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Prices listed in CA$. One of the demoes hosted by distributor Erikson Consumers was displaying something I hadn’t seen in any other demo at the show but that on first sight warmed the cockles of my heart in a place overrun with streaming: a dedicated CD player. This is no knock on streaming; I get…
Prices listed in CA$. Many exhibitors at this year’s Toronto Audiofest were showcasing panel-style loudspeakers, including electronics manufacturer Atoll Electronique, who was presenting the North American launch of the company’s SDA300 Signature Streaming, DAC Amplifier ($6,999, and hence the SDA in the model name), paired with a pair of Final Audio Model 7 Hybrid electrostatic…
Prices listed are in CA$. 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 ($9000) and a class-A, directly heated triode…
First things first; I hadn’t expected the Bowers & Wilkins / Classé Audio room to smell as good as it did! A sweet mixture of herbal and fruity scents, perhaps? I can remember only a few rooms I’ve visited at shows that enveloped both my sense of smell and of hearing. The Bowers & Wilkins…
Prices are listed in CA$. 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…
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 ($11,875/pair), which looked taller to me, and…
Prices listed in CA$. Some systems sound so effortlessly musical, so capable of preserving the music’s essence and soul, that while listening to them I tell myself that I’d be happy living with such a system for a very long time. Accordingly, I tell myself that this is my type of system, this is the…
Prices are listed in CA$. Since DALI released its $150,000/pair flagship Kore loudspeaker over a year ago, I’ve seen it consistently demoed with NAD electronics, to good effect. This match-up always delivered powerful sound, authentic tone, and a huge soundstage. At this show, the Kore was supplanted by the company’s latest model in the series,…
I can’t imagine bigger audio news this year than that of Audio Research filing for something akin to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Fearing that such an iconic company – one I always took for granted as being indestructible – might possibly go under and disappear from the audio landscape was disheartening and unsettling to me.…
Prices listed are in CA$. You might assume that my mood darkened when a bass beat began pounding through my hotel room wall from the adjacent room while I was trying to concentrate on my writing, but it was the opposite. My mood was lifted. Swayed by the music’s tribal pulsations and sense of immediacy,…
Prices listed are in CA$. You want a simple-to-use system that sounds great, doesn’t clutter your room, and won’t break the bank? If you’re nodding yes, then the system being demoed in Le Studio du Son’s room just might be up your alley, especially if you don’t like big, heavy, inefficient amplification but do want…
I’ll be covering so much cool stuff it’ll make you feel like you’re here, covering the show with me.
Greetings! My name is Justin Brown and I’ve been a loyal exhibitor at the Toronto and Montreal Audiofests for years, but having no new products to showcase, my company decided to skip its turn at this year’s Toronto show. To my pleasant surprise, PMA Magazine asked if I’d visit the show in its entirety—a first…
Audio show enthusiast and writer Mike Harkins travelled from his home in Austin, Texas, to the Canadian province of Quebec to visit the Montréal Audiofest, where he found the temperature in March to be a bit nippy. Welcome up North, Mike. Mike took down notes and took pictures at the show which he graciously allowed…