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Join Us at the Guangzhou High End Show Dec 26-28
Capital Audio Fest 2025 Recap
Written By Danny Kaey aka Sonic Flare
Attending this year’s Capital Audio Fest (“CAF”) for the first time since it burst onto the scene as a regional show more than a decade ago, I couldn’t help reminisce my attendance of past HiFi shows. Indeed, over the decades of reviewing audio gear, I must have written dozens and dozens of show reports stretching multiple countries and continents. CAF 2025 however, was the first time that I had switched hats so to speak and participated as member of the EMM team instead of as an independent reviewer.
Partnering with our US distributor and evergreen John McGurk of AudioShield, we presented our crown jewels in two distinctly different environments, room “651” and “Jackson Suite”. 651 was the typical hotel room show setup; intimate, relatable and conversational. The MTRS stereo amp and DV2i / TXi combo played genuinely musical sounds through Credo’s EV 900 Ref speakers. CDs really sounded great, our all new TXi CD transport showcasing this now 40+ year old technology in all it’s delicate and nuanced glory. Quite many visitors opined that CDs suddenly sounded “hi-res” and remarkably musical.
Jackson Suite, on the other hand, was our version of a be all end all, state of the art reference system, flanked by the mighty Goebel Divin Noblesse speakers expertly setup by Goebel’s US distributor, Elliot Goldman. Here, the Divin’s were powered by our MTRX V2 mono amplifiers, nominally rated at 1000W, however, in reality, having virtually limitless power. The heart of the system was our PRE preamplifier, routing signals from the DV2i / TXi, Clearaudio Jubilee Reference (with DS Audio GM EX cartridge) turntable / DS-EQ1 optical energizer and my own SonoruS modified ReVox PR-99 Mk III reel to reel machine which I had brought to the show. As an added bonus, the DV2i also accessed Tidal via a dedicated server, the Pink Faun 2.16 Ultra Streamer with USB bridge.
Cabling - an often overlooked core system component - was Kimber Kabel’s all new “Neo” all silver line of loom. Sonically speaking, while I do not have much experience with Kimber’s line of cables, the sound we had in Jackson Suite was truly state of the art. Bold, dynamic, extended with equal clarity and extension into both frequency extremes, I could indeed and quite easily call this one of the top systems of the show.
Guests and visitors were wowed by tape, records and of course digital. A popular crowd favorite was Kraftwerk’s The Robots, an SHI processed tape that allows for a genuine 270º sound field; the sleeper hit however, was my original 1986 US Capitol CD pressing of Tina Turner’s Private Dancer. Having had the TXi in my own system for a few months now, I have particularly grown fond of spinning up those early non-remastered, or, as I call them, “non-futzed” with discs, because they sound absolutely magical. Truth be told, I have in fact been playing more CDs in the last few months, than in the past decade combined. Our engineering team truly hit one out of the park with the latest digital developments in the DA/V2i DAC and TXi transport. Magical, indeed!
Saturday saw us host the world premier of not one, but two upcoming Intervention Records all analog reissues from the vaults of the mighty Memphis based Sun record label. Trust me, when you hear Carl Perkins Blue Suede Shoes and Johnny Cash With His Hot and Blue Guitar, spun at 45rpm, you will have in fact been teleported to 1956/57, with both artists literally glued between your speakers in absolutely phenomenal, multi layered mono sound.
Shane Buettner, proprietor of Intervention Records, who unfortunately was unable to make the show due to the ongoing FAA kerfuffle, made up for his lack of presence by delivering not only the test pressings, but also the lacquers of these two records. As you may know, lacquers are the absolute closest you can get to the master tapes, since this lacquer is a direct copy, nay, “cut” of the very tape used to create the record. Needless to say, hearing a lacquer vs. the test pressing is quite the auditory experience: there simply is more presence, even more dynamics and a complete lack of any surface noise. This presentation was also a definite crowd pleaser, as many musicphiles simply loved these original hits from 70 years ago. I, for one, have already pre-ordered my copies and can only hope that more Sun records will be meticulously reissued by Intervention Records.
Sunday, usually the “quiet” day for shows, I would generally spend time catching up with industry people, friends and alike; this time, however, I used Sunday as my official “filming” day. Indeed, you will see my CAF 2025 short film on our EMMLabs YouTube channel in due time. Familiar faces - now 25 years older - mixed with newly minted friends such as Lenny Florentine, from his popular YouTube channel, really do make this industry what it really is: a collection of music and gear lovers from across the world. Fragmented though our industry is, attending a show really does open eyes and ears to the world of audio. From HAM receivers, to tubes, to tube radios, vinyl, reel to reel and the latest in digital, you simply can’t escape the fact that people can all come together and celebrate the power of music.
Find out about our next Audio Show Appearances here.
SECRETS Best of Awards 2025:
Meitner MA3i Wins Best High-End DAC Award!
We’re thrilled to announce that the Meitner MA3i Integrated Converter has been awarded Best High-End DAC in the SECRETS Best of Awards 2025.
This recognition means a great deal to our entire team, and we’re grateful to Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity for highlighting the engineering and musical performance behind the MA3i.
In his in-depth review, John E. Johnson, Jr. praised the MA3i for its exceptionally low distortion, advanced digital architecture, and seamless integration of streaming platforms including TIDAL, Qobuz, Roon, USB, and UPnP/DLNA. He noted that the MA3i performs at such a high level that the rest of the system often becomes the limiting factor—an incredible compliment to the work behind this design.
We’re honoured to see the MA3i recognized at the top of its class and delighted that listeners and reviewers alike are experiencing what makes this DAC so special.
