LATEST ADDITIONS

Earlier this year at the Montreal Audiofest, the organization that presents that show presented a lifetime achievement award to longtime Stereophile editor John Atkinson. Yesterday, the same organizers, who also present the Toronto Audiofest—gave the same award to another Stereophile contributor: Mr. Robert Deutsch.

Scotland's Fyne Audio already has a large lineup of loudspeakers, from small budget standmounts to some serious high-end contenders, like the nominally 96dB/2.83V/m, 8 ohm flagship F1-12, with its 12" concentric driver. I counted 23 models in 5 series, including four subwoofers but not counting their in-wall and in-ceiling lineup.

Saturday was a busy day at the Toronto Audiofest.

Entracte Audio's room displayed a nifty little system centered around a pair of active ATC SCM 40A speakers ($CAD13,800/pair) supplemented by two JL Audio E110 subwoofers ($CAD2300 each). Preamp duties were handled by Audio Valve's Eclipse preamp ($CAD6600), while the source consisted of a Melco music server ($CAD7300) being fed music files from an external hard drive, and the Italian Aqua Acoustic Quality La Voce S3 Discrete R2R ladder DAC ($CAD5500).

The Acora Acoustics room was another standout. The Canadian company has been building speakers for only a year, but they are on to something with their SRC-1 speaker ($CAD37,995/pair), whose enclosure, as per their marketing literature, is "handcrafted using granite by only the finest artisans in Canada." Sure, they must be a pain to move around, but one could say the same of the amps that were powering them, the cinderblock-shaped Audio Research Ref 10/750Se amps ($CAD95,200/pair).

Another system that did a great job at communicating music's gestalt was the one taking pride of place in the Toronto Home of Audiophile Ltd room. The system included a Lumin U1 streamer ($CAD8000), a Mutec Ref 10 Audiophile 10 MHz master clock with MC3+ smart clock/re-clocker/USB interface ($CAD7150 for both), a PS Audio DirectStream DSD DAC ($CAD9500), a Pass Labs XP22 preamp ($CAD14,000), a class-A, 30Wpc Pass Labs XA30.8 stereo amp ($CAD9800), and a pair of GoldenEar Triton One.R speakers ($CAD8000). Completing the system were a DirectStream Power Plant 20 power conditioner ($CAD14,700) and various cables from Gutwire and Siltech.

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.