Montreal's finest vinyl record shop (according to them, l-r): Simon, Pierre, and Tony. Aux 33 Tours has been operating for two years at its present location: 1379 Mont Royal Est, right here in beautiful Montreal. Owner Pierre Markotanyos had collected vinyl for more than 10 years before deciding to open his own shop. The store now carries approximately 80% vinyl, and has a healthy clientele.
Meet Mass Fidelity's Benjamin Webster. Ben's lil_doosey monoblock amplifier is making its world debut here at SSI 2009.
But the Cutest Amp of Show Award has to go to Mass Fidelity's "lil_doosey." You see? It's even cute about how it spells its name. You gotta love that.
The two Sashas of Obad Imports (l-r): Sascha Kuettel hefts the JohnBlue JB3 loudspeaker ($370/pair), while Sasha Obad struggles with the KingRex T20 amplifier ($259) and PSU power supply ($189). These units are just a little bit heavier than Michael Fremer's reference amplifiers.
High-end audio companies take different approaches to staying successful. One way to maintain a market position is to continue improving fundamental designs, offering a little higher sonic performance with each model. The latest products from a company employing this approach will look and operate very much like their first products.
The Krell KPS-20<I>i</I> (KPS stands for "Krell Playback System") is essentially a CD transport and digital processor in one chassis. What make the KPS-20<I>i</I> different from a CD player are the unit's five digital inputs, which allow the KPS-20<I>i</I> to function as a digital/analog converter for external digital sources.
Threshold is one of the longest-surviving high-end audio companies. Founded in the 1970s by <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/1191pass">Nelson Pass</A> and René Besne, it was acquired by a large, publicly traded corporation in 1988. This had both positive and negative results in that Threshold was then able to expand its activities, adding the cost-effective Forté line of products, but energies were drained away from cutting-edge design. Besne left the company in 1991, while Pass resigned in 1992 to pursue other interests. (These blossomed into the Pass Aleph 0 amplifier reviewed by DO in March '95, Vol.18 No.3.)
I am led by the sound of intricate rhythms and interesting textures, and I find myself in the <a href="http://www.audio-occasion.qc.ca/">Audio D'Occasion</a> suite, where Radiohead's <i>Amnesiac</i> is ripping into a pair of Thiel CS3.7 floorstanders, sending the speaker's impressive corrugated drivers into a mad dance. I take a seat.
In the <a href="http://www.brosseau.qc.ca/">Brosseau Audio/Video</a> suite, Linn's Adolfo Cano provided a fascinating demonstration playing back Barb Jungr's "Beautiful Life" from a Linn Recordings sample disc.
I had enthused over the sound being produced by French company Focal's top-line Grande Utopia EMs ($180,000/pair) in our report from the <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/rmaf2008/101408focalbest/">2008 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest</A>, so the first room I went to at the 2009 SSI was the room featuring the exact same pair of Grande Utopias. In Denver they had been driven by Boulder source and amplification components; in Montreal, amplification was all YBA—Passion 1000 monoblocks and Passion preamp—cabling was AudioQuest, and the source was the excellent sounding Esoteric P-01VU transport ($32,000) and D-01VU dual-mono D/A converter ($32,000), clocked by the G-0Rb high-precision master clock ($16,000).