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Mikey fremers with some connections while the imposing Wilson MAXX 3 loudspeaker looks on, darth-vaderishly. Better not screw up, Mikey.
Last Friday was an interesting day in the office. No one was here, but Ariel. Robert Baird was whooping it up at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, and John Atkinson and I would soon be on the road. It was the first day of spring, and snow was falling like mad.
At a little past 9am, JA would be climbing into the Land Cruiser, heading out from Bay Ridge, across Staten Island, over the Kill van Kull, all along 440, and into Jersey City, where I would be waiting for him. The drive from JA's place to mine would take a little over half an hour. Not bad at all.…
Back in the winter of 1999, just a few months before I started working for Stereophile, I took a month-long train trip. One of my first stops was in Montreal. I could not have spent more than three or four days there, but they were a very fulfilling and memorable three or four days.
I walk to the top of Parc du Mont-Royal. I fall in love one million times. That sort of thing.
I meet kind and beautiful people (Jane, Steven, Leo, Sophie, Masa, Anne, Greg, Maggie). We exchange addresses and phone numbers, and, though I haven't spoken to them in years, I think of them…
Stereophile will be reporting live from the 2009 Salon Son & Image show in Montreal.
Okay, so I'm outside the hotel, attempting to take a photograph of the show banner, but it's far too dark to capture adequately. After a few failed attempts, I give up, and decide to go for a quick walk. It's not too cold and I'm not too tired, and I may not have another chance at this.
I arrive at the corner of Drummond and Saint-Catherine, and I just get this feeling that I should stop and take inventory. I look left, I look ahead, I look right. On the corner of Drummond and Saint-Catherine, above the Payless shoe store, there is an awful-looking Middle Eastern restaurant…
It is just about as beautiful a day as you can imagine. You can see both the sun and the moon in this clear, blue sky. It is the kind of day that you hope for throughout the cold, winter months.
A crowd of people form a circle near the entrance to the Centre Sheraton, and they smoke and laugh. Inside, on this first day of Salon Son & Image, the atmosphere is quiet and relaxed. The show opened at 9am, at which time many exhibitors were just beginning to set up their rooms, or were still just stretching their legs from a long trip or rubbing their eyes from a long night…
Totem's Vince Bruzzese was happy to tell me about the Wind Design, an enhanced version of the company's flagship floorstander. It uses a "skid plate" decoupling system with a front "claw" which is user-adjustable to complement the phase interactions between the speaker and various associated electronics. Totem strives to create loudspeakers that will mate happily with all sorts of associated equipment, and today they were making music with an Arcam FMJ disc player and Bryston amplification.
Though a matching Tribe III center channel ($2750 CAN) and Storm subwoofer ($1750 CAN)…
Monitor Audio's Sheldon Ginn is very excited about the company's new PL200 loudspeaker ($8000/pair). This attractive floorstander fills the gap between Monitor's PL100 bookshelf and the much bulkier PL300 floorstander, and uses a three-driver configuration with a ribbon tweeter. It's available in ebony, rosewood, and piano black finishes, and boasts a real leather front baffle.
The PL200s were partnered to an all-Simaudio system: Andromeda CD player, P-8 preamplifier, and W-8 power amp. We listened to a bluesy acoustic guitar track called "The Beat Hotel" by a fellow named Allen…
Monitor Audio took advantage of one of the show's larger suites by setting up a home theater system, a two-channel hi-fi, and a static display. Starting from the far right, here we see Monitor's entry-level Bronze series, the Silver series, and the Gold series. The flagship Platinum series, including the new PL200 floorstander, is just outside the frame.