Montreal Audiofest 2024

Classé Audio, Bowers & Wilkins, DR Acoustics

Robert Schryer  |  Mar 25, 2024

All prices listed in Canadian dollars.

For a couple of years now at the Montreal Audiofest, Classé Audio and Bowers & Wilkins have been exhibiting together. That’s no surprise considering that both brands are owned (for the moment at least) by the same company, Masimo. (Medical-device manufacturer Masimo may soon be spinning off the former Sound United home–hi-fi brands.)

But there may be more to it than just a sharing of a parent company: Undeniably, , these two brands dance well together, almost as if they were planned to be matched. The two manufacturers’ products, at this show and previous ones, melded well together, musically, and functionally.

At the Montreal show, the system included a Classé Delta PRE Mkll preamplifier with DAC and phono stage ($16,000), a pair of 300W Classé Delta MONO monoblocks ($15,000 each), a pair of Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Signature speakers ($72,000/pair), and a pair of 2000W Bowers & Wilkins DB1D subwoofers ($6500 each). Cabling was by DR Acoustics.

On Qobuz-sourced files, the music sounded bold, substantial, rich-hued, explicit, direct, and of a piece. A live recording of a small ensemble delivered a believable sense of a band playing live together on stage, life size and musically real.

COMMENTS
eugeneharrington's picture
Submitted by eugeneharrington on March 25, 2024 - 3:49pm

It is disconcerting, if I am reading this article correctly, that Masimo may be about to drop these these two iconic high end brands? Doesn't anybody want them as a long term proposition? Classé was dealt with appalingly by that Silicon Valley Investment Fund (or whatever it was) a number of years ago when it effectively left the company to its own devices and almost caused its extinction. As a long term Classé user, I would have very little confidence in purchasing anything by the company these days in light of an apparently very uncertain future for the brand judging by what is reported or speculated upon in this article? I spoke with Dave Nauber of Classé at the Munich High End Show in 2019 and I was very impressed with the company's demonstration at that show. The fact that Sound United had brought the brand under its umbrella and that Classé products were still designed in Canada but built in Japan was a strong selling point for me. I have a Classé CP-65 preamp that needs a volume potentiometer, but due to B&W Loudspeakers' insistence that all Classé spare parts had to be destroyed in the Silicon Valley debacle, I felt badly treated by the British loudspeaker manufacturer. That caused me to migrate to Denmark's Vitus Audio in 2016/17. I do hope that Classé can find its place in the high end audio market and cement its long term future there. Stereophile has always reviewed the company's products with enthusiasm and John Atkinson, in particular, has been very complimentary in his praise of the brand over the years. Long live Classé Audio!

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