Passion Audio: Shindo, Wolf von Langa, J.Sikora, Luna Cables, Wattson, HANA, Fezz Audio

Submitted by Jim Austin on

Passion Audio: Shindo, Wolf von Langa, J.Sikora, Luna Cables, Wattson, HANA, Fezz Audio

Mar 31, 2024

Retailer Passion Audio just opened a few months ago on Montreal's South Shore, which is where I live. I couldn't be more pleased about that after listening to the artisinal, gorgeous-sounding, soul-of-the-music-capturing equipment it demoed at the Audiofest.

Gershman Acoustics, Eon Art, Oracle Audio, Cardas Audio

Gershman Acoustics, Eon Art, Oracle Audio, Cardas Audio

Mar 31, 2024
Gershman Acoustics are habitual show exhibitors and it shows. They know how to tease out good sound from an acoustically-challenging hotel room. They've also found a synergistic match for their products with those from their longstanding exhibit partners Eon Art, Oracle Audio, and Cardas Audio, with whom they reunited for this show to present two systems, a smaller one and a bigger one.

Planète Haute-Fidélité: MartinLogan, Hegel, Wattson, Stable 33.33, Reed, EMT, Luna Cables, Cardas Audio, Saturn Audio

Planète Haute-Fidélité: MartinLogan, Hegel, Wattson, Stable 33.33, Reed, EMT, Luna Cables, Cardas Audio, Saturn Audio

Mar 31, 2024
My memory isn't good to start with, but I could've sworn I heard substantially more bass coming out of the MartinLogan Expression ESL 13A hybrid electrostatic loudspeakers ($23,500/pair) in Planète Haute-Fidélité's room than during any other visit to the retailer's showroom in past years.

Audio Group Denmark, Wynn Audio, Børresen, Axxess, Ansuz

Audio Group Denmark, Wynn Audio, Børresen, Axxess, Ansuz

Mar 31, 2024
Saying Audio Group Denmark/Wynn Audio impressed at this year's Montreal Audiofest is an understatement. They brought the goods and then some. That "some" is what I perceived as the quality of the merchandise and its performance in relation to its price.

ArtistCloner

ArtistCloner

Mar 30, 2024
ArtistCloner is one of those audio manufacturers, like Audio Note, making complete systems from cabling to speakers to power conditioners. Its designs stem from one person's singular vision.

Wharfedale Heritage Series 90th Anniversary Dovedale loudspeaker

Wharfedale Heritage Series 90th Anniversary Dovedale loudspeaker

Mar 30, 2024 First Published:Mar 29, 2024
When I first got interested in audio in the UK, in the 1960s, four English brands dominated the domestic loudspeaker scene: Goodmans (founded in 1923), Celestion (whose first loudspeaker was launched in early 1925), Tannoy (which started making loudspeakers in 1928), and Wharfedale. Wharfedale was the youngest of these brands, founded in 1932 in Yorkshire—the land of the Dales—by Gilbert Briggs.

Wharfedale is still a British brand, with its R&D department in the UK, but it's now owned by the IAG Group, which was founded in Hong Kong in 1991 and is based in Shenzen, China. In addition to Wharfedale, IAG owns the Audiolab, Castle Acoustics, Leak, Luxman, Mission, and Quad brands. In recent years, Wharfedale has been introducing redesigned versions of some of its classic speakers. Herb Reichert favorably reviewed the three-way Linton Heritage loudspeaker in September 2019; then, at the 2022 Munich High End Show, Wharfedale introduced the subject of this review, the Heritage Series 90th Anniversary Dovedale.

Altitudo Audio, Audio Physics, Electrocompaniet, Audio Note, Harmonic Resolution Systems

Altitudo Audio, Audio Physics, Electrocompaniet, Audio Note, Harmonic Resolution Systems

Mar 30, 2024
You want chunky sounds, vivid tone, socking bass, and a globe-like soundstage with notes that appear so solid and dimensional you might be tempted to try to pick them like an apple from an apple tree? If so, then step right up into the Altitudo room, which may look a little small for the amount of gear present and the size of the speakers I listened to, but make no mistake, the sound I heard from FLAC files streamed from a hard drive was clean, muscular, and colorfully diverse.

absolu par Centre HiFi: Technics, Ortofon, Jorma Audio, AudioQuest

absolu par Centre HiFi: Technics, Ortofon, Jorma Audio, AudioQuest

Mar 30, 2024
Technics was showing some delightfully high-end stuff. The turntables were more alike sonically than different, revealing a house sound marked by clarity, explicitness, transient speed, ambient cues, and vivid pictures.

Motet, PMC, Accuphase, EverSolo, Lumin, Kimber

Motet, PMC, Accuphase, EverSolo, Lumin, Kimber

Mar 29, 2024
The room shared by distributor Motet and PMC Speakers showcased a system—actually, two systems, but I only experienced one. This system surprised me, not merely because it delivered a full, big-picture sound but because the source of that sound was not what I initially assumed upon entering.
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