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The Wynn Audio Room: World Premieres Galore!
(All prices in Canadian funds unless otherwise noted.)
“Hello Toronto Audiofest! It’s good to be back!”
That was my first thought when I entered the Westin Toronto Airport Hotel, the same venue used for the previous, and first ever, Toronto Audiofest in 2019. It was also the thought I had inside the first exhibit room I visited, sponsored by importer Wynn Audio and helmed by the amiable Wynn Wong.
A minute into listening to a CD through the Metronome AQWO SACD/CD Player ($26,000)—by Junko Kimura’s jazz trio, with its fat tones, flailing limbs, and gusts of air—I just knew this would be one of my favorite rooms. Chalk it up to how the system, which also included the Karan Acoustics Master LINEa Preamp ($49,000), the tastefully distinctive lime-green Vimberg Mino D Loudspeakers ($53,000), and—making their North American debut—the 2400Wpc Karan Acoustics Master POWERa monoblocks ($135,000/pair), provided a true sense of hearing live musicians performing in the room. Instruments had real-life stature. Notes seemed to last forever. And then there’s the side gear: the glittering Critical Mass Systems Olympus V12 stands ($11,400 for each component level), which looked bling-gorgeous, Entreq’s big-as-a-10,000Wpc-amplifier ground box ($23,800, pictured at right of the stand), and CrystalConnect by Crystal Cable's Art Series da Vinci cables. The Entreq and the CrystalConnect cables are also making their North American debuts.
Want yet another North American debut? Check out the EMT 128 phono stage ($12,800), on static display with the Thales TTT-Compact II turntable ($21,000) fitted with a Statement Tonearm ($31,900) and X-quisite GT Cartridge ($19,500).
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