Capital Audiofest 2016: Sonic feast from Viva Hi-Fi, Alta Audio, VPI and Zesto

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Scott Dalzell of Viva HiFi was showing off a familiar, if eclectic, collection of gear at CAF this year, featuring some very sexy loudspeakers from Alta Audio.

In case you missed it, Atla Audio speakers were the keystone in the ground-breaking giveaway that CAF was featuring this year — and this show allowed us Alta-noobs to see and here their entire lineup. Scott was showing the Celesta FRM-2 ($12,995/pair), a stand-mount speaker (stands included) that features a very high-gloss finish over their proprietary “DampHard” cabinet material and use their “Alta XTL bass tuning system” for more impact in the room.

Driven here with a full complement of electronics from Zesto Audio, including their monster Bia-120 stereo amp ($12,500) and matching Leto linestage ($7,500), paired with the newest phono preamp, the Andros 1.2 ($4,700). A new WyWires power-distribution Power Broker Platinum ($2,999) leads with current; WyWires Platinum Series phono/interconnects (starting at $1,799), speaker cables ($2,999) and power cords ($999) make all the connections.

But up top of the rack, things got … curious.

The turntable up top the rack was from VPI. Really, that’s all we’re able to say about it — this was Harry Weisfeld’s personal Frankenstein monster. A direct drive? An Avenger? A mini-Titan? Yes, all of that — matched up here with a big 3-D printed tonearm. That was really cool to see.

The sound in this room was very smooth, elegant, and powerful. An impressive showing.




About Scot Hull 1063 Articles
Scot started all this back in 2009. He is currently the Publisher here at PTA, the Publisher at The Occasional Magazine, and the Executive Producer at The Occasional Podcast. There are way too many words about him over on the Contributors page.

1 Comment

  1. Scot, thank you for the coverage and outstanding photos. My room partners and I were pleased with the system and with this year’s Capital Audio Fest. One minor quibble: the Zesto components, the Alta speakers, and VPI prototype turntable were all new to the CAF – not familiar. I think my stand and me were the familiar pieces in the room.

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