Capital AudioFest 2023

Not content to consistently produce some of the best sounding rooms at CAF year after year, Harry and Mat Weisfield changed up almost all their ancillary gear from 2022, but the sound remained fantastic.

Room one, where Harry unpeeled a new copy of a Classic Records edition of Respighi's Pines of Rome, played penetrating sounds via a VPI Avenger Direct turntable with Fatboy gimbal tonearm ($36,000) and a VPI Dragon turntable ($8000) outfitted in ZZ Top–worthy red alligator hide, four Cherry VPI Isolation Bases ($1200 each), and electronics by PrimaLuna: an EVO 400 Tube Preamplifier ($5295), EVO 100 Tube Phono Preamplifier ($3695), and EVO 400 power amplifiers ($5295 each) driving a pair of 117lb, 92dB-sensitive, $24,900/pair of MC AudioTech TL-12 loudspeakers.

Over in Roman amphitheater sized Room 2, where Acora Acoustic's Valerio Cora ran the show, an even bigger–sounding setup included a VPI Titan Direct Drive Turntable ($60,000) outfitted with a van den Hul Crimson XGW Stradivarius MC Cartridge ($5595), and electronics by Audio Research: REF 3SE phono stage ($19,500) and Reference 6 SE line stage ($19,500) and a pair of Reference 750 monoblocks ($85,000/pair). The transducers were the Acora Acoustics VRC Loudspeakers ($218,000/pair). Cabling was Nordost Odin 2. A newly reissued version of Elton John’s “Your Song” played at such a large scale that I half expected Sir Elton to come riding in on a white steed, singing all the while. Every member of Elton’s famous 1970s band was fleshy, textural, and alive, and there was great emotional veracity.