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Montreal Audio Fest 2018

Sunday Afternoon at the Montreal Show with Art

Art Dudley Mar 28, 2018

Quebec-based Solenwhich distributes parts from a number of different manufacturers, as well as manufacturing their own well-regarded capacitors and other componentshas a talent for filling their exhibit rooms with scores of items, including finished products made from the parts they sell. Among the latter at this year's Montreal show was a single-ended triode amp that will soon be available as the Coffin Audio 2A3 SE. Using new-old stock 6SL7 tubes to drive its nominal 2A3 directly heated output tubes, the nicely made Coffin amp uses Solen Teflon coupling caps, and the stereo amp's retail price is estimate to be $CAD6000.

Montreal Audio Fest 2018

Robert's Sunday Afternoon at the Show

Robert Schryer Mar 28, 2018

Along with those other nerdy qualities I love about sound reproduction, I love a good soundstage. That's because a good soundstage, like a clever Hollywood movie effect, can provide the push needed to make me believe that someone who can't possibly be there in front of me singing or playing an instrument actually is and that I've missed nothing.

I bring up the soundstage thing not because I think hearing a good soundstage during playback is essential to one's enjoyment of a recording, but because the soundstage thing is the aspect of playback I was most wowed by of the system I heard in the Verity Audio room.

Montreal Audio Fest 2018

Art's Sunday in Montreal, Part 1

Art Dudley Mar 27, 2018

I started my Sunday by visiting Plurison, the Canadian distributor for Focal, Naim, Rega, Musical Fidelity, Devialet, Music Hall, Wharfedale, Cambridge, Astell&Kern, and others (and, under the name Audio Plus Services, the US distributor for some of those same brands). As they did last year, Plurison set up shop in the Ville-Marie roomone of the Bonaventure's largest, having been carved out of what used to be the hotel's main restaurantand presented their products in a mix of active and static displays, with a degree of visual refinement that few other exhibitors matched, and none exceeded.

Solid State Power Amp Reviews

Constellation Inspiration Stereo 1.0 power amplifier

Larry Greenhill Mar 27, 2018

I've found that some audio amplifiers have sonic signatures so subtle that they emerge only over weeks of listening; yet other amps sound so distinctivemore vivid, more transparent, more dynamicthat their signatures are immediately apparent. Can those latter qualities really be inherent in the recording, or are they colorations produced in the amplifier?

Music and Recording Features

Moby: Sound of Mind

Robert Baird Mar 27, 2018

The loudness wars are over. The valiant but hopelessly outnumbered forces that stood against squashing the dynamics and life out of recordings, all in the name of almighty loudness, have been vanquished. Scattered across the smoking battlefield are the lifeless bodies of thousands of disappointed listeners, many so young they will never now know what it's like to hear a natural, uncompressed recording.

Montreal Audio Fest 2018

Art's Saturday in Montreal, Part 2

Art Dudley Mar 27, 2018

I began my Saturday afternoon with a visit to the Montreal Audio Fest's Audiofilles room, the name being a pun (en Francais, bien sur) on audio girls. For the occasion, a number of partnering manufacturers contributed elements of what turned out to be a fine-sounding system: an Oracle Paris MkV turntable with tonearm and Paris PH200 phono preamplifier; McIntosh MB50 streaming audio player and MA7200 integrated amplifier; Luna Cables Orange interconnects, speaker cables, and AC cords; Modulum equipment supports; and a pair of Totem Forest Signature loudspeakers, in high-gloss mahogany finish.

Montreal Audio Fest 2018

Art's Day 2 in Montreal, Part 1

Art Dudley Mar 27, 2018

On Saturday morning, the Montreal Audio Fest seemed to get crowded in the blink of an eye: One minute I was stepping out of my room in the Hotel Bonaventure, the next minute I was excusez-moi-ing my way into one SRO room after another. I confess that, for one very brief moment, I wished I was back with the howling old owl in the woods.

Homesickness was dispelled the moment I heard the system in the first of three rooms sponsored by Motet Distribution of Toronto, this one featuring Triangle Australe speakers ($CAD5500/pair), driven by a VTL S-200 stereo amp ($CAD17,500) and 5.5 preamp ($CAD11,200), with a laptop and an iFi Macro portable DAC/headphone amp ($CAD780) as the source.

Headphone Reviews InnerFidelity

1More Triple Driver Over Ear Headphones

Tyll Hertsens Mar 27, 2018

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

Show impressions are always suspect, but I did like what I heard when I visited the 1More booth at CES early this year. They're well known for their in-ear monitors and last year introduced their first over-ear headphone, the MK801, which I found a bit too thick sounding for my taste.

Generally 1More has been offering headphone in the affordable end of the spectrum. With this new headphone they're making a move into the meaty midsection of the headphone world. And an interesting move it is!

Montreal Audio Fest 2018

Robert Schryer's Sunday Morning at the Montreal Show

Robert Schryer Mar 26, 2018

My fake award for overall best retail audio store representative at this year's Montreal Audio Fest goes to the genial and youthful-looking Robert de Koninck from Montreal retailer Art et Son. Robert was a veritable fountain of infectious audiophile enthusiasm that extended to the products he represents, the result of which is that I now intend to visit the store he works at.

Montreal Audio Fest 2018

Art Finishes Up His First Day in Montreal

Art Dudley Mar 25, 2018

The venerable Japanese firm Luxman and the German turntable manufacturer Acoustic Signaturewhose President, Gunther Frohnhofer, I had the pleasure of meeting on Fridayshared a room in which Raidho C3.2 and D2.1 loudspeakers (respectively $US37,500/pair and $US44,00/pair) were driven by Luxman M700u power amps running in mono ($US8995/pair), in turn driven by a Luxman C700u preamplifier ($US8995), fed by a Luxman EQ500 phono preamp ($US6495) and Melco N1ZH v2 music server ($US5000). LPs were played on Acoustic Signature Double X ($CAD5500) and Storm turntables ($CAD9000), both fitted with Acoustic Signature TA2000 tonearms ($CAD3400).