Capitol Area Audiofest

124

Comments

  • engtaz
    engtaz Posts: 7,663
    edited June 2010
    I so wish I was there.
    engtaz

    I love how music can brighten up a bad day.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited June 2010
    It was an excellent day. We had a great flow of people....probably 100+ with a lot of sit downs and real demos. They weren't just stop n peek s all day. Met some old Polk lovers, talked about product, saw some Polkies, had some great demos and the LSi9 continues to shine.

    MillerLiteScott brought down his Maverick tube pre-amp and we finally got some heavy duty amplification on the speakers from the CTC BBQ. It changed the whole soundstage and really took everything to another level. Top notch.

    We had more than one person come back for second demos and they plan on coming back again when we get the SACD running tomorrow. The RTiA9 are burning in overnight to The Crystal Method and I was afraid they would be too bright....low and behold, a little tube coupled with a benchmark amplifier is all it took to tame them nice and tight.

    We're excited to see how they are in the AM and start pushing some SACD thru them. The LSi9 will get back online but we have to let the RTiA do some showcase demos....let the speakers open up and breath.

    I'll post some pics in a few minutes. EXCELLENT DAY!
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Topper
    Topper Posts: 403
    edited June 2010
    looking forward to them pix :)
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited June 2010
    Actually Kyle has better pics, we'll post some from the fest and we should be streaming tomorrow as well. More information later.

    Patrick is going to link the live stream to the homepage banner for the event....you rule man!
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • MillerLiteScott
    MillerLiteScott Posts: 2,561
    edited June 2010
    Just got back to my house from the Audiofest. Guys, this is a cool (sometimes hot with all the Class A amps) get together. Like others have said if you are on the fence get off and go.

    Mark and Kyle did a great job in setting up a room. It looks like a real listening room and not a class room.

    I had a great time with Jesse and Tony all day.

    More thoughts tomorrow. It is way past my bed time.

    Scott
    I like speakers that are bigger than a small refrigerator but smaller than a big refrigerator:D
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,532
    edited June 2010
    Whew, what a day. So much gear, so little time.....it wore me out.

    Mark did a great job putting this all together, kudos. Scott and Tony, two great guys, always a pleasure. It was nice to finally meet and hang out with Kyle.

    Ok, to the meat......

    The best, relaxed feel at home, room belonged to Polk Audio. The LSi 9's (dialed in by yours truly) sounded damn good too, which I think surprised a lot of folks. They really are a gem.

    The best sound came from a pair of Manley Mahi tube mono blocks driving Joseph Audio Pulsar monitors. Amazing sound from such a small speaker.

    Perhaps the most impressive looking piece of gear in shear size and faceplate design belonged to the MBL pre amp. That baby is a show stopper.

    The wildest looking speakers was a toss up between the MBL's and GOTO Horns, although neither had a sound that I could live with.

    The worst sound, by a large margin, were some sort of horn speaker that I never got close enough to learn their name....didn't even get fully into the room they were that bad.

    Biggest disappointment, the Salk speaker room. I went in there multiple times and every time there were people talking, loudly....a very rude thing to do in a demo room.

    Hottest babe....toss up between the demo girl for United Home Audio and the super cute, leggy girl, serving the BBQ.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • LessisNevermore
    LessisNevermore Posts: 1,519
    edited June 2010
    Thanks for the updates, keep 'em coming!

    Damn, wish I was closer. Maybe next year..:(
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Vette C6.r
    Vette C6.r Posts: 1,560
    edited June 2010
    Wow. What a day.

    Great venue. Great music. Great people. Great dinner. Great weather.

    As I am sure you guys saw from the link the show is in a mansion. Nice location to have a show. The A/C was a little problematic at times. Like Scott stated- tons of class A heating the joint up.

    Real top notch gear. I personally haven't heard a 6 figure system. My first.


    Jess - Always a pleasure. Folks, we did get him to go out in the daytime. Hard to believe. Hopefully you made some friends at Manley. I have to agree with you that the Joseph Audio Pulsar bookselves were my favorite.

    BTW I am going with the leggy BBQ girl.

    Scott - Thanks for driving and not making it a 3rd deer crossing accident. Thanks also for letting me buy the beer. lol Sorry that I won all the give-aways. I too liked that small Jolida amp.

    Mark - Glad you and Kyle could represent the Polk camp. The BBQ amp was slow cooking the LSi 9's in all the right ways. Really can't get over the low end on them. Classy room, nice setup. Thanks for the SWAG.

    Kyle - I will remember to bring an oil pan when we go driving. With all the uber-high end stuff I think it was great to see you guys put all that work together for us "real" budget folks out there. I was great meeting you. Look forward to the tour.

    All in all a great day. We made a complete day of it and took our time and enjoyed some great music. Great dinner as well.

    You guys never told me what the girl in the other booth said ????


    Mega tired. I'm out.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Vette C6.r
    Vette C6.r Posts: 1,560
    edited June 2010
    Sal. Kyle took some, I'm sure he will post them.

    Not sure if Mark's pic that Scott took will post. lol
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • MillerLiteScott
    MillerLiteScott Posts: 2,561
    edited June 2010
    After what Jesse and Tony wrote last night I don't have much more to add, other than I would throw my vote towards the United Home Audio girl because I favor brunettes but the blond was more fun to talk to.

    Dog Fish Head Restaurant was very good, nice pick Mark.

    Scott
    I like speakers that are bigger than a small refrigerator but smaller than a big refrigerator:D
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Vette C6.r
    Vette C6.r Posts: 1,560
    edited June 2010
    As an after-thought. I really like my SDA's more than I did before. I thought I would get my mind changed. Not so.

    What a great speaker for such a value.

    I grew a new apprication for my SDA's.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited June 2010
    Today was just incredible. We had 3x the amount of foot traffic we had yesterday and again....lots of sit down demos, not just peeking and leaving.

    I'll chatter more later but saw Sandy Gross of Polk Audio fame and we talked about Golden Ear....also met one of my favorite loudspeaker designers THE Jeff Joseph of Joseph Audio....spoke with Elliot Nomensen, chief engineer at Synergistic Research about new products and got deep about the Galileo product they sell....had some wonderful Jameson Irish Whiskey with CEO and Chief Designer of Bel Canto PJ Zornosa.....man the tail was just freaking WAGGING today.

    This tops ANY CES tradeshow for me....it was just super intimate, fun and these are the kinds of events you really get to talk to the people that move and shake the industry. Small venues rule!
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • MillerLiteScott
    MillerLiteScott Posts: 2,561
    edited June 2010
    2 Thumbs up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    I like speakers that are bigger than a small refrigerator but smaller than a big refrigerator:D
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited June 2010
    A couple pics....finally over, offloading and packing stuff away, for shipment and admiring my swag. The days of endless goodies from events is way over.

    We gave away the most stuff including cloth carry bags for anyone that bought vinyl and came to our room. Polk was all over the place and some of the vendors hated it...sorry ****.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • xj4094dg
    xj4094dg Posts: 1,158
    edited June 2010
    I got some of that swag today and had the pleasure meeting Mark and hearing some excellent gear. BIG thanks to Mark for the swag and playing some great music for me and my guests. The setup was awesome. Wanna sell that CTC amp? :)

    The venue was beautiful but some of the rooms were a little too close together so you could sometimes hear more than one system (although I didn't notice that in the Polk room).

    We started in the Polk room so my brother could listen to the LSi9's as he has never heard my LSi9's since they at home in California and he lives here in Maryland.

    He was blown away at how great the 9's performed compared to the Joseph Audio gear for the money. The 9's were on sale for $625/pair and the Joseph speaks were 7K/pair (bookshelf) and 28K/pair (floor-standing Pearls). The Pearls were amazing! He could obviously hear the difference, but was still impressed by the value of the LSi9's.

    Anyway, most of what has already been said in this thread was right on, I was disappointed the leggy blond was not present, but the United Audio babe was kinda hot and, in my case was fun to talk to.

    It was a great way to hear alot of different gear in one day and begin and end the day listening to a set 9's. I have to say they sound great for the money. Very satisfied.

    Well time for bed, 9:00 tee time in the morning with my brothers....

    Life is sweet.

    David.
    "The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it." Neil deGrasse Tyson.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited June 2010
    David - Sell it? lol...I want it on my funeral pyre as I'm pushed out to the sea :)

    It was a pleasure to meet you and your guests. I hope the demos were good and flowed well. We had quite a few comments on the room feeling very comfortable compared to the others, even tho' it was usually a little warm inside. Our objective was to be just that...with a kicker of sounding good and hopefully changing some folks' perspective about Polk Audio.

    You're welcome anytime on this end, hope to see you again. Please have a safe trip back home.

    A HUGE thanks to MillerLiteScott for lending me his Maverick Audio pre-amp. The Ayre was very nice but a tiny bit of tube goodness was needed for the RTiA9's top end. It worked out perfectly. The demos, while still a bit forward were softer than they would be normally and we played them more than expected because of it. It's interesting to see the synergy between a 12K amplifier and a $200 pre-amp work so wonderfully....it most certainly happened. The Ayre pre-amp never got hooked up again. Thanks Scott!

    This was the final room setup and everything we used:

    Polk Audio LSi9 - Bookshelf Loudspeaker
    Polk Audio RTiA9 - Floorstanding Loudspeaker
    Adona Corporation - Audio Rack
    CTC BBQ - Custom SS Amplifier
    Ayre AX7e - Integrated SS Amplifier
    Maverick Audio - Tube/SS Pre-Amp
    Ayre CX7e - CD Player
    MIT Magnum M1.3 - Speaker Cable & Interconnects
    Usher Audio RWS-708 - Speaker Stands
    MYE Sound - Speaker Spikes/Audio Rack Spikes
    Signal Cable - Power Cords
    PS Audio - Power Strip
    Bright Star Audio - Isolation Equipment and Platforms
    HRT Music Streamer + - Computer Interface for iTunes/Laptop
    Auralex SonoFlat & SonoColumns- Room Treatments
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mdaudioguy
    mdaudioguy Posts: 5,165
    edited June 2010
    Sounds like a great weekend! I'm just a little bit jealous... but good to hear y'all enjoyed yourselves! :)
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Face
    Face Posts: 14,340
    edited June 2010
    http://picasaweb.google.com/ctbarker32/CapitalAudiofest2010June1113?feat=directlink#
    "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." Friedrich Nietzsche
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Topper
    Topper Posts: 403
    edited June 2010
    great pix :)
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • vc69
    vc69 Posts: 2,500
    edited June 2010
    Thanks for the great pics Face. Sounds like a great time was had by all.
    -Kevin
    HT: Philips 52PFL7432D 52" LCD 1080p / Onkyo TX-SR 606 / Oppo BDP-83 SE / Comcast cable. (all HDMI)B&W 801 - Front, Polk CS350 LS - Center, Polk LS90 - Rear
    2 Channel:
    Oppo BDP-83 SE
    Squeezebox Touch
    Muscial Fidelity M1 DAC
    VTL 2.5
    McIntosh 2205 (refurbed)
    B&W 801's
    Transparent IC's
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • reeltrouble1
    reeltrouble1 Posts: 9,312
    edited June 2010
    dorokusai wrote: »
    David - Sell it? lol...I want it on my funeral pyre as I'm pushed out to the sea :)

    You should know I have hired 10,000 vuvualeuaza's to blow from dawn to dusk to mark (pun) your passing.

    looks like it was excellent for all who made it.

    RT1--what no swag.........
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited June 2010
    I have some other things for you Ted.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • reeltrouble1
    reeltrouble1 Posts: 9,312
    edited June 2010
    excellent always did like that Adona, your the best.

    RT1
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited June 2010
    You should buy that rack, I need it out of the house.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • gdb
    gdb Posts: 6,012
    edited June 2010
    My thanks to Kyle and Mark for answering a bunch of my irritating newb questions and putting on an impressive demo of Polk LSi9s being driven by a very rare and valuable CTC BBQ amplifier at the CAS! Great Hospitality !:D Now I'm thinking my next amp will have to be a Parasound.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Fireman32
    Fireman32 Posts: 4,845
    edited June 2010
    Sounds like an awesome time. Too bad I could not make the trip up. Makes me look foward to PF in jersey even more.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited June 2010
    It was great to see you GBD and we had a great time while you were there! It was a welcome break from the same old questions we answered 1000 times before.... :D
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mdaudioguy
    mdaudioguy Posts: 5,165
    edited June 2010
    dorokusai wrote: »
    The "modified" rig is the following:

    Polk Audio LSi9 & LSi7
    Polk Audio RTiA9
    Ayre CX7e Evolution CDP & Sony SCD-777ES(Tomorrow)
    Ayre AX7e Evolution Integrated Amplifier
    MIT Cables
    Signal Cable
    Bright Star Audio Isolation
    Adona Corporation Rack
    Usher Audio Stands
    Wish I could have been there and the comments here haven't done anything to alleviate that feeling... One question - what do you mean by "modified"? I had been wondering if any of the LSis everyone is raving about had any crossover mods. :confused:
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • cnh
    cnh Posts: 13,284
    edited June 2010
    Personally, I'd like to hear the LSis were stock LSis but that's OK. You guys sound like a bunch of kids in a candy shop.

    I can tell you as an academic that I MUCH prefer those smaller conferences that we have yearly to the monster 1000s and 1000s from all over the Nation versions. They're GREAT....precisely because you get to hear and meet almost everyone, and the after hours of course!

    Looks like some awesome sounds were being pumped out in that Polk room, which does, in fact look very much like a REAL room! Kudos to everyone there!

    cnh
    Currently orbiting Bowie's Blackstar.!

    Polk Lsi-7s, Def Tech 8" sub, HK 3490, HK HD 990 (CDP/DAC), AKG Q701s
    [sig. changed on a monthly basis as I rotate in and out of my stash]
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Topper
    Topper Posts: 403
    edited June 2010
    yo DORO could you tell me your thoughts on that Maverick preamp. Hows the synergy with the RTiA and LSi series? You didnt by any chance get to try it with one of the TSi speakers did ya?
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter