EN 
FR -
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 ($32,480),…
-
Regular visitors to the Toronto or Montreal Audiofest have come to expect something unique and special at an Audio Note UK exhibit: a live cello performance by the company’s music ambassador, Vincent Bélanger, who plays his instrument while accompanied by instrumental music played back by an all-Audio Note system. As usual with one of these…
-
Prices listed in US$ 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 ($104,000), an L10 preamplifier…
-
Prices listed in CA$. 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 ($49,950) made by Fyne Audio, and they looked gorgeous — and massive — when I saw them in person in retailer Gramophone Audio’s room. They also sounded…
-
Prices listed in CA$ 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,…
-
Prices listed in $CA. I won’t say that listening to music in an Acora Acoustics exhibit room is akin to having a religious experience inside a church, but it’s close. There’s often a sense of profundity that I feel when I listen to an Acora demo. I felt that sense of profundity again in Toronto, in…
-
Prices listed in CA$ 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 ($90,000). Changes over the regular Black Swan include refinements to the drivers. The bass driver also weighs more, which, at 66lbs (30kg), requires…
-
Prices listed in CA$. 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…
-
Prices listed in CA$. Something most of us can relate to is how important speaker placement is. When I entered retailer Elite Audio’s room, it was immediately apparent the folks setting up this system knew how to position speakers in a difficult room. The speakers — the chic-looking Triangle Magellan Cello 40th Anniversary Edition in…
-
Prices listed in US$. 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…
-
Prices are listed in CA$. Moon by Simaudio’s new flagship series, the North Collection, will comprise six models in all, four of which will gradually be rolled out in the coming months, and two of which were released this month in time for the Toronto show. Powering a pair of 3-way, 90dB-sensitive Bowers & Wilkins…
-
Prices listed in CA$. 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…
-
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,…
-
In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of one of the most iconic albums to have landed on the lit side of the Earth, Pro-Ject unveils a DSOTM turntable that doesn’t just echo the prism artwork—it is the art.