"Big sound, uncolored mids, very smooth highs" read my notes from the Lafleur room, scrawled on my pad while I listened to Muddy Waters' classic Folk Singer album. Canadian manufacturer Lafleur had made a big splash at the 2008 Montreal Show with the launch of its two-way X1 standmount and the company's 2011 room featured the X2 ($18,000/pair) driven by a Pathos hybrid integrated amplifier and a Clearaudio turntable.

Like the X1, the X2 uses a cabinet fabricated from exponentially curved strips of Russian cherry wood. The version at SSI uses a ring radiator tweeter; a version with a conventional dome tweeter is available for $17,500/pair.