The Caladan loudspeakers from Clayton Shaw Acoustics ($3000/pair) were a sleeper hit at the Capital AudioFest, so I made a beeline to the fifth floor, slow-motion elevators not withstanding.
The room also presented the world debut of Linear Tube Audio’s Aero DAC ($3600) with an Innuos ZEN MK3 music server ($3649), Atma-Sphere MP-1 preamplifier ($26,000), and Atma-Sphere Class D monoblocks (that’s their name; $6130/pair). Cabling was by Anticables: Level 4.2 Flex speaker cables ($350/pair), the new Perfect Music 4 XLR interconnects ($935/pair), Level 3.3 USB ($215), and Level 3 Power Cords ($330).
LTA’s first DAC, the Aero is an R2R ladder DAC with no oversampling or digital filters that employs the Analog Devices AD1865 R2R DAC chip. On the analog side, it uses David Berning’s class-A ZOTL circuit and offers easy tube swapping via a toggle switch that lets you choose between 6SN7 and 12SN7 output tubes.
Atma-Sphere’s Ralph Karsten (whose MP-1 Preamp I reviewed in the ’00s) played a lovely copy of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending (EMI/RCA) on the room’s Technics turntable. The sound was spacious, engaging, full, and powerful. Also on LP, Ray Brown’s Soular Energy was equally engaging, the master bassist’s notes popping out with warmth, punch, and extension. An exceptional, fun room.
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