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Accuphase’s new A-80 stereo amp stole the spotlight at Audiophile Experts’ chic launch soirée, with Anne Bisson performing live and a luxurious system delivering punchy dynamics, rich tones, and elegant micro-detail.
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The Toronto Audiofest 2023 had everything you could wish for in an audio show: great gear at all price-points, a communal and jovial atmosphere, overall good to great sound, friendly banter with peers or friends made on the spot, solid visitor traffic but not overcrowded, and plenty of coffee for dudes like me who were…
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Prices listed in CA$. Another room that served up incredible sound was that of retailer Bliss Acoustics, whose demo included a J.Sikora Reference turntable ($64,500) fitted with a KV Max 9″ tonearm ($16,450) and Nagra Reference cartridge ($24,500), a Nagra Classic preamplifer ($24,000), a Nagra Classic phono stage ($26,000), a Gryphon Essence stereo amplifier ($32,480),…
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Prices listed in US$ except where otherwise noted. I heard more fantastic sound in the Audio by Mark Jones room, which displayed a pair of Apogee speaker-inspired planar-type Clarisys Audio Studio Plus speakers ($66,000/pair) allied to a stack of twin-chassis products that included a CH Precision 300Wpc M10 stereo power amplifier ($104,000), an L10 preamplifier…
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Prices listed in CA$. When owner of retailer EQ Audio Video Ed O’herlihy told me he and his team had painstakingly set up the Focal Grande Utopias EM EVO ($359,998) better than they’d ever been set up at a show, I believed him. Why? Because I recognized that glint of confidence in his eye that…
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Prices listed in CA$. Be honest: When you saw the speakers in the above photo, did you immediately think, “Tannoy”? Me, too. They’re actually the Vintage 15 model ($49,950) made by Fyne Audio, and they looked gorgeous — and massive — when I saw them in person in retailer Gramophone Audio’s room. They also sounded…
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Prices listed in CA$ except where otherwise noted. Some demos blow away my expectations with their sound, and the Charisma room fell into that category. Aside from the fact Charisma Audio wasn’t well known to me, their speakers being demoed looked diminutive, so I expected sound to come out of them in, shall we say,…
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Prices listed in $CA. I won’t say that listening to music in an Acora Acoustics exhibit room is akin to having a religious experience inside a church, but it’s close. There’s often a sense of profundity that I feel when I listen to an Acora demo. I felt that sense of profundity again in Toronto, in…
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Prices listed in CA$ except where otherwise noted. For the 30th anniversary of the company’s Black Swan loudspeaker, Gershman Acoustics unveiled their Black Swan 30th Anniversary Edition, in a striking white finish ($90,000). Changes over the regular Black Swan include refinements to the drivers. The bass driver also weighs more, which, at 66lbs (30kg), requires…
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Prices listed in CA$. Throughout the years at audio shows, the Hearken Audio room has consistently offered me a peaceful interlude to everyday noise, but not just noise of the external kind, but the internal one that happens inside my head. Invariably, the Hearken room will be a wellspring of mellifluously-flowing, earthy, rich-toned sound that…
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Prices listed in US$. I’m going to get this out of the way: Every time I visit a On a Higher Note exhibit room, I turn into a sap. I get wishy-washy. I can’t help it. There’s something about the systems that proprietor Philip O’Hanlon is able to put together that allows those systems to…
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Prices listed in CA$. One of the demoes hosted by distributor Erikson Consumers was displaying something I hadn’t seen in any other demo at the show but that on first sight warmed the cockles of my heart in a place overrun with streaming: a dedicated CD player. This is no knock on streaming; I get…
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Prices listed are in CA$. This compact setup in one of Motet’s several rooms at the show surprised me. I didn’t expect it to sound this good. Fronting it was an Eversolo DMP-A6 Master Edition streamer ($2000) feeding FLAC files into a class-A, single-ended Audio Note M2 preamp ($9000) and a class-A, directly heated triode…
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Prices are listed in CA$. Moon by Simaudio’s new flagship series, the North Collection, will comprise six models in all, four of which will gradually be rolled out in the coming months, and two of which were released this month in time for the Toronto show. Powering a pair of 3-way, 90dB-sensitive Bowers & Wilkins…
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Prices listed in CA$. The Hegel room was showing off its Viking CD player ($6000), on static display when I visited, and 308Wpc, dual mono, DAC-equipped H600 integrated amplifier ($15,000). The source was FLAC files streamed from a laptop hard drive, while the speakers were Magnepan’s model 3.7i ($11,875/pair), which looked taller to me, and…