Lemay Audio, Dayton Wright Hommage, Tenor Audio, Grimm Audio, Silversmith, Inakustik, Network Acoustics, Modulum Arkitek, Baetis Audio, iFi Audio

All prices listed are in Canadian dollars.

Another highlight of the Montreal Audiofest was the system in the Lemay Audio room, which included a pair of the company's electrostatic Dayton-Wright Hommage 9.3 loudspeakers ($68,000), a 175Wpc Tenor Audio 175S 20th Anniversary amplifier ($150,000), and a Grimm Audio MU2 server/streamer/DAC/preamp ($23,500). Peripheral products included cabling by Siversmith, Inakustik, and Network Acoustics (various prices) and an amp stand and two-shelf rack by Modulum Arkitek ($5700 and $4800, respectively). On static display were a Baetis Audio prodigy L2E server ($2500) and a iFi iDSD NEO 2 DAC ($1300), both of which received an honorable asterisk next to their listing on Lemay's price list for being musically unbeatable at their price.

I wish everyone could hear this system to grasp how much information lies in a recording and how creative, nuanced, continuous, and realistic it can sound, even on regular FLAC-file streams. High-res files? Pshaw. Listening to this system with regular 16/44.1 fare streamed from Tidal was a revelation, delivering, on live recordings, a keen sense that I was not only hearing every sound in high focus but also that the performance itself was unfolding in real time in front of my ears and eyes. Transcendent.

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