Montreal Audio Fest 2023

Let me tell you a story that involves a young lady and a preteen.

I sat in a central seat in the room hosted by importer Asona and manufacturer Innuos, encountering a system fronted by a pair of slim, 6'10" Italian Fonica Internation Flag L speakers ($13,000/pair)—a two-way, boxless, isodynamic design that uses neodymium magnets and a vibrating, ultrathin Mylar film. Powering them was a Pathos InPol 3 stereo integrated amplifier ($13,000, 45Wpc into 8 ohms) The digital front end was an upsampling Cen.grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe ($7800), from China, and an Innuos Statement music server ($28,200). Streaming was assisted by an Innuos PhoenixNET network switch ($4900). Cabling was by Analysis Plus.

There I was minding my own business, appreciating the Tidal-sourced FLAC files of Leonard Cohen, Dominique Fils-Aimé, and Uncle Lucius, taking note of the palpability of Cohen's voice, the abundance of details and their clearly defined locations in relation to each other. I'd never heard these effects before from a familiar recording—rather, I’d heard them, just not with such nuance and meticulous positioning. As all this was going on, a 20-something blonde woman sat in the chair to my left and a preteen boy sat in the chair to my right. I was sandwiched between two demographics, both younger—a first at an audio show! I thought, "That settles it! I am living in some alternate 'verse of the multiverse."

End of story.