice garage custom build - not sure of price!



A series of manley amps and preamps, very tall line arrays another nice clean system -
the point of this system was to demo the Da Vinci DAC

[hjames]

Another couple shots from the Capital Audiofest today ...

There were a lot of systems there, certainly audio overkill,
but here are a couple of systems that did impress me.

There were some other systems that sounded good in some ways,
but were either too crowded for a good shot, or they were too loud and ear bleeding,
and I had to run before they lit up my tinitus and ruined the day!.

Hopefully, others will post some pix as well.

Oh, Mapleshade Audio is a local vendor - they had some a large assortment of stuff on display -
nice recordings, some interesting sounding speakers, some modified gear and tube amps,
and some really crazy looking ribbon cables and baby phone poles to support wires.
No pictures of their stuff - a very popular room with lots of folks there.





The outer horn systems were amazing - pricey but stunning on some jazz vinyl,
after a couple minute reconfig, we got a demo of the inner columns,
dipole line arrays with a modified Heil driver at the top. amazing tight snappy bass.




Another VERY efficient audio system - I believe it was Border patrol custom tube amps,
and the voltiaudio 3-way corner horns from Maine ...gorgeous construction

[rusty jefferson]

I went on Sunday afternoon after 2:00 pm and most rooms were lightly traveled or completely empty. I was able to audition several cds I'd brought with me on several systems. That was helpful, as some rooms were playing unusual music I was not familiar with.

I don't know if anyone got to spend time in the room with the local DIY audio guys, but they did a great job. I recently was invited to join their group and was impressed with the organization and presentation they put together in a matter of a couple days. Most everything in their room was home designed/built. The group is called DCAUDIODIY, and I think they have a Facebook page.

Another local guy, as well as Pierre Sprey from Mapleshade was Gary Dews from a company called Border Patrol. I'd never heard of them before, but was impressed with his electronics and the speakers he's importing from the UK called Living Voice. I think he's located near Waldorf, MD and mods gear as well as building his own designs. I thought he had a very impressive system within reach of middle class folks. Also used ribbon style wires on part of his set-up.

Thought the McIntosh system/room was weak. For what they charge, it should have been better in too many ways to list, imo.

Nice event overall, I thought. Good size.

[svollmer]

I too went on Sunday.

One of my first stops was Volti Audio; Heather mentioned them above. I had never heard of them before and was fortunate to have the room all to myself along with Volti's owner, Greg Roberts. He was a gracious host, told me a lot about his young company and taught me much about horns. He also showed me how his cabinets are made of baltic birch (he showed me how he makes curved panels and his own horns) and then played some really good music (including DC's own Chuck Brown).

I've never owned horn speakers before and don't really have much experience with them, but I have to admit I LOVED his Vittora speaker. They sell for around $10K. The show price was much lower. The craftsmanship was on par with any other quality speaker I've seen (except the hyper-expensive automotive finishes)

I'll put some pictures below of his crossovers and other work. Check out his website. In addition to making his own speakers, he also does Klipsch upgrades. http://www.voltiaudio.com/index.shtml

[svollmer]

The amps in the picture above are 2 watt mono blocks. Along with the speakers' sensitivity, they kicked! Here's the crossovers and the subwoofer:

[svollmer]

Here's the DC DIY room. Some of you may remember the speakers. They were designed by Joe D'Appolito in a big Speaker Builder Magazine article back in the late 1980's. I think they were called the Swans because they used the Swan 305 12" woofers. I seem to recall the mids were Focal and the tweeters were Morel.

The sound was really good and the club members were great. Check out the DIY turntable! WOW!

[svollmer]

Here's the dream room, presented by JS Audio. Wilson SASHA speakers and Dan D'Agostino's new mono block amps with solid copper heat sinks and the coolest meters I've ever seen!

[Greg Roberts]

Just to clarify, the crossovers pictured are not the ones used in the Vittora speakers. They are used as part of the complete Klipsch Khorn upgrade that I sell.

Greg