WASHINGTON, DC (PTA) — Updates continue to roll in. Each one highlighting the “what’s going down” at this years Capital Audiofest 2019. Along with the largest ever 80+ exhibit rooms, Capital Audiofest looks to bring even more live entertainment, social events, and educational seminars. Below is a rundown we received of what to expect at this year’s Capital Audiofest.
As we approach the close of the year, it feels much like “audio show season” has come to its finale. The season coming to its climax with what may be a banner year for Capital Audiofest as CAF 2019 exhibitor participation reaches a new maximum. This year’s Capital Audiofest is on track to be the largest yet, with almost 250 brands already scheduled to show, and the event is still almost a month away.
The Dream Team
As usual, the Part-Time Audiophile Dream Team will be in attendance to deliver our world-renowned and comprehensive exhibit coverage. Along with stories that outline the spirit of the event and audiophile community.
While at Capital Audiofest 2019, the boys (fellow industry mavens Grover Neville, Jameson Mourafetis, and Marc Boyle) and I will be hosting an Under Forty Dinner where anyone and everyone attending the show, who feels they accurately represent “the under forty” crowd (be it literally or spiritually) can gather with other young audiophiles. Where in one place we can have a good time, along with sharing and refining our generations thoughts about the hobby, the industry, and its future.
So often it’s one lonely voice of youth: in a room, on a panel, or in a thread online — representing an entire generation or two. Having us all together, around one big table, will help us to define and qualify our message to the industry.
Helping us make our Under Forty Dinner an extra special evening is VPI Industries, who will be hosting our late-night Listening-After-Party.
Information about the first Under Forty Dinner can be found here. Information about the upcoming Under Forty Dinner can be found on our CAF 2019 Facebook event page here.
Ways to follow our CAF 2019 coverage
There’s no place like home, and that place for us is the Part-Time Audiophile homepage. Where daily coverage from Eric Franklin Shook™ will begin on day one of the show.
There’s also The Occasional Podcast where host and editor Brian Hunter (of AudioHead) conducts in-depth interviews which often rival those of network television’s greatest late night icons.
And of course there’s the The Occasional Magazine where editor Marc Phillips takes a deeper dive into the audiophile lifestyle, which encompasses much of the luxury arena. Be it travel, cigars, fine spirits, cars, and the occasional component review.
Capital Audiofest’s Biggest Show Ever!
Rockville, MD — It’s just 10 days to go before the opening of The Capital Audiofest 2019. Promises made … Promises kept! We promised to provide consumers with great audio, great music and a great time, and here’s what we plan to deliver for a very full 3-day weekend:
2 new floors with many more demo rooms, brands and an expanded Atrium MarketplaceCapital Audiofest has opened up the 2nd and 4th floors, and we now have 82 rooms at this SOLD OUT Show, with over 120 Exhibitors and over 220 Brands! There will also be over 40 Atrium Marketplace vendors including at least 2 dozen vinyl/LP sellers, making the Show a veritable “Record Fair.”
Speaking of vinyl… VPI will be setting up 3 rooms with ½ dozen Record cleaning machines, where attendees can get a limited number of their records cleaned for free. Qobuz and Tenacious Sound will be setting up a Listening Lounge in the Plaza II Ballroom, for show-goers to sample streaming and turntable set-ups with headphones, and just hang out and chill, with free WiFi.
Live Music Friday and Saturday night, and after-hours Listening parties
Our Seminars and Events* include a full range of Seminars on Friday and Saturday as well as a film and blues and jazz live music and many exhibitors hosting after-hours listening sessions in their rooms, including The Legendary UHA After Hours Analog Tape Events will be held Friday and Saturday nights starting at 8:00 pm in United Home Audio’s Regency Room.
Every afternoon at 4:00pm, local Distillers will begin tastings of their fare in the Hotel Lobby. On Friday, Jay Summerour and Friends playing Live Low-Down Blues Friday evening in Olives, the hotel bar. Part-Time Audiophile and VPI have an “Under Forty” cocktail party and after-hours listing event, also at Olives. On Saturday, we will be showing a screening of selected scenes from “Anacostia Delta” in the Washington Auditorium. Later that evening – especially for Fender Telecaster fans – the SPELLBINDERS will be playing LIVE music from Anacostia Delta. The Embassy Jazz Messengers will be playing live at Olives from 6-8PM.
*Seminars and Events descriptions and times document is attached.
**List of Exhibitors and Brands at end of documentAmazing prizes and giveaways!
Visit Now Listen Here, Legacy Audio, and Tenacious Sound at Capital Audio Fest 2019 for a chance to win a pair of Legacy Audio Studio HD speakers valued at $1,795! Visit ANY of our four rooms to enter the giveaway: Montgomery Room, 315, 317, and 319.
Benchmark Media Systems, Inc. will be demonstrating their award wining DACs, Power Amp, Line Amp and Headphone Amp in The Jackson Room along with Martin Logan electrostatic speakers. Attendees may register for a chance to win a Benchmark DAC2 DX D-to-A converter worth $1695.
Tenacious Sound has giveaways every night and many of the exhibitors will have special Demo times, Show Specials and other promotions.
CAF 2019 Seminars & Events Schedule & Information
*All Events will be in the Washington Auditorium unless otherwise noted.
Friday November 1st
10:00 AM – Show Opens
1:00 PM – Bill Hutchins, LKV Research: Class D Power Amps – The Basics: How, What, Why
An easy to understand introduction to Class D amplifiers. Find out what they are and are not, how they work, and why, when properly implemented, they offer sonic improvement relative to Class AB amplifiers.For LKV, Bill Hutchins has designed and overseen production of a full line of amplification products, including phono amps, preamps, integrated amplifiers, headphone amps and power amps incorporating class D output modules. Bill learned his craft the hands-on way. Since age 12 he has built, tested, modified, designed and perfected electronic equipment, including radio gear for his own HAM radio station (N4DRB), high-end speakers, tube amps and many varieties of solid-state amplification devices. For many years he had to fit his electronics passion around raising his kids and his fulltime job as a trial lawyer at the US Department of Justice. But when he retired from law, he founded LKV and dove into audio design fulltime.
3:00 PM – High End Audio: Hi-Res Reality Check and the Move to HIFI Streaming
Dr. Mark Waldrep will discuss a variety of important aspects about high end audio. Learn about high-resolution formats and how to get the best sound without spending a lot of money.Dr. Mark Waldrep has been an audio professional for over 35 years with years of experience as a software developer, musician, recording engineer and entrepreneur. His clients include the L.A. Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Orchestra, The Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers, Neil Young, Tool, Kiss, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and 311. He founded PCSW in 1989 as a CD pre-mastering business using one of the first Sonic Solutions DAWs. His automated audio software tools established his company as the preeminent media service bureau for Warner New Media, Spectrum Holobyte, Broderbund, Virgin Interactive and The Learning Company. In 1994, his innovative idea to place music videos, interviews, liner notes, and web connectivity in the pre-gap area of a standard audio CD resulted in the birth of the Enhanced CD format. AIX released the first DVD-Video titles in the U.S. in March of 1997, produced the first DVD/DVD-ROM hybrid title, the first DVD with motion graphics menus, the first with multiple camera angles, and the first with Web connection software.
4:00 PM – Michal Jurewicz, Founder and Principal Designer, Mytek Digital and John Gatski of Everything Audio Network discuss “Streaming Music”
4:00 – 6:00 PM Local Distillers Bourbon Tasting at the Bar
6:00 – 8:00 PM – Live Music for Blues Fans! Jay Summerour & Friends Lowdown Blues in the Bar
Warner Williams and Jay Summerour are an American folk duo, who perform under the name Little Bit A Blues. They have played at numerous folk and blues festivals and at concerts at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. They are known for playing in the Piedmont blues style, a regional variant of the blues that developed in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia.
Williams and Summerour have been playing music together under the name of Little Bit A Blues since the early 1990s. During their tenure together, they have recorded several albums, including for the Smithsonian Folkways label. Eric Selby joined up with Williams and Summerour several years ago, completing the current trio.
Their most recent recording, The Best of Little Bit A Blues: Live at B.B. King’s Bluesville, on Soul Stew Records reached number one on the Blues411 chart, was nominated for a WAMMIE for Blues/Traditional R&B Recording of the Year as well as received a JIMI Award for Best Live Recording of the Year.
Eric Selby was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, Jay Summerour received a WAMMIE Lifetime Achievement Award and 87-year-old Warner Williams was inducted by the National Endowment of the Arts as a Lifetime Heritage.
6:00 – 9:00 – Olive’s @ the Hilton, Part-Time Audiophile “Under Forty” Cocktail Hour and Dinner Party, with Listening After-Party hosted by VPI Industries
8:00 PM – Regency Room, The Legendary UHA After Hours Analog Tape Events will be held Friday and Saturday nights starting at 8:00 pm in United Home Audio’s Regency Room: all are welcome! This event has been the party ticket at audio shows for the last ten years! All tapes at this year’s events will be compilation tapes made direct from well documented Safety Master Tapes recorded off the two-channel mixdown master. This is an opportunity to hear, Zeppelin, Stones, Beatles, AC/DC, The Who, Michael Jackson, and many more popular artists, you’ll be able to hear the artists as close to the original recording as possible.
Saturday November 2nd
10:00 AM – Show Opens
10:15 AM – Dr. Rob Robinson, Director of Engineering, Channel D: Going from wax to the max: Everything YOU need to know about Vinyl Ripping (60 minutes)
Linking analog vinyl playback with digital audio has never been easier, and the combination delivers the convenience of computer audio coupled with stunning, transparent playback quality. Featuring a live, step by step hands-on demonstration this seminar will cover everything you need (and want) to know about transferring vinyl LPs to high resolution digital audio files: hardware, digital recording, ripping and storage strategies, editing, and much, much more.
11:30 AM – “Turntable & tonearm set up, cartridge mounting, VTF, VTA, Azimuth and more” presented by Mat & Harry Weisfeld of VPI Industries: Father and son demonstration on turntable and tonearm set up
A fun and informative demonstration of cartridge mounting, VTF, VTA, Azimuth, and the different types of tonearms and lengths and how they apply to turntables. Harry also describes overall turntable construction/design and different types of methodology. We cover as many different types of turntables as we can so it is not only about VPI design.
1:00 PM – “Box, Panel or Horn Speakers? What’s the best for you?”
Steve Guttenberg of The Audiophiliac Daily Show moderates a panel discussion and Q&A. Panelists include Mike Trei of Sound and Vision magazine; Ze’ev Schlik of Pure Audio Project and Sean Casey of Zu Audio (45-60 min)3:00 PM – Record Cleaning Made Easy!
Lively panel discussion with Q&A, moderated by David Blumenstein of Dagogo, with Mat Weisfeld of VPI Industries, Steve Niemi of Record Doctor, Kevin Berg of Nitty Gritty Record Care Products, Charles Kirmuss of Kirmuss Audio, and other leading record cleaning manufacturers.4:00 – 6:00 PM – Local Distillers Bourbon Tasting at the Bar
5:00 – 6:00PM – Capital Audiofest 2019 will be showing select scenes from “Anacostia Delta”, a documentary film honoring the past and showcasing the present of the unique Washington DC music scene — a hugely influential, virtuosic melting pot that flourished in the city and southern Prince George’s County, and which still thrives today. From the producers & director of the award winning 2009 PBS documentary Barnstorming.” http://www.anacostiadelta.com
(Washington Auditorium – Limited Seating)6:00 – 8:00 – Embassy Jazz Messengers, live at Olive’s @ the Hilton
8:00 PM – Regency Room, The Legendary UHA After Hours Analog Tape Events will be held Friday and Saturday nights starting at 8:00 pm in United Home Audio’s Regency Room: all are welcome! This event has been the party ticket at audio shows for the last ten years! All tapes at this year’s events will be compilation tapes made direct from well documented Safety Master Tapes recorded off the two-channel mix-down master. This is an opportunity to hear, Zeppelin, Stones, Beatles, AC/DC, The Who, Michael Jackson, and many more popular artists, you’ll be able to hear the artists as close to the original recording as possible.
8:30 – 10:30PM – Spellcasters Live! Music from the Anacostia Delta
It all started at the legendary Northern Virginia roadhouse JV’s. D.C.-born guitarists Anthony Pirog and Joel Harrison, musical soul mates, and now doing their first gig together, tore into a set of jazz-amped honky-tonk songs before a stunned crowd. But two Telecasters weren’t enough. The bassist for the show, John Previti, who backed up guitar legend Danny Gatton for twenty years, had invited acclaimed local guitar slinger, Dave Chappell, to sit in. Soon three Telecasters were blazing away, exploring shared history and new frontiers. The Spellcasters were born.
(Washington Auditorium – Limited SeatingSunday November 3rd
10:00 AM Show Opens
4:00 PM Show ClosesFor more information on Capital Audiofest please contact:
Gary Gill, Show Organizer – capitalaudiofest@gmail.com
Christina Yuin, Sales Director – CYAShows@gmail.com
http://www.capitalaudiofest.com
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