Well, THAT was a long title - let’s see how the Blog software handles it…

One variation of this little dance goes like this:

We loved our Audio Note CDT2 transport. Paired with the Audio Note 4.1x Balanced DAC there was not the slightest digital etch or hardness to the sound - and whatever slight imperfections that it did have, well, it did not detract from it being definitively state-of-the-art nor did it impact our enjoyment of the music in any way.

Then we met another transport, the CDT3.

“Hi transport” we say with low expectations dripping from our test CDs. Yes, it was an enjoyable time we spent together, it was certainly a very nice transport and was admittadly better in everyway - though in some ways it was more better than others ways where it was only slightly better, it was especially better in the areas of PRaT, harmonic content and continuousness/flow/momentum - we were glad to have met it.

[The CDT2 is slightly more dynamic in the midi-dynamic range - or perhaps it is just that the note envelopes rise faster and decay faster - so I could see some people who would like this more aggressive sound, less analog and less continuous sound better].

But it wasn’t like we were going to abandon our long time partner, the CDT2. The CDT2 was our first Audio Note transport and we owed it some loyalty. Right?

Or is this just loyalty to our emotional investment in our belief that this is a really good transport and sufficiently good for us to be able to enjoy it unconditionally, forever.

Well, now it has been a month since we have heard the CDT3 and …. we miss it terribly. The CDT2 now sounds old and irritable. We now see freckles on our CDT2 that seem to grow louder each day.

Well, you all know how this dance finishes. We hope our CDT3 will be able to move in any day now - and though we still love our CDT2 terribly, we think it will be happier with a more appreciative audiophile.

Been there? Done that? Rinse and Repeat?

People who have been in this hobby for a long time know enough to ask before hand…

“Do I dare to listen to this thing?”

Funny thing is, we almost always say, with trepidation in every fiber of our being….

“Ok….”

We hear a dealer demo pair of Triolons (and Campaniles and Violons) just appeared there in the last few days.

And since we have the only dealer demo Acapella Triolon Excalibur speakers (the only Triolons of any kind actually) on the American continent, ….

We just think that with equipment this gawd-awful expensive, most people are going to want full-service, not full-discount. They need to have some recourse if something that they spent their hard-earned coin on is not performing to their expectations, they need someone who knows what they are doing and who actually cares about how the person’s system sounds.

This is above and beyond getting faulty equipment taken care of - there is no one in the high-end home audio industry that we know of who will not speedily fix or replace something that is broken. We just thnk there is more to being satisfied with one’s stereo system than just whether the equipment works or not.

[And, as a final note on the subject:

Yes, of course we are very disappointed, we put in a lot of hard work and broke down a lot of barriers between dealer and audiophile over the years, using the Acapella line to explore what could be done. But we are also very relieved - the animosity and … tomfoolery… were frustrating and emotionally hard on us, especially Neli. It is a good thing that we are done with this and it really is time to focus on making sure our other VERY high quality product lines get the high-profile treatment they deserve in the same style that we prototyped using the photogenic Acapella line. We will keep our NEWS page continually updated with the changes to, and expansion of, our website coverage.

Thank you everybody for your support during this transition. We really, really, REALLY appreciate it.]

For those who are curious, our Triolons ARE for sale. Please contact us if you are interested.

Information about our Triolons is here

We are saddened to announce that for the foreseeable future we will no longer be authorized dealers of Acapella Audio Arts speakers. We were the largest Acapella dealer on the American continent and by far the most visible experts on and advocates of Acapella in the world.

Since our first year of business, 4 years ago now, the person who is now the distributor has chafed against our approach to serving our customers and the audiophile community, as exemplified by the candor of the content on our website. After many years of his intimidations and ultimatums we are no longer Acapella dealers.

As our customers and a hundred thousand virtual guests know, we do not shy away from telling it like we hear it.

And we never will.

We just might have to regroup periodically.

Acapella makes some of the best speakers in the world and we will continue to think so and recommend their products, just like we sometimes recommend other excellent products we do not carry when we think they are the best fit for a particular person’s situation.

To our Acapella customers: we still stand by you and your excellent speakers 100% and will not hesitate to support you, with the same dedication as always, in the unlikely event you should ever require it.

The manufacturers of Acapella are some of the very nicest people we have met, are some of the biggest fans of our show reports and website, and are unabashed audiophiles at heart. Their English is not perfect and they are shy around people who do not speak German, and so they have few industry friends here in America who could have provided them some perspective on what is going on. If you see Hermann Winters and his wife Inge at a show, step up and say hello, welcome them to America, and don’t let their shyness discourage you. Through the shared passion for music and music reproduction, you will understand each other just fine, in English or German.

As for us, we are of course investigating a number of alternative speakers.

We are spoiled. Our next speakers have to excel at being impressive, emotional, jaw-droppingly real, and extremely powerful at communicating what the musicians are saying about what it means to be human. And what it means to be Alive.

For us, this is what music is all about.

Should we use this opportunity to continue to push ever farther against the state-of-the-art here at Audio Federation? Hee hee hee! OK, try not to give away the surprise, Neli…. Neli!!! Shhhhhhhhh…….

[This post will make a lot more sense to our family of customers than to those of you who are our virutal guests out there].

We have met a LOT of really nice audiophiles over the years (and a lot of nice people in the industry too )

So many people, who we have actually come to like quite a bit, whether as friends or as compatriots on the rocky road to audio bliss, call us back after awhile and feel they have to profusely apologize for not buying our X or Y and instead getting somebody else’s Z.

We appreciate the sentiment. We really, really do. Thank you.

But what we really want is for people to call back (or email) and not so much apologize (uh oh, I am starting to sound like Mal on Firefly) but tell us about how ‘Z’ sounds in their system. We can’t buy and try everything out there - and we are probably just as interested in what your experiences are as you are in ours.

Yeah, of course we would like people to buy things from us, in no small part because we think we got the really ‘good stuff’, man.

But we do not carry everything. Actually we do not carry many lines at all (and it seems like we are carrying fewer lines each day ). We are so very careful about each line we pick up that it seems to take us forever to find one we like.

So, if after everything is said and done you end up buying something from somewhere else, It is OK.

Really.

Or maybe you decided to hold off and not buy anything for awhile, perhaps because nothing completely bowled you over, or your monetary situation changed a little… That is OK too.

And if you decided to buy it off one of the audio auction sites - well, you know, that is OK too. We sell extra equipment on the net too and the buyer of our stuff must reside in somebody’s dealer area. If we were not dealers we would be tempted to buy some stuff off the net too. Heck, we are tempted now… some of those equipment prices up there are lower than what we can get them at.

Hmmmmm… Can I say that? Neli?

But really, what I want to say is that we have come to really like a lot of you people - and we know that some of you decided… to…. buy… something…. somewhere…. else.

No worries, man.