The past two years have certainly been difficult for public events especially audio shows. Capital Audiofest has always been one of our favorites! However with it being cancelled in 2020 and other shows cancelled for good or postponed, we weren't sure what would be happening for 2021. Having the positive news that the "show will go on" VPI was excited to start talking to our partners about who would be featuring our products. One enthusiastic partner Joe Parvery owner of House of Stereo and Wolf Audio. House Of Stereo who had a fantastic room featured our new Avenger Direct with T+A elektroakustik , Synergistic Research, Wolf Audio Systems, Tad Steak House.
Bringing out the big guns, House of Stereo was one of two rooms who used our brand new VPI Avenger Direct Drive turntable. This was a product which had a soft release in 2019 with the expected proper release at CAF 2020, but we all know what happened there. The goal of the Avenger Direct (30K) was to take the advanced Direct Drive Technology we already offer in our HW-40 (20K) and provide it in our Sandbox-Type turntable design in our Avenger body. This was also inspired by having a more reasonable price point as the only other Direct Drive with this level of tonearm diversity is our Vanquish at the price tag of 80K (it you think that price is nuts, you should have herd the distributor who said the price tag is too cheap!)
"Capital AudioFest 2021 is a wrap. You'll see our room in photos above, but I can tell you that our room, driven by the TAD Compact Reference stand-mount speakers was easily in the top 3 rooms of the show. M 40 HV amps drove the SDV 3100 HV Reference DAC, and my Wolf Audio Systems Red Wolf 2 SX - it was a world debut, but I decided last minute to wait a bit on the announcement. Connecting everything was a combination of Synergistic Research's Galileo and SRX Cabling, as well as several devices like their Black Box sympathetic resonance devices - when we first heard the bass bloat in that 35x50 room I was terrified, envisioning ridicule and abject sonic failure - it's a huge room, and no matter how good the equipment is, if it sounds like the ceiling might fall in on you, you've got a problem! But once Dave Weintraub got to work tuning the room, the fears went away and elation prevailed. The room sounded damn good, and I have him and Synergistic to thank for it. Show attendance was nowhere near as low as I feared, but it wasn't as much as I had hoped. Either way, we are getting back to normal and that is good enough for me!
Another company near and dear to my heart is VPI. They called days before the show and asked my opinion on hardware they could use, and I came up with PA 3100 HV and MP 3100 HV for them with the JBL Project Everest speakers. Harry and Mat were over the moon with the sound quality, and I have promised them M 40 HV's and the SDV or P 3100 HV for next year. Two more converts to T+A! In addition to that, consider this: a turntable manufacturer also had a digital section in their room, and it was driven by my Wolf Audio Systems Alpha 3 SX server with the MP 3100 HV DAC and a Synergistic Research Galileo SX USB Cable. It sounded amazing, and that Harry was comfortable using the Audio Server for such a critical listening space is awesome, and a testament to what we do over with Wolf and T+A.
Other T+A developments at the show included Linear Tube Audio using the Solitaire-P headphones to show off their newest amp, and come to think of it, the P-SE's were also borrowed by one guy to demo in his space and he came back excited as well.
We'll be adding more show pics and posting more quotes from reviewers, visitors and dealers alike once we get unpacked and get our rooms put back together here in Florida. Thanks Everyone!"
- Joe Parvey
