Where Measurements and Performance Meet featuring Andrew Jones

High End Munich: Audio Reference "Most Exclusive System Ever" with Wilson and D'Agostino

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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).

Montreal Audio Fest 2018

Art's First Day in Montreal, Part 2

Art Dudley Mar 25, 2018

After all that work on the first day, a break was in order. A record-shopping break.

Montreal Audio Fest 2018

Robert Schryer's Second Day in Montreal

Robert Schryer Mar 25, 2018

What the Hegel system did was turn a live recording of a guitar-shredding Chicago blues player into an explosive, hotel-room-filling event. The sound was dynamic as all get out, head-bobbingly propulsive, and though slightly coolish in character, excitingly expressive. The gear recipe to this musical fun-romp was a Hegel Mohican CD player (CA$5999), Hegel P30 preamp (CA$8999), 350Wpc Hegel H30 amp (CA$17 000), and PMC MB2 SE 3-way, stand-mount speakers (CA$38 500/pair, stands included), with XLO cabling throughout. A frenzied drum solo sounded so viscerally real that I almost expected to be hit by a flying drum stick.