As a first-timer at CAF, my first order of business was to get a lay of the land. The Rockville Hilton has an unusual but good layout for a conference. Rooms are relatively easy to find and there are only a handful of truly out-of-the-way spots that are tough to locate. It’s also not that big, so you can cover a lot of ground quickly. Even though the elevators are a bit slow it’s not that big of a deal to navigate where you want to go without climbing a Mount Everest’s worth of stairs.
Words and Photos by Graig Neville
I started with TAD Laboratories. on CAF Day One. I had a demo scheduled with TAD CEO Shinji Tarutani and the American distributor Dave Malekpour of Pro Audio Design, Inc. I’ll dive deeper into the TAD demo in a future article, but TAD is working on updating and expanding their product line and is looking to grow their North American dealer network.
Both TAD rooms sounded great, embodying their slogan “Artists intent, intact.” TAD has a new preamplifier, the C1000-S ($25,000), on the market and was also showing the new GE1-WN speaker ($65,000). TAD had a compelling sound that was neutral without being clinical and full bodied without being colored and juicy. I heard great potential with the TAD system in both of their rooms, and I’m sure more extensive reviews are on the horizon.
Brian Hunter covered Doug White’s The Voice That Is room showing off the new TIDAL Audio Contriva G3 ($79,000) driven by TIDAL Audio electronics and new Siltech Ruby Crown cables. Power duties were supported by Equitech and everything rested on Ictra Design Proto racks. The sound was full, dynamic, and certainly exciting – definitely one of my top picks for the show.
Next was the 20/20 Evolution room which had Kharma Exquisite Midi speakers driven by conrad-johnson monoblock amps and electronics, Kuzma turntable, Truitt Physics and Siltech cables.
This system has been covered in previous Part-Time Audiophile show reports and the sonics were just as impressive at CAF 2023 as they have been at past shows.
Audio Group Denmark brought the big boy speakers to CAF, showing off the new flagship Børresen M6 ($550,000) and the lower priced X6. Electronics were the Aavik 880 series including the US debut of the SD-880 streamer-DAC.
The sound on CAF Day One was large, robust, and powerful from these speakers, which though narrow, are probably 6-ft tall or more. The Børresen design aesthetic is one of the most futuristic designs I’ve seen at the show, implementing all sorts of current materials technology. No boxy speakers to be found anywhere in the lineup.
I’m not sure why so many rooms are so dark at CAF, maybe folks are trying to conserve electricity, but the NOLA room sounded very good despite the lighting. Some of my best listening sessions are in a dark quiet room, so maybe it isn’t that weird, but it makes photography brutal.
These were beautifully finished wood speakers, but in the photos they looked black. The Nola Baby Grand Reference Gold 3 speakers sounded wonderful on the new VAC Essence line of electronics.
Speaking of VAC, I spoke with Kevin Haynes, head honcho at VAC, about what was new. The Essence 80 Monoblock amplifiers ($9,900 each) debuted earlier this year at Pacific Audio Fest and besides being played in the Nola room, were on static display outside the VAC/Von Schweikert/The Audio Company room.
Adding to the Essence line is an Essence Line Stage ($9,000) and a still in development Essence Phono Stage. Much like a fine wine, Kevin is not releasing the phono stage until he has captured the essence of vinyl. The Essence line is also half sized, being 9 inches wide, but with a full depth chassis that should make placement more flexible.
On the way back up I stopped by the Iconoclast Cables booth. Iconoclast is a subsidiary of Blue Jeans
Cables and is a spinoff from Belden. It’s a cool story of a Belden engineer that felt there was better cable design available from the Belden knowledge repository, but when Belden wasn’t interested in making higher-end cables he started his own company. Iconoclast still uses Belden facilities to fabricate their wares, renting portions of the production lines to make cables in batches. Cool stuff.
Hands down the most beautiful or at least most interesting speakers on CAF Day One were in the Treehaus Audiolab room. With an open baffle design using beautiful wood panels, Rick has created a system that is as gorgeous as it sounds.
Running on tubed electronics developed by Treehaus using a total of 8 watts and having a purposely vintage look, Treehaus is doing something special and different in the industry. Check them out. Rick has been using Blue Jeans and Iconoclast cables for some time now and introduced many of the Part-Time Audiophile folks to the brand.
Hearing good sound in the hallway on CAF Day One and searching for the new tube output DAC from Linear Tube Audio, I caught up with Michael Kraske of Credo. Our own Marc Phillips recently toured the Credo factory in Switzerland so after some pleasantries I gave the room a proper listen.
The EV1202 ($16,995) sounded fantastic running on the MicroZOTL Preamplifier (Level 2) and ZOTL40 Reference+ monoblock power amps ($6,800). Digital was from the Meitner MA3 ($10,500) with van den Hul cables (Inspiration Hybrid speaker cables – $1,600, 3T Mountain Interconnects – $1,265, and Mainserver power cables – $290).
I was on the hunt for the new Linear Tube Audio Aero DAC ($3,600) on CAF Day One and spoke with founder Mark Schneider. Mark explained that they really hadn’t intended on designing a DAC, but fate, technology, and a key supporting cast presented itself. With a steep learning curve, outside help, and alignment of the universe the Aero DAC was born. This R2R ladder DAC uses the ZOTL output stage, zero negative feedback, and isolated power rails. I’ll report more on how this reasonably priced tube DAC sounds in the Day 2 show report once I track it down.
I did visit two of the DarTZeel rooms on CAF Day One. In the first Stenheim was playing SuperTramp. Much toe tapping and head bobbing was going on and the hi-tech looks and appearance of the big monoblock DarTZeel was impressive, both sonically and aesthetically.
In the second room was the integrated amp playing on Estelon speakers. Though less powerful and robust the texture of the DarTzeel and Estelon was pairing was smooth, sweet, and delicate.
CAF Day One was winding down at this point for the evening and socializing and commiserating ensued. I was looking forward to filling in the gaps in Day 1 coverage, which was nearly half of the show. CAF is a smaller, more intimate show than AXPONA, which made for a more relaxed atmosphere. Besides the hotel itself there are more amenities within walking distance than at AXPONA, which adds the the charm of this show.
Nice highlights, Graig. Keep up the good work!