And whether it is enjoyed as background music, a movie soundtrack, for its inspiration or calming properties or as a pursuit in and of itself - it is something no one wants to live without.

We are a young and vibrant boutique dealership uncompromisingly committed to offering only the highest of high-end home audio. Because of our dedication to maintaining excellent relationships with all manufacturers we are able to carry the crème de la crème, the cat's meow, the ultimate hi-fi componentry (and in those few cases where we don't have the clear ultimate end all and be all in a particular subcategory, we are the first to admit it and will freely recommend a component in another dealer's product line if we think it is a valid option). We will never carry equipment that we do not personally love the sound of as we try to live with each piece in our product lines as time and space allow.

Everyone is welcome to visit to our by-appointment only listening rooms in the foot hills of Boulder, Colorado. We realize that many of our products are out of financial reach, but all audiophiles are welcome, regardless. Visitors are rewarded with a comfort, setting and musical excellence second to none. Our demonstration equipment is all the top of the line of each manufacturer's line - you've read about it, now you can actually hear it.

Our demonstration systems are all finely tuned, tweaked out performance monsters and we are always looking for techniques to get the next few percentage points of improvement. We take an aesthetically pleasing, 'make it work in the rooms we got' approach as opposed to the expensive, and perhaps more sonically accurate 'padded cell' approach to room design, but we have loyal customers of both persuasions. Speaking of which, we offer all flavors of technological tour de force: tube and solid-state electronics, digital and analog sources, and horn and electrostatic and cone-driven speakers.

Let the music begin!

Enjoy!

Sincerely,
Neli and Mike

Neli has a bachelors degree in Mathematics and has been a professional software engineer and business analyst for over 25 years, since the early days of the PC. Mike has been programming computers since 1973, professionally since '84 and has contributed extensive amounts of code to the open source movement. For the last five years we have both been consulting for one of our country's top National Research Laboratories building a next-generation electrical CAD software package.

Neli has attended literally hundreds of Dead shows and who knows how many hundred other live shows. Mike collected hundreds of bootlegs of live shows and played with home theater before the dawn of time. When we met we both had the same Adcom electronics (but Neli had a much nicer B&O CD player compared to my NAK ;-P).

Because we do not live off of our audio business we are not tempted to sell things that are not right for our customers in order to put food on the table and pay the mortgage. Because we are very familiar with technical jargon and hyperbole, we can wade through the morass and have it stick to neither us nor our customers. Because we have built and operated our software consultancy for 15 years we know how to treat our customers professionally and with respect.

So, no, we are not professional salespeople.

We are audiophiles bringing a new level of honesty and respect and attention to detail and passion and open-mindedness and net-savvyness to the high-end audio dealership business.

By treating people the way we would want to be treated we plan on becoming the most well-regarded and successful ultra high-end audio dealership in the country.

We think that the person interested in $250,000 speakers wants and expects a different level of service than the person buying $250 speakers at the Tweeters Electronics store. This level of service and respect is not as familiar to people in the U.S. as it is to people in Europe and the Far East.

Until now.

Due primarily to a conflict in sales philosophies with a couple of people in the Acapella / Accustic Arts distribution chain we are no longer authorized dealers for Acapella and Accustic Arts. At the time of this conflict we were the largest Acapella dealer in the U.S. both in terms of sales and floor stock and by far the most visible experts and advocates of Acapella in the World.

We take this setback as an opportunity to explore even further into the realms of the musical experience provided by the world's most supreme and exquisite speaker manufacturers - at a number of price points - some of which are available now to our customers and some which will be - well, let's just say that Audio Federation is a very different kind of dealership!

Wooden ships on the water, very free, and easy
Easy, you know the way it's supposed to be
Silver people on the shoreline let us be
Talk'n 'bout very free, and easy

WOODEN SHIPS
Crosby, Stills & Nash

Neli & Mike February 22, 2006
Boulder, Colorado

And no, to put the rumors to rest: Mike has not gone (completely) bald and neither has Neli. We just didn't come up with a picture this year, OK? Really.

Maybe we will try and come up with one, anyway... if that Rogaine would just start kicking in...

These systems, with their associated highly-tuned systemry (including Lamm, EMMlabs, Audio Note, EDGE, INDRA, Walker, and on and on - each piece being absolutely necessary to achieve... the sound), are so far beyond all but a handful of hifi systems in the world... well, come hear for yourself!

We did get to exhibit at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver, Colorado and it was a blast. Can't wait for next year!

2004, The year of the Remodel. The remodel that would not die. It just keeps on going and going and going...

"There must be some kind of way out of here
Said the joker to the thief
There's too much confusion
I can't get no relief"

Bob Dylan - "All Along The Watchtower"

Neli & Mike January 1, 2005
Boulder, Colorado

We are currently designing systems around the premier examples of three major speaker technologies: conventional cone, electrostatic and hybrid horn-based speakers. To these systems we add exemplar examples of innovative engineering in the pursuit of the ultimate in audio reproduction.

The watch words are synergy, compatibility,  subtlety, beauty as we tweak and tinker with everything to get it just right.

"One [component] makes [the sound] larger
And one [component] makes [the sound] small
And the ones that [...] gives you
Don't do anything at all"

With massive apologies to
Jefferson Airplane

Neli & Mike
Boulder, Colorado

We are often finding ourselves in the business of audio systems integration, helping listeners improve their systems by the addition of one or the other component, cable or tweak. This piecemeal approach can be quite enjoyable for the tinkerer and those who have time to do the research and get their hands dirty. 

But this can be very frustrating for those who just want their system to sing sweet music NOW - whether that means "adrenalin-pumping concert-like ass kickin'" or 'drenching the listener in liquid emotion' (or both).

For these people we think starting with (or slowly evolving towards) a proven, known system design that does 95% of what they want it do now and which can be customized as the listener's tastes evolve and mature, is the path to frustration-free sonic bliss.

Can truth and beauty be discovered and communicated through music? Can it serve as a side-effect-free elixir during those times when the worries and stresses of the outside world threaten to remove all vestiges of sanity from our daily lives? Our combined experience of over 45 years as audiophiles tells us that the answer can be a resounding... it sure helps!.

"We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden"
Woodstock by Joni Mitchell

Neli & Mike February 1, 2003
Boulder, Colorado

Our background is that of hard-core enthusiasts, of both music and audio reproduction. Before we met each other, we both had very large, eclectic music collections and the best audio hardware we could afford at the time. Over the years, as we steadily upgraded our systems and added to our collections as our ears became more educated and persnickety.

Finally, we got to the point, where nothing we heard sounded right. We were willing to forego (some) other pleasures in life, and spend the big bucks - but nothing we heard wowed us, bowled us over, swept us off our feet. This is, until we heard the Acapella Campanile loudspeakers driven by an Audio Aero Capitole CD player and Capitole amplifiers at CES 2002. Finally, after 3 years of searching and listening to 100s of high-end full range speakers - we both agreed that we had found a system that sounded truly special.

Then, we were surprised to learn that there weren't any Audio Aero dealers in our area (Colorado), nor were there any Acapella dealers either (in fact, not in the whole of the United States of America at that time). No wonder we had such a hard time finding our sonic bliss - some of the best equipment is just not available for evaluation. And the more we thought about it, the more it seemed a real shame that great audio equipment was going unheard and unappreciated in our neck of the woods.

Our goal is to present the highest quality sound for our guests; we populate our demonstration systems with the best equipment possible.

Neli & Mike February 22, 2002
Boulder, Colorado