Show Reports

There were plenty of European turntables seen and heard at Capital Audiofest 2025 — and Nashville-based dealer Gestalt Audio, who also act as a distributor for some of them, hosted two demo rooms at CAF (323 and 325) that showed off some of the best tables from across the Pond.

One such Euro-design seen and heard at CAF 2025 courtesy of Gestalt’s largesse was the PrimaryControl Kinea II turntable ($24,995), which, at a glance, appeared like a typical design but instead incorporated some unusual field-coil elements. PrimaryControl’s turntables (and related equipment) are engineered in Germany and made in the Netherlands.

The Kinea II table’s design is based on a direct-drive approach — but unlike most, it uses a custom-built, low-torque air-coil motor that offers user-adjustable torque settings. Users can select from low, medium, or high settings for torque according to their sonic preferences. Generally, one can expect harder-hitting, or “faster” sonic impressions with higher torque — akin to an idler drive turntable design, for example, and smoother sound with more “flow” — similar to a belt-driven turntable’s sound. Gestalt Audio’s Colin King reported that the differences are audible (though time and audience constraints didn’t permit further or deeper exploration at that time). While I was in this room, the medium torque setting was in effect.

Mounted to the Kinea II table was a flagship tonearm, the PrimaryControl FCL — as in Field Coil Loaded ($34,995, including its own power supply) — which was fitted with a Japanese-made Fuuga cartridge ($10,995), a low-output moving coil whose origins derive from the sought-after 1970s Miyabi line attached. The arm’s design uses electromagnetic current to stabilize the unipivot.

When I stopped by the demo in Room 325, I got to hear Pete Townsend doing a solo turn on The Who’s “Pinball Wizard” from the 1980 Island LP The Secret Policeman’s Ball – The Music (Side 1, Track 1), which was recorded live in June 1979 at that year’s Amnesty International Comedy Gala at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London. Townshend’s voice sounded true in tone, and suitably human in scale. There was a decent impression of the live-performance aspects, too — some sense of the theater hall, as well as the audience noise.

The system also included Cinnamon Cassia loudspeakers ($54,995/pr) with external crossovers, along with a pair (one per channel) of Cinnamon Malabar VLF subs ($15,995 ea) that present dipole dispersion. The open-baffle speakers are quite efficient, as spec’d at 97dB @1W/1m, and they’re easily driven by a few watts from a pair of SW1X MPA V Special tubed power amps ($37,836 ea), ahead of which was the new SW1X Pre V Signature Line preamp ($83,041).

The rest of the analog front end featured some old-school-derived artisan pieces from Cinnamon, including the Cinnamon Galle step-up transformer ($8,250) that uses Tamura transformers and offers three output ratio options: 1) 1:1 for MM or bypass; 2) 1:10 for high-output MC cartridges; and 3) 1:36 for “typical” MC cartridges, as the company stated. The Galle SUT also has three inputs, “so it’s super-flexible,” as Gestalt’s Colin King rightly noted.

The amplified signal next went into a two-chassis Cinnamon Galle phono preamp ($32,995), a fully balanced tubed design equipped with an outboard power supply. It uses some early tube types, including a 6C6 pentode in the input stage and a pair of triode-strapped 6J51P tubes in the output stage. The Galle gear has cool-looking chassis made of sand-cast aluminum and bronze. (Black and red finishes are also available.)

As noted earlier, Gestalt Audio also had a second demo system in Room 323, this time with a German-made turntable from TW Acustic — the maker’s entry-point Raven GT2 ($12,500) with a TW Acustic Raven 10.5in tonearm ($10,995) that was outfitted with another Fuuga MC cartridge (as was the above-noted table from PrimaryControl).

Based on my prior listening experiences, the Raven GT2 and Raven 10.5 is a superb table-and-cart combo, but I didn’t have a chance to listen to it enough in this room to comment any further on it. Next time!

Part 4 is coming soon!

If you want to check out Ken Micallef’s “Turntables of Capital Audiofest” video, go here.