Toronto Audiofest 2024

You know how they say that after a while dog owners start looking like their pets? I doubt it's true, but on the premise that it is, I wonder if the same can be claimed about brand names or store names; example: if you opened the "Best Gear Ever" store, would you, even subconsciously, feel compelled to seek out and sell the best gear? Would you try to resemble the name, to live up to it?

By the same token, what if your store is called Sonic Artistry? Would you feel compelled to sell gear that's uncommon and makes music that sounds so accomplished and expressive that it becomes the art—the sonic artistry? All I can say with certainty is that those questions came to mind while I was listening to Sonic Artistry's demo.

In it were a pair of 200Wpc Kora CSA1120 Class A monoblocks ($59,995/pair), a Grimm Audio MU2 All-In-One: analog preamp, DAC, streamer, and Roon Core, with 8TB of storage ($23,675), while speakers were the super immediate and transparent-sounding Diptyque CP140 Planar Magnetic model ($20,000/pair). I was most intrigued by the presence of two Seismion Reactio 2 Active Isolation platforms (US$12,000/each), one under a Kora TB200 integrated amplifier, which wasn't in use when I was there; the other, which was in use, under a Nordost QBase Reference Power Distribution Center ($21,599).

I've heard a few French-made Kora products in recent years, and they consistently sound top-notch. Same thing with the Diptyque speakers. Importer/retailer Samuel Furon of L'Atelier Audio told me, "The Diptyques don't need 200Wpc to sound good, but the extra power creates less distortion, which adds a sense of freedom and ease to the music." I wasn't familiar with the sound of the other components but they all contributed to what I heard—sound that was seductive, transcendent, with textural layers, pure tone, and realistic, these-things-are-in-the-room-with-you imaging.

Audio Artistry indeed.