This is my first time attending a Montreal hi-fi show, and so it makes sense that I would make some new acquaintances. It is a pleasure to meet Graeme Humphrey and Danny Labrecque of Coup de Foudre, a pretty sweet looking hi-fi shop in Montreal. Here Graeme and Danny assume a sort of pirate-gangster pose. They appear pretty tough, but they're actually quite gentle.

All right, so maybe I should have followed the recommendation that passengers should get to the train station at least 30 minutes before departure. But, really, does anyone but terminally obsessive-compulsive individuals do that? The train going from Toronto to Montreal was scheduled to leave Toronto at 9:30am. I was planning to be at Union Station in Toronto by 9:15. But with this and that, and delays here and there, when I got to the Via Rail ticket office to exchange my computer printout for the actual ticket it was 9:29 by their clock.

I know it's only the first day and I've hardly listened to any music, but my Best Music of Show Award goes to the Tone Imports/DeVore Fidelity/Box Furniture Co./Clearaudio room. I doubt there'll be any other suite at SSI where you can hear Q-Tip's <i>The Renaissance</i> followed by some radically bad-ass, virtuoso tabla.

You would never guess that just moments before the photo was snapped, Tone Imports' Jonathan Halpern was bent over, purple-faced, and teary-eyed with delirious laughter. I'm not sure what it was all about. It had something to do with "championship wood."

It was a pleasure to finally meet <i>Stereophile</i> <a href="http://forum.stereophile.com/forum/ubbthreads.php">forum</a&gt; member, KBK, also known as, Ken Hotte. If you think he looks a little crazy here, you should read his forum posts.

Dynaudio's Mike Manousselis introduced me to the OCOS (Optimal COnnection System) coaxial, copper speaker cables ($500/3m pair). OCOS insists that a speaker cable should be completely transparent, imposing no sonic signature of its own. Manousselis explained that the cable provides a constant impedance throughout the entire frequency range, so as to stabilize the partnering amplifier, allowing it to "see" the speaker directly.

Dynaudio's Michael Manousselis palms the Excite X12 loudspeaker ($1200/pair).