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Manley tube electronics—the same 300B preamplifier plus a pair of Snapper amps—were used in another Acoustique Technologies room, where they drove a pair of Nola Metro Grand Reference III loudspeakers ($30,900), with the Meitner MA-1 D/A converter ($7000) as a source. I'm sorry to say the Nolas proved impossible to photograph in the back-lit but otherwise dark and very crowded room. And the excessive volume level—and consequently harsh trebles—discouraged me from lingering.

When I return home from Montreal I'll be able to tell my 16-year-old daughter, truthfully, that I listened to Lorde's "The Royals" on a very good system, the value of which rivals the expected cost of her first two years of college. Included in this Coup de Foudre-sponsored system were a Luxman DA-06 D/A converter ($5000), Luxman C 900 preamp ($19,000), the big Luxman M 900 stereo amp ($19,000), and Vivid Giya G3 loudspeakers ($40,000), used with Cardas cables.

Dollar for dollar, the TD-M1 wireless loudspeaker system from Eclipse ($1300/pair) was among the most impressive products I heard at SSI. Imported by the American distributor On a Higher Note and displayed at the show by Coup de Foudre, the self-powered TD-M1 system, which includes a built-in digital-to-analog converter, combined Quad-like detail and transparency with exceptional levels of presence and substance. Notably, the system retained those qualities even at very low listening levels.

Friday was Day One of a three-day show, but I'd already picked my best sound—which I'm quite certain will not be exceeded by listening to any collection of electronic/mechanical contrivances. It was provided by soprano Sophie De Cruz, tenor Eric Thériault, accompanied by Dominique Boulianne on the piano. Standing near the entrance to the bar/restaurant at the Hilton Bonaventure, De Cruz and Thériault, sang arias and duets from La Traviata, La Bohème, Tosca, and other pieces of the Italian and French operatic repertoire.

Anne Bisson is a talented vocalist/pianist/composer who often appears at audio shows. She was at SSI 2014 to promote her about-to-be-released CD, entitled Tales from the Treetops (Camilio Records CAM2-4335.) All but one of the songs on this recording are in English (with Percy Bysshe Shelley credited as one of the lyricists). Bisson told me that, listening to the recording, she was surprised to note that her voice sounds different in English and French, a difference she attributes to the fact that French has no diphthongs, only pure vowels.

Electronics manufacturer Bryston is going full-steam-ahead with their line of speakers, which continue to impress me. The system on demo at SSI 2014 had a pair of Model T Signatures in a stylish white finish. The Signature differs from the base model in having an outboard crossover, with a price difference of $1000 ($6495/pair vs $7495/pair).

Bryston's James Tanner, shown here with the Model T external crossover, told me that this crossover also uses special components, and that the improvement in sound quality with the external crossover is quite noticeable.