It has been several years since DCHFG visited LTA Audio located in the cozy Takoma Park, MD suburb of Washington, DC.

A lot has happened since our first visit. LTA has now expanded to a second floor with a dedicated listening room and space for engineering prototype work.

With all this activity, LTA has been working on several new products and upgrades to their existing line of audiophile ware.

For this DCHFG listening event, two unreleased products were featured. First was a brand new 120-watt mono block amplifier design based on David Berning‘s, DCHFG member, ZOTL technology.

The system was driven by the soon to be released LTA DAC which is a first for LTA. Many DAC chips were evaluated but eventually settled on the extremely popular TDA1541A chip that has been successfully used by many boutique audio vendors. This 16-bit chip outputs to ZOTL Tube circuitry for connection to downstream components. The DAC also employs a rich set of input options including the usual S/PDIF, optical, and USB Type-C. Also available are i2S inputs and HDMI ARC. The latter is becoming increasingly popular for allowing consumers to connect their TVs and control volume with their TV remote.

David Berning was present and gave insight into these designs to DCHFG members.

For the technically interested, a tour was given of both the upstairs engineering lab and downstairs manufacturing facility.

The audition system made use of the Pure Audio Project speaker with source material coming from a computer supplied with FLAC music files.

As always, the meeting concluded with the famous DCHFG raffle where members received audiophile treats in the form of CD and file based recordings.

DCHFG would like to thank LTA Audio for their generosity in opening their facility for this listening event.

After a hiatus of 5 years, members returned to the DCHFG Delaware Beach Headquarters for some great Hi-Fi by the ocean.

This time the purveyors at Overture Ultimate Home Electronics delivered a state-of-the-art audio system for attendees to evaluate. The system consisted of the following components:

• Aurender Streamer
• Pass Labs Amplifier
• MSB DAC
• Von Schweikert Speakers
• Cardas Cables
• Source: Qobuz Streaming Audio

Additionally, all components benefitted from vibration control provided by Gingko Audio.

For listening material, the brand new DSD 128 recording Synchronicity: An Interpretation Of The Album By The Police by The Hazelrigg Brothers was among the featured playback material.

Presentations were given by representatives of both Overture and Gingko Audio.

As always, plentiful food and drink were provided and featured a box meal from a local Peruvian restaurant and a special DCHFG Sangria.

As the hours passed, DCHFG members bathed in the sonic glow of the featured system while also having time to catch up with fellow members and discuss various Hi-Fi audio trends.

At the end, the always popular raffle give away was a big hit since as the saying goes – Everyone’s a winner.

The beginning of a new year brought a return to DCHFG member Gerry’s house by the Potomac. This time we hosted Lukas Lipinski for a demonstration of the Lipinski Sound L-707A Signature speakers.

Lukas has the audio industry in his blood as he carries on the work of his Father.

Andrew Lipinski’s perfect hearing abilities were recognized by the US National Bureau of Standards, where he was the only individual to achieve a perfect score on the listening evaluation of phonographic recordings (NBSIR 88-3725).

http://lipinskisound.com/company/

Famous for state-of-the-art high-fidelity recordings, Andrew Lipinski was driven to buid his own reference speakers to better monitor the quality of his recordings. Based in Washington, DC, Lukas has now taken his father’s work and amplfied it to exceptional levels.

Gerry’s listening room was an excellent venue to audition the L-707A Signature. Approaching seven feet (6.62′) in height, they dwarfed the already significant footprint of Gerry’s Wilson Alexx V speakers.

DCHFG members were treated to a variety of demo songs including rare recordings of The Firebird recorded by Keith Johnson as well as more modern tracks by Steely Dan and Thomas Dolby. This gave the listeners a good undestanding of what the Lipinski L-707A Signature could accomplish.

At the other extreme of speaker size, the Lipinski L-50 Powered Monitor were set up in the upstairs family room. These diminutive boxes produced sounds that belied their small size. Paired with a sub woofer, they would be perfect in many installations where an emphasis on being heard but not seen was preferred.

As usual, there were raffles for several audiophile recordings and there were many happy winners.

Once again, we are grateful to DCHFG member Gerry for hosting our meeting in his lovely home to audition another great audio system.

Once again, we met in Alexandria. Va for holiday fun, listening and enjoying tasty food and drink.

We had a nice size crowd with a lot of fresh faces.

We were treated to a great mix of Greek style food, which I will remember as some of the best we have ever had. The mood was jolly with everyone deep in conversations and catching up with old friends.

John set up a system to show off the Denafrips Pontus II DAC that one of our members just purchased and wanted the club to listen to.  This is an attractively priced full featured unit that sounded fine.

The club raffled off a brand-new sealed Mercury Living Presence Mono LP reissue of the Rafael Kubelik/Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This LP features Pictures at an Exhibition Half-Speed Mastered at Abbey Road Studios In 2021.

This party concludes six years of The Hi-Fi Group’s existence. It has been a busy last couple of months which bodes well for activities in 2023.