Toronto Audiofest 2022

The Apple Tree owner and distributor of BSC Research speakers must have done some research on what it would take to put this hard-nosed reporter on his good side because the first he did when I walked into his room was offer me a microbrewery beer. So sneaky.

I took a rain check on the beer, but I wouldn't have needed a beer to enjoy the sound I heard in this room. At the last Montreal show, the company was exhibiting its large-ish, dual-concentric, horn-loaded, full-range Dundee 8 speaker fed by a Transrotor turntable setup that was now on static display. Since owner Isik Kayhan hadn't had time to properly optimize the Transrotor when I visited on opening day, a front end consisting of a Lumin U1 Mini server ($3000) and Primaluna EVO 100 DAC ($4580) were substituted. This round, the speakers were the 94dB BSC Research Dundee 6 ($14,000/pair), which had a bit of an unusual baffle configuration, with a 4" folded horn on the left side and the bass port crossing the entire vertical length of the speaker on the right.

I don't think that what I'm about to reveal is a scoop per se, but it felt scoopish when I heard it. The Dundees were being fed by a PrimaLuna EVO 300 hybrid integrated amp ($10,900), which combines a PrimaLuna EVO 300 preamp stage with a MOSFET amplifier designed by Floyd Design's Jan de Groot. Cabling was by a defunct brand.

The sound I heard from a variety of music, including a Diana Krall track that elicited a comically exasperated "I wouldn't normally play Diana Krall, but okay" from Isik, was clean, luscious, explicit, and effortless, like a refreshing sip of microbrewery beer.