LATEST ADDITIONS

Should you ground your loudspeakers? With most speakers it's a moot point, since there's no practical way to ground the internal metal parts. A few companies—Tannoy comes to mind—have in the past sold speakers with a grounding pin, claiming reduction of distortion and RF interference.

A working musician: singer and flautist Caroline St. Louis (above).

After spending time in the Zesto room, I wandered into the other rooms hosted by Canadian audio importer/distributor Tri-Cell.

Having never before seen a pair of Klipsch La Scalas ($CAD15,000/pair) in person, I was pleasantly surprised by their appearance when I saw them in the Kennedy HiFi room. Looking stately, dare I say noble even, with their wide baffles and hardwood enclosures, the Klipsches were coupled to a system that included a Simaudio Moon 393 preamp ($CAD6800), a Moon 330 120Wpc power amp ($CAD4400), and a Pro-Ject 2Xperience turntable ($CAD1700 with arm and cartridge).

More great sound was had in retailer Audio Eden's room, where they were showcasing a system fronted by SME's Synergy all-in-one record player, which includes the SME model 12 turntable, SME lV arm with internal Crystal Cable wiring, an Ortofon Windfeld Ti MC cartridge, and a built-in phono stage made by Nagra ($CAD28,000 total cost)—but no kitchen sink.

My journalistic objectivity be darned! The Goerner Audio/Grandinote room produced the sort of sound that melts my heart, ravishes my senses, and reminds me of why great hi-fi is worth the money . . .

Making their North American debut in the Rotel/Monitor Audio room were Rotel's P5 preamp, with built-in 32- bit/768kHz DAC ($CAD5299), and 1080Wpc M8 mono amps ($CAD18,000/pair). Speakers were Monitor Audio Gold 300s, said to employ technology trickled down from the company's flagship Platinum ll model.