PT.Audio Best of Show

The Voice That Is / Best of Show at CAF

The Voice That Is, TIDAL Audio, Doehmann, Turnbull By Marc Phillips

“As I mentioned, this is the main reason why I decided to come to CAF 2024–I asked Doug White of The Voice That Is when I’d be able to hear another one of his TIDAL Audio systems at a high-end audio show, and he answered that he only does CAF these days. When I hear TIDAL Audio–speakers, amplifiers, complete systems such as the Bugatti for TIDAL–it’s always a cut above everything else I hear that particular day. Compared to TIDAL Audio, most ultra hi-fi sounds a little out of focus–which is why I must consider TVTI as the Capital Audiofest 2024 Best Sound at Show. It seems that I now use TIDAL Audio gear to calibrate my ears before listening to other systems at shows, and while it’s a recipe for disappointment for those other systems, it has become vital to my sanity in this hobby.”

And now the winner of Capital Audio 2024 Best Sound at Show is…

If you didn’t expect The Voice That Is to be the Capital Audiofest 2024 Best Sound at Show, then I’d like to introduce you to a concept known as foreshadowing. But this reminds me of my early days running PTA back in 2018, and my first exposure to Doug White, The Voice That Is, and TIDAL Audio. I look back at my Best Sound at Show lists and while TIDAL often appears among the finalists, I always went with something else because, deep down, I felt TIDAL was a little too perfect. I like colorations. I like warmth. I like vinyl, low-powered SETs and BBC monitors. Perfection? Leave that to the audiophiles wrestling with their OCD.

Over the years, after hundreds of reviews with all types of products with all kinds of sound, I’ve recognized the importance of perfection in high-end audio. Perfection, I learned, doesn’t sound big or loud or bad-ass. Perfection, of course, sounds like nothing. It stands aside and lets the music speak for itself. I can’t think of a better way to describe the excellence of TIDAL Audio than this.

Plus, Doug White earns extra credit toward Capital Audiofest 2024 Best Sound at Show by providing one of the most satisfying live musical performances I’ve experienced at a high-end show–Steinway pianist Joe Block and his Open Heart Trio playing in the Washington Theater room, across the hallway from The Voice That Is exhibit room. I started the concert off on a bad note–I was just a couple of minutes late and the band had already started and it was being recorded live and that friggin’ door was so loud when it shut. It didn’t take long for me to forget about that–this was real jazz, based largely on Kind of Blue, performed by a trio of NYC jazz musicians who weren’t young kids trying to making their mark. Joe Block and his trio are real, established jazz musicians who were there to impress true jazz aficionados, and it was a hypnotic and memorable performance I won’t soon forget. Thanks to Doug, his wife Celeste and Joe Block for reminding audiophiles that live musical performances are still essential to this hobby. They’re the true winners of the Capital Audiofest 2024 Best Sound at Show.

PT.Audio Best of Show 2024. The featured equipment was from TIDAL Audio. Upfront were the Akira speakers, which were powered by Ferios amplifiers. The TIDAL x Bugatti MP-1 served as the preamp. Digital was sourced via the TIDAL x Bugatti MC-1 Digital Controller. All vinyl was spun on the fabulous Dohmann Helix One MkIII turntable in the titanium finish. The business end occupying the groove was the Air Tight PC-1 Supreme cartridge on the SAT CF1-09 tonearm. All cables were by Turnbull Audio; the equipment rack is the HRS EXRD. AC Power is stabilized via the Equitech 2RQ. PT.Audio Best of Show 2024