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Capital Audiofest 2025; November 14th-16th

Snarfie said:
Imo audio shows like this offer limited value for serious technical evaluation: poor room acoustics make listening tests unreliable, and DSP demos rarely translate well. Good DACs amps an speakers (not mentioning the snake oil products) are already affordable, shrinking the real high-end difference.

For casual browsing and networking they’re fine, but what is the real added value of these shows? Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

I have found tons of added value to audio shows. I have very often encountered or learned of products that led me to some great experience and purchases later on.

Off the top of my head:

After first hearing Thiel CS6 speakers driven by tube amplifiers and being blown away at a show, I literally re-created that in my room with those speakers and tube amps. One of my favourite systems.

I first encountered Hales Transcendence 8 speakers at a CES show, they drew me into the room with one of the most realistic presentations of instrumental timbers I had heard. That led me to seeking out that brand and auditioning more of their loudspeakers, and eventually, I ended up owning Hales Transcendence 5 floor standing speakers.
And I still use Hales Transcendence speakers from my home theatre.

It was that audio shows that I first encountered MBL omnis which again blew my mind and started my obsession with them. Later, I was finally able to own a pair. Incredible.

I first heard the Joseph Audio Pearl speakers at a Montreal audio show. I didn’t really know anything about the brand, but I was struck by some of the most human and timbrally convincing reproduction of human voices through that system that I had ever heard. Really perked my ears up so I found out that there was a dealer in my city. I auditioned some of the more affordable (to me) speakers which had the same qualities. And I’ve owned Joseph Perspective speakers very happily for the past six years or so.

Other speaker brand is off the top of my head where I was impressed at a show, and led me to discover more of my favourite speakers..Harbeth, Kudos… probably some others I’m forgetting.

So while I agree it tends to be hard for exhibitors to get optimal sound at shows, sometimes they do achieve a good set up and then you can hear something that might be eye opening or get you interested in going in a direction you hadn’t thought about before. At least it worked for me.
 
If it sounds good at a show, it probably actually sounds good. If it sounds bad, it's harder to know to what degree it's the speakers, the room or the setup. Or your own positioning. Some people stand in the doorway and judge the sound, not ideal. :)
 
PristineSound said:
I won't ask you what you thought about the sound from there speakers but did you here room resonance in this room?
Click to expand...

I didn't stay long, maybe half a song (which was unknown to me), as I was demonstrating in a room myself. So I almost literally ran through the rooms of the rest of the show. But I can't say I reacted to lots of resonances in the bass, no. And it was a huge room so I wouldn't expect there to be typical room modes in the sense you'd get at home.
 
Ecoustics has a nice overview of about 30 of the rooms.

Capital Audiofest 2025: Best in Show Capital Audiofest 2025 wrapped the hi-fi show season with standout systems, strong crowds, and big sound. Here’s what impressed us!​


ecoustics CAF25.png
 
sigbergaudio said:
I didn't stay long, maybe half a song (which was unknown to me), as I was demonstrating in a room myself. So I almost literally ran through the rooms of the rest of the show. But I can't say I reacted to lots of resonances in the bass, no. And it was a huge room so I wouldn't expect there to be typical room modes in the sense you'd get at home.
Click to expand...
Interesting. You make a very good point, the room is big. I was sitting on the side, I did hear some bass resonance/ringing, it was not clean bass. I actually went back twice to double check, unfortunately both times, I sat in the same spot due to limited seating.

But, that is the unfortunately part of shows, you can never really truly judge how good or bad a speaker is.
 
PristineSound said:
Interesting. You make a very good point, the room is big. I was sitting on the side, I did hear some bass resonance/ringing, it was not clean bass. I actually went back twice to double check, unfortunately both times, I sat in the same spot due to limited seating.

But, that is the unfortunately part of shows, you can never really truly judge how good or bad a speaker is.
Click to expand...

I suspect the JBL 66000 will have pretty clean bass when set up properly. But yes it's hard to judge both because of the room and the choices of music.

In the largest Børresen room that probably had gear for 900,000USD or something, they were playing vinyl with some classical music likely recorded in the 1950s that someone in the audience apparently had requested. If I had entered the room at that moment without really understanding much about acoustics, and judged the system based on how that recording sounded in that room.. well.. :)
 
sigbergaudio said:
In the largest Børresen room that probably had gear for 900,000USD or something, they were playing vinyl with some classical music likely recorded in the 1950s that someone in the audience apparently had requested.
Click to expand...
Good lord, the worse two possible combinations.
 
sigbergaudio said:
I suspect the JBL 66000 will have pretty clean bass when set up properly. But yes it's hard to judge both because of the room and the choices of music.

In the largest Børresen room that probably had gear for 900,000USD or something, they were playing vinyl with some classical music likely recorded in the 1950s that someone in the audience apparently had requested. If I had entered the room at that moment without really understanding much about acoustics, and judged the system based on how that recording sounded in that room.. well.. :)
Click to expand...
man, i got the vinyl guy at the acora/vac room on the first floor to stream mouth of kala-gojira for me. it was massive, palpable and tangible. filled the room. just about everyone left afterwards when some slow ass jazz was put on.
saw the owner/rep say something to the guy. like he wasn't pleased. but people came to hear it, doh.
im not trying to badmouth anybody's taste. but i do not listen to 95% of the stuff played at shows. does zero for me.
how im sposta want to buy your gear but you dont want to play what i would play on it.
i truly believe that puts a damper on sales. and gatekeeps newbies who do not listen to jazz, classical or classic rock.
 
MattHooper said:
I have found tons of added value to audio shows. I have very often encountered or learned of products that led me to some great experience and purchases later on.

Off the top of my head:

After first hearing Thiel CS6 speakers driven by tube amplifiers and being blown away at a show, I literally re-created that in my room with those speakers and tube amps. One of my favourite systems.

I first encountered Hales Transcendence 8 speakers at a CES show, they drew me into the room with one of the most realistic presentations of instrumental timbers I had heard. That led me to seeking out that brand and auditioning more of their loudspeakers, and eventually, I ended up owning Hales Transcendence 5 floor standing speakers.
And I still use Hales Transcendence speakers from my home theatre.

It was that audio shows that I first encountered MBL omnis which again blew my mind and started my obsession with them. Later, I was finally able to own a pair. Incredible.

I first heard the Joseph Audio Pearl speakers at a Montreal audio show. I didn’t really know anything about the brand, but I was struck by some of the most human and timbrally convincing reproduction of human voices through that system that I had ever heard. Really perked my ears up so I found out that there was a dealer in my city. I auditioned some of the more affordable (to me) speakers which had the same qualities. And I’ve owned Joseph Perspective speakers very happily for the past six years or so.

Other speaker brand is off the top of my head where I was impressed at a show, and led me to discover more of my favourite speakers..Harbeth, Kudos… probably some others I’m forgetting.

So while I agree it tends to be hard for exhibitors to get optimal sound at shows, sometimes they do achieve a good set up and then you can hear something that might be eye opening or get you interested in going in a direction you hadn’t thought about before. At least it worked for me.
Click to expand...
You have owned a LOT of speakers- which one set-up would you keep if you had to get rid of all of them?
 
izeek said:
man, i got the vinyl guy at the acora/vac room on the first floor to stream mouth of kala-gojira for me. it was massive, palpable and tangible. filled the room. just about everyone left afterwards when some slow ass jazz was put on.
saw the owner/rep say something to the guy. like he wasn't pleased. but people came to hear it, doh.
im not trying to badmouth anybody's taste. but i do not listen to 95% of the stuff played at shows. does zero for me.
how im sposta want to buy your gear but you dont want to play what i would play on it.
i truly believe that puts a damper on sales. and gatekeeps newbies who do not listen to jazz, classical or classic rock.
Click to expand...
They play what the majority of people listen to, rock music is by far the most proliferated music in the 20th century, so that's what they play. If you have a certain request, you can ask for it, but if the rep there is gate keeping, then that is a bad rep and a bad brand, just pick up and leave.

I so happen to have a very broad spectrum of musical tastes, I like almost all types of music, one of the exceptions is metal, so I probably would have walked out when you were enjoying kala-gojira.
 
jmdesignz2 said:
You have owned a LOT of speakers-
Click to expand...

Who…. ME? :D

jmdesignz2 said:
which one set-up would you keep if you had to get rid of all of them?
Click to expand...

I think possibly the best overall sound I’ve had my room was with my Thiel 3.7 speakers. They just seemed to do it all so well, combine so many of the attributes I care about . Still, I prefer some aspects of my Joseph Perspectives (and even some aspects of my Thiel 2.7s).

But in the end, the reason I wouldn’t keep the 3.7s is the reason I sold them - too big.

So of all the loudspeakers I’ve owned, my favourites have been the Thiel 3.7 , Thiel 2.7 and Joseph Perspectives, and I still own the 2.7s and Josephs, so I guess it would come down to choosing between the Thiels and Josephs. That’s such a tough pick that I couldn’t make the choice which is why I kept both.

The Thiels sound tonally convincing, sound a bit bigger than the Josephs, and they have a thicker, denser more corporeal presentation than the Joseph speakers.

The Joseph speakers do an incredible disappearing act, and sound summit more refined especially in the highs, and tonally/timbrally they are the most gorgeous speakers I’ve heard in that respect. I find the mesmerizing. Plus the Joseph speakers sound quite fun and punchy for plenty of music (both speakers play all types of music wonderfully).

I think if I absolutely had to choose one, it would be the Joseph speakers at this point.
I find their level of refinement just so compelling, and they are smaller and slimmer so they take up less room.
 
PristineSound said:
They play what the majority of people listen to, rock music is by far the most proliferated music in the 20th century, so that's what they play.
Click to expand...

??

Exhibitors in general definitely does not play mostly rock music.
 
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