Robert Deutsch

Stereophile Assistant Editor/Master Blogger Stephen Mejias (left) and the magazine's self-described "Web Monkey" Jon Iverson (right) seem to be enjoying themselves at the Show.

The rebirth of Reference Recordings is one of the feel-good stories of audio. Here’s RR’s Marcia Martin, holding up two of their new releases, from pianist Joel Fan and from Keith Lockhart conducting the Utah Symphony in works by Bernstein.

Manufacturers exhibiting at FSI for the first time have often told me that the Montreal-area audiophiles attending the show seem to be an unusually enthusiastic and knowledgeable group. This impression is confirmed by the existence of the Montreal Audiophile Association. The Association—which always has a booth at FSI—is a highly active one, with over 100 members. They meet twice a month (they rent space in a school for this purpose), one meeting devoted to equipment (eg, talks by audio designers) and the other to classical music (eg, comparison of recordings of piano concertos). Pictured: members Yves Lepage, who is also an occasional contributor to Son & Image magazine, and webmaster Serge Tremblay. A fun pair of guys—I quite enjoyed talking to them.

The Elac FS 609 XP-1 is a speaker that has intrigued me since I first saw it, but somehow never got a chance to listen to it. On the Friday, my first day at FSI, I was in the room where they had a pair of these speakers, but, wouldn't you know it, they were not the ones being played. Then, on Sunday morning, I saw Vince Scalzitti, the importer, and said "Vince, do you by any chance..." but he didn't let me finish. "You want to hear the bigger Elacs, right? They're playing in the room next door." And indeed they were. Demo'd by the genial Jack Bakerdjian of Audio Gallery, a Toronto Elac dealer, the FS 609 XP-1 (catchy name, what?) driven by Korato tube electronics sounded quite promising, with a very spacious sound, even though the room was almost certainly too small for them. The FS 609 XP-1 ($17,000) uses an improved version of the famous Heil driver, with an omnidirectional supertweeter on top.