Toronto Audiofest 2022

You want more "big" sound? The kind whose tentacles can reach into every nook and cranny of a large room with warm reverberant energy, rich tones, colorful harmonics, and bass tremors that'll seep through your seat? Then step right up, into the DALI room, which was showing its new flagship KORE loudspeakers ($150,000), monuments to state-of-the-art speaker design conceived in the land of the Vikings—Denmark—along with a pair of 200Wpc, class-D NAD M23 monoblocks ($5000 each), a streaming M33 integrated amp ($7800), an AudioQuest Niagara 5000 line conditioner (7000), and a bevy of AudioQuest Thunderbird Zero cabling.

Only the preamp section of the M33 was used to, among other things, stream music from Tidal. Unlike the vestal white finish of the Wynn system, this system was dressed all in black, exuding an air of decisive music making intent. And that's exactly what I heard—a robust, well-balanced presentation that was parts huge soundstage, corporeal images, authentic timbres, and grand spectacle.

(All prices in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.)