Speaking of Capital Audiofest :)

mhardy6647

... which was last weekend in the environs of DC (Rockville, MD).

Saw this photo in Stereophile's (Art Dudley's) coverage.




That sure looks like a GAS Son of Ampzilla lurking in the not insignificant umbra of that Pass Labs (? I think it's a Pass Labs product) whatever-it-is.

Interesting.



Also, a great assessment of Dave Slagle's continuing experiments in electrodynamic phono cartridges by Mr. D.

As at previous shows, Emia's Dave Slagle has demonstrated his signature modified-and-stacked Quad ESL loudspeakers, for which he designs and builds a custom transformer that serves as both the speaker's input transformer and as the output transformer of the dedicated tube amplifier he also adds to the speaker (price on request). But this year, Slagle demonstrated with two pairs of stacked Quads, each additional speaker oriented at a 90° angle to its left- or right-channel counterpart and aimed outward, toward its respective side wall. It worked astonishingly well, bringing to a new level the already shocking dynamic range heard from the Quad-Emia system. These speakers were literally horn-like in their ability to recreate the force behind recorded music, and they allowed familiar jazz recordings to sound more whole and more human than I've ever heard. They were that good.

Also worth noting in the Emia Labs room: Dave Slagle's campaign to build a from-scratch, wholly original (except for its Namiki cantilever and stylus) moving-coil phono cartridge—with a field coil (ie, electromagnet) in place of a permanent magnet—continues, and has resulted in the prototype shown above. He remains unsure if it will become a commercial reality; I certainly hope it will.

Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/rocking-rockville-late-day-one-and-early-day-two#tF5eUSABCMS4A4hY.99

I've always thought that I'd like to get the chance to meet and chat with Art Dudley, after reading this comment... I am pretty darned sure that I'd like to do that.

Of the three systems I heard at CAF 2018 that had been assembled by retailer Tenacious Sound—I think there were eight in all—the one that sang through a pair of TAD ME-1 loudspeakers ($14,995/pair) was the most impressive. I requested some Richard Thompson, and my guitar-pickin' friend Lenny Mayeaux, whose day job is with manufacturer Audience AV, put on "Vincent Black Lightning." It was sonically wide-open—the system would not have wanted an atom more treble, but it was smooth and fine and inviting just as it was—and musically soul-refreshing: I almost cried. (If he had played "Beeswing," I surely would have.)

Both of them usually make me cry when I hear 'em -- in a good way

honestaquarian

I missed the whole thing. I didn’t even know it was going on this year. If I had I would have been there live blogging again on here