I’m back from the Capital AudioFest Audio Show held last weekend in Washington, DC. We had some great sounding rooms, Room 323 with Daedalus Audio, BorderPatrol Audio Electronics and of course, Triode Wire Labs. I featured my newly released “Split Power & Data” USB cable in Room 323.
In Room 316, we had BorderPatrol Audio Electronics, using Living Voice OBX-RW loudspeakers. These Living Voice speakers exhibited some of the best playback I’ve ever heard! Halfway through the show, Greg Roberts from Volti Audio showed-up and crashed our room with his new, more reasonably priced horn loudspeaker. Within 20 minutes, Greg’s new speaker was sold! A new audio show record!!!
Here’s some feedback on the Sound Quality of the Triode Wire Lab rooms from Herb Reichert of Stereophile magazine…
“In my report from the 2016 AXPONA, I wrote a whole blurb about how I thought the Border Patrol (and Volti as well as Triode Wire Labs) room had the best sound of show, but I couldn’t turn it because I had forgotten to take photos. (Sorry Gary Dews.) This time, however, Gary (and Pete from TWL) had two rooms and maybe they both will win that honor. The loudspeakers were different in each room, but the sound quality and music quality were equally wonderful in both.
The first Border Patrol room featured Daedalus Audio Athena V.2 floorstanding loudspeakers ($11,850/pair) in a super-deluxe wood finish. They were driven by the PX20 EXD Border Patrol push-pull 300B monoblocks ($16,750/pair), a Border Patrol Control Unit line stage ($6500), and Gary’s excellent no-oversampling/no-digital-filtering DAC ($1250)—all of which were sitting on the new Daedalus Audio “Daedalus isolation Devices” (DiD) priced at $480 for a set of three.
The second Border Patrol (and Triode Wire Labs) room featured the wildly over-achieving and vivid-sounding Living Voice OBX-RW loudspeakers ($11,800/pair). Instead were driven by S20 EXD Border Patrol parallel single-ended 300B monoblocks ($16,750/pair) and a 1543 DAC ($1500). This was only my first day, but damn! The sound was really good in both rooms. Border Patrol (and Triode Wire Labs) might win my “Peace and Crickets” prize for Best Sound two shows in a row.”
Here’s Herb’s impressions when we switched the Living Voice speakers for the new Volti horn loudspeakers…
“Most of you must know I am a long time fan of Volti Audio’s Vittoria horn-loaded loudspeakers. They achieve what I always thought was impossible: a smooth, coherent, hyper-efficient loudspeaker that bubbles with musical life—and never let’s on it’s a horn speaker. Most folks that heard it agreed except, many wished it was smaller and less expensive. Well, Volti proprietor/engineer, Greg Roberts was listening and at CAF released a smaller, less expensive model, the Rival at only $7900/pair. The sound, while not quite as sweet and sophisticated as the Vittora, was “oh my my” tight fast and textured. The box, the drivers and the music reproduced seemed properly scaled, utterly uncompressed. The new 99dB-sensitive Rival delivered a great portion of the bigger speaker’s pleasures. Bravo Volti!
The new Rivals were driven by Border Patrol S20 EXD parallel, single-ended, dual-mono 300B amplifiers ($16,750/pair) and the Border patrol 1543 DAC ($1500). All cables were Triode Wire Labs and sourced from a PI Audio UberBUSS power distribution block.”
Some additional feedback from The Closet Audiophile as follows;
The Closet Audiophile
Capital Audiofest 2016
Posted on July 15, 2016 by theclosetaudiophile, https://theclosetaudiophile.wordpress.com/author/theclosetaudiophile/
“I loved going to the Capital Audiofest (CAF) in 2013 and that feeling didn’t change this year. Gary Gill, the show’s organizer, is always gracious and magnanimous and open to ideas. I don’t doubt Gary’s enthusiasm for all things audio.
On the two-channel side of the house, I thought the Volti / BorderPatrol / Triode Wire Labs room sounded exceptionally good. Volti was demoing their new lower-cost horn loaded speaker, the Rival, alongside BorderPatrol’s S20 (with a gain knob for volume control). Their top of the line, non-oversampling, filterless DAC-1 and a CEC transport provided the tunes. All the electronics were wired up with Triode Wire Labs current stock. The sound was dynamic and instantly engaging. Midrange and treble were finely textured and never harsh or piercing. Bass was surprisingly tight and tuneful, given the tiny room they were working with. Just an all-out stellar performance and easily the best sound at the show.”
I’ll post more reviews and feedback from Capital AudioFest as it “pops-up”…
Cheers,
Pete
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