Capital Audio Fest 2019

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by ProfessorC1983, Oct 27, 2019.

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  1. LitHum05

    LitHum05 El Disco es Cultura

    Location:
    Virginia
    It's somewhat ironic that the "avant-garde" are the least ugly.
     
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  2. ProfessorC1983

    ProfessorC1983 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    I spent some quality time with those as well, but what really impressed me were the Aurorus Audio headphones sitting next to them (the ones with the seatbelt material as a head strap). Not released yet but suggested retail was $899 and to my ears they held their ground with the $4000 Focals and were more comfortable on my (admittedly large) head. The closed-back version was also remarkably close in sound signature to the open-backs which was quite a surprise. Sounds like they're targeting a December release date.
     
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  3. timind

    timind phorum rezident

    Who cares?

    I did own a pair of their smaller speakers, Lores if I recall. Bought them used after reading all the hype. Couldn't get them to sound decent so sold them less than a month later
     
  4. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    I hear ya', but this guy's speakers seem to have their fans, even on THIS forum. I've never heard any of his speakers and the one time that I almost bought into the Tekton hype, Eric himself talked me out of it, when I told him that I wanted to pump 450 McIntosh watts per channel into his speakers and he said something like "you may want to give them a break every 20 to 30 minutes or they may start a fire", LOL and that did it for me! I guess I have to ask why his speakers keep getting larger and larger, as if his smaller designs don't have enough drivers ..., talk about a "wall of sound".
     
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  5. Larry I

    Larry I Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, D.C.
    I heard the big Tektons at the show. They were okay, but, I could not say they brought more to the table than the Double Impacts that were at the show last year. For $3,000, there are not that many better sounding speakers than the Double Impacts.

    As for the idea of pumping 450 watts into almost ANY speaker for anything more than brief transients, good luck on finding something that will take that abuse. Given the high efficiency of the Tekton speakers, I cannot see what would be the purpose of that exercise.
     
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  6. james

    james Summon The Queen

    Location:
    Annapolis
    interesting. I respect your opinion and 3k is more my within my price bracket than the stuff you usually talk about here. I’ll have to check them out.
     
  7. jonwoody

    jonwoody Tragically Unhip

    Location:
    Washington DC
    I thought the Tektons were bombastic and not in a good way not to mention just fugly as all get out. Another speaker I was curious to hear due to the hype was Magico and I found them to be bright and a bit clinical. A big speaker that pleasantly surprised me was the Kef Muon I thought they sounded much improved over the last time VPI used them at Cap Audiofest.
     
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  8. Larry I

    Larry I Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, D.C.
    The Muons also sounded okay, but, I found the Blades to sound pretty good too, at a much lower price. Of course they were in different rooms and had different gear upstream (the Blades were powered by CAT tube electronics), so this is not a direct comparison.

    Does anyone recall the name of the wooden oval shaped two way speakers that had a wide range driver and a tweeter? The cabinet was made of wood that was slightly orange in color. I liked them a lot, but, I can't recall the name.
     
  9. LitHum05

    LitHum05 El Disco es Cultura

    Location:
    Virginia
    The Tektons look like they might come after you if you fall asleep on the couch.
     
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  10. Larry I

    Larry I Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, D.C.
    Actually, the Muons are the scary looking things. Just to be safe, I kept uttering Klattu Barada Nikto when I approached them.

    Nothing big in size was really pretty to look at, except maybe the Acapella speakers.
     
  11. Salectric

    Salectric Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    I believe those oval speakers were Sound Kaos. They sounded nice during my visit there.
     
  12. TheIncredibleHoke

    TheIncredibleHoke Dachshund Dog Dad

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    :laughup:

    Am definitely not a fan of the "try too hard" speaker designs. I'm sure they sound fine, but I would have to look at them in my room and most of the "big boy" speakers would be a hard no for me. They look like the owners are overcompensating for something.
     
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  13. LitHum05

    LitHum05 El Disco es Cultura

    Location:
    Virginia
    They’re so ugly that just the thought of owning them would give my wife nightmares. It’s like, with these things I’m totally for WAF too.
     
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  14. RWBadley

    RWBadley Not an Animal

    Location:
    Reno NV USA
    The Daedalus Audio speakers are quite attractive, any thoughts on their sound signature?
     
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  15. james

    james Summon The Queen

    Location:
    Annapolis
    I saw on the Tekton website that grills are available for a small upcharge, so no biggie. I prefer most speakers (visually) with their grills on anyways.
     
  16. Larry I

    Larry I Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, D.C.
    You are correct, they are the Sound Kaos speakers. Thank you.

    I also liked the Pure Audio Project open baffle with a horn system. The had the kind of pure sound one associates with good open baffle designs, reasonable bass respone and imaged reasonably well. I think they also looked more than presentable. The other nice looking and nice sounding open baffle system was the Spatial M3. The room with the spatial kept emphasizing how the entire system, except for the source component, costs under $10,000.

    In one of the big rooms at the show, GT Audioworks demonstrated their large panel speakers with separate woofers. This system delivered sound with excellent body and sense of a live performance. In particular, it was capable of floating an image where certain instruments appeared to be well in front of the plane of the speaker--that is something I do not often hear.
     
  17. james

    james Summon The Queen

    Location:
    Annapolis
    I spent some time looking at the Spatial site last night. I don't know much about open baffle speakers. As @Larry I mentioned, I see them referred to as being open sounding with articulate bass.

    What are their pros and cons with placement? Do they need to be far out in the room? I have a small-ish room with high ceilings, suspended wood floors and windows many windows on each wall. My ideal speaker would be something that doesn't have to be too far out from a wall and has a fairly narrow dispersion (i think) to avoid reflections from windows.
     
  18. Billion$Baby

    Billion$Baby Forum Resident

    Location:
    IM AT WKRP
    For those that don't like the look of the Devore O 93/96's you can always get them done in a custom color. They did my 96's in a Quilted top which I much preferred over their "normal" look which I couldn't stand.

    [​IMG]
     
  19. Larry I

    Larry I Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, D.C.
    Most open baffle designs do better with some room behind the speaker (at least 3-4 feet) so that the back wave reflecting off the back wall will be delayed in time enough that it becomes part of the ambient soundfield instead of being heard as part of the direct sound from the front drivers. They tend to do okay with closer spacing to side walls because the out of phase front and back signals will tend to cancel to some degree at the side of the speaker. Most of the open baffle designs I've heard have somewhat narrow dispersion, but, that is probably the product of other aspects of design so I wouldn't necessarily attribute this to the open baffle.

    The front-back cancellation becomes more pronounced at lower frequencies; most open baffle designs do not have very deep bass unless they employ tactics to counteract such cancellation. They also have less bass because they don't have an enclosure for the bass driver, but, that is part of the bargain because they avoid box coloration by being open baffle. If you are a deep bass fiend, you will not like open baffle.
     
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  20. Salectric

    Salectric Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    Those were my top two choices as well—-Pure Audio Project (each channel had four 15” woofers and the horn midrange/tweeter), and Spatial Audio M3.

    The EMIA room with biamped double Quads didn’t sound as good as last year. It just didn’t have the magic that last year’s double-double Quads had. When I mentioned this to a friend of Dave Slagle, he told me that Dave didn’t have the correct parts he needed for the crossover so the setup was not tuned properly.
     
  21. Billion$Baby

    Billion$Baby Forum Resident

    Location:
    IM AT WKRP
    Contrary to what Larry stated I have read they can be placed not too far off the back wall. PLENTY of reviews online which show placement. I was planning on buying a pair of Pure Audio Project ones and no way would I even consider them if they had to be placed 3-4 feet off the back wall. There are also several Youtube videos showing these being used much closer to the back walls than 3-4 feet[​IMG]
     
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  22. Larry I

    Larry I Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, D.C.
    I like open baffle speakers away from the back wall, but, there are no absolutes on anything. I tend to like all forms of speakers off of the back wall except for those specifically designed to be close to the back wall for bass support, such as Audio Note speakers. The open baffle speakers at the Capital Audiofest were off of the back wall, even though the rooms were on the small side.

    Open baffle speakers are essentially dipole speakers (producing sound both from the back and front in almost equal measure, and with the front and back wave in opposite phase) and they often require similar placement consideration.
     
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  23. Dennis Ashendorf

    Dennis Ashendorf New Member

    Location:
    Costa Mesa, CA
    Dear SJ,

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