Capital Audio Festival 2025 Part 1 Coverage

a big, unusual show for unusual times in the District

Capital Audio Festival 2025 was the largest ever and perhaps the most unusual, starting with a manufacturer greeting me by grabbing my junk. Not kidding. I've been described as being "a handful", but this was too literal for my liking. I didn't give him the pleasure of a reaction. Just glad to be wearing my Tommy Johns, which put everything in a neat package. Ok, enough of that.

This was the largest Cap Audio Fest ever in terms of manufacturer participation. There was plenty to see and do as usual. Show organizer Gary Gill has this down to a well-lubricated machine. There were even a few exhibits at the Even Hotel across the street where some in the press were housed for the three days.

It's difficult to gauge attendance as people disperse throughout the rooms rather quickly but it seemed there were fewer people lined up to buy tickets, and smaller crowds in the lobby area street level and downstairs where there was more vinyl for sale than I've ever seen at Capital Audio Festival. I was surprised to see how many open parking spaces there were in the underground Hilton lot compared to previous years.

The vinyl view from ground floor down to lower level. There was way more vinyl than can be seen in this photo

I spoke with numerous readers and fans who were laid off government workers and one guy who quit the DOJ in disgust. We're not getting into politics here but that's what I encountered. I suspect the government shutdown, DOGE and voluntary quits affected attendance at a Washington D.C. area hi-fi show or any sort of show.

Nonetheless manufacturers with whom I spoke were generally happy with the overall turnout. A few products made their American debuts at CAF, including the 12" Kuzma Safir and the J. Sikora Aspire turntable, which, with arm at $10,000+ dollars cost less than the Kuzma Safir, which is undertandable given the difficulties manufacturing an arm from artificial sapphire. The Thales Elegance turntable debuted at the show. It features a new totally mechanical speed control mechanism that Micha Huber demonstrated during a 2024 factory tour of his Turbenthal facility.

Kuzma Safir

Thales Elegance mechanical speed controller—photo taken during 2024 factory tour

Haniwa showed a brand new turntable, tonearm, ultra low impedance cartridge and electronics specifically designed for it. It tracks at around .6grams. Yes POINT 6! Otherwise, having been to the Warsaw show a few weeks ago, I didn't expect to see much that was new and I didn't! Italian manufacturer Thuono Audio introduced a top of the line T400 turntable.

One serious disappointment and I'll have to make it up with a Zoom call, was I recorded a fascinating video with Barak Isidor Epstein the great grandson of Isidor Goldberg, the founder of Pilot Radio. The new all-tube gear is designed and manufactured in America and has the look of the original Pilot gear. Unfortunately an incredibly DUMB software feature of the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 video camera I've been using for quite some time includes a feature where if you stop shooting and hold down the button for more than a few seconds it ERASES THE VIDEO, WITHOUT SO MUCH AS AN "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO ERASE THIS VIDEO?" It just erases it. I couldn't find the video and a few others so they must have been erased. I've never before had this problem. I'll catch up with Mr. Epstein on ZOOM and post a video.