CAF 2015: Volti Audio and Triode Wire Labs

Some last-minute wrangling saw Greg Roberts of Volti Audio decide to make the trek to this year’s Capital Audiofest down from Benton, Maine — and this year, he brought some tube-gear from McIntosh Labs to the party.

Overall, I think this room was one-of-the-better presentations I’ve heard from Volti. The focus was a little soft, and the detail-retrieval a little light, but the forgiving sound that I heard was big, strong and muscular. I’m a big fan of the blue-dials/exposed chrome+tubes of the McIntosh gear, and this experience lines up with what I’ve come to expect from that brand.

Aligned along the long-wall, Mac gear drove the three-unit speaker Vittora system (two “mains” + sub) to generate fulsome, lush music “at” those of us lined up opposite, with a now-common and completely spectacular coherence and panic-inducing jump-factor.

I’ve written about these speakers so many times that I feel like I’m repeating myself here — so I’ll save you some time and just confess that I love ’em. They’re $25k for the set, and as Art Dudley of Stereophile has mentioned every time these speakers have come up: they’re heirloom pieces. Big, bold, and incredible space hogs, to be sure. But if you have the space, your grand-kids are going to come to blows over who gets ’em. If I had a different listening room (and a bag full o’ cash), or more control over my living room (and a bag full o’ cash), I’d have bought a set of these several years ago. Oh boy howdy, do I want my very own set. I’m getting all Gollum, just thinking about them. Preciousss!

Greg teamed up with Triode Pete of Triode Wire Labs to wire the kit up. I’ll come back to TWL shortly, but I will offer that Pete has had several opportunities to dramatically raise his prices and has refused. I love that. I also love the fact that his wiring loom is really quite remarkable — and those power cords are the best value in cabling today. No, $550 isn’t cheap, but I’d take a fistful of Seven+ over just about every other vendor out there, regardless of price, and yes, I’m looking squarely at the $5k-and-up segment as I type that. I call that value.