CAF 2022 Highlights: High Water Sound

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: High Water Sound‘s Jeff Catalano knows music and he knows how to put together hifi systems that honor it.

Jeff’s place in NYC

I visited Jeff with my dear friend Alex Halberstadt back in February and had a chance to listen to 0.0000001% of his records.

For CAF 22, Jeff brought along a pair of Horning Hybrid Systems Aristotle PM 65 Speakers ($24,000/pair) driven by the New Audio Frontiers Signature 845 SE Integrated Amplifier ($25,000). Did he say integrated amplifier? (yum)

A TW-Acustic LS 3-Motor Copper Platter Turntable ($24,000) with a Glanz 12″ Tonearm and Tzar DST SPU Cartridge ($13,500) shared playback duties with a TW-Acustic Raven 12″ Tonearm and Miyajima Infinity Mono Cartridge ($3475) while a Massif Audio Design Record Weight ($1000) kept warps at bay.

the rest: Cordia Acoustic Design 2 Stage 5000s Racks, Zen Sati Zorro cables, Stein Music and Shun Mook room acoustics, and Silent Running Audio Ohio XL Platforms

There are two non-hifi clues to show success pictured here. Can you guess what they are? I’ll give you a hint—air and environment quality. Listening to music on a hifi is heightened by comfortable and clean surroundings—something Jeff gets—but if you knew how much dust, dirt, and greasy finger smudge I virtually cleaned in some other room photos you’d probably cough your actual brains out.

Of course Jeff played some great music, most of it new to me (yay!), and this system honored every last ounce of sound contained in the grooves.