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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.

At ArtistCloner, that one person is Sylvio Comtois, proprietor and product designer and an inveterate engineer known to spend nearly every waking moment—and even moments in his sleep when he wakes up with a design idea—thinking about audio.

That commitment has led ArtistCloner to build some of the consistently best-sounding equipment I'…

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.

After I'd walked into the room and sat down to listen to some streamed tracks, I thought—for sure—this was one of those systems whose cost was out of reach of everyone but the wealthiest. These were big speakers and fancy–looking separates. They produced a refined,…

My memory isn't good to start with. Still, 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.

The model's bass should go low—provided by each speaker's two 10" woofers powered by a 300-watt Class-D amplifier; it's rated as being able to go as low as 24Hz. But Stygian low bass? The kind that turns into a rumbling-in-the-floorboards murmur? I…

The smaller system consisted of a pair of Gershman Acoustics Studio XdB speakers ($11,995/pair), the brand new 208Wpc, tube / transistor hybrid Eon Art Squark SE integrated amplifier ($27,000),…

All prices listed are in Canadian dollars.

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.

The system consisted of a Shindo Auriege preamplifier ($8120); a Shindo Montille stereo amplifier ($10,820); a pair of made-in-Germany, two-way Wolf von Langa SON 12639 speakers ($27,000 / pair), which use dipole Air Motion Transformer (AMT) tweeters; a Wattson…

All prices are in Canadian dollars.

It's always a pleasure to visit an exhibit room put together by Audiophile Experts because the retailer's setups and recordings tend to sound top notch, and you won’t hear these recordings elsewhere at a show.

It was no different this time. The system that included a core of Accuphase products: the class-A, 65Wpc, A-80 integrated amplifier ($27,999), C-2900 preamplifier ($26,999), C-47 MM / MC phono stage, and AC-6 MC cartridge. Connected to these were a grand-looking Grandioso T1 turntable ($108,000), an Esoteric N-05XD streamer/DAC/…

All prices listed are in Canadian dollars.

Atelier Audio's room was buzzing the couple of times I'd passed by to peer inside, and I don't mean some sort of transformer noise. I mean with people. It was consistently abuzz with visitors. Luckily, I was eventually able to snatch a seat during an Atelier Audio demo; then I understood why this room was so popular.

First were the speakers, the made-in-France Diptyque DP140 MKII ($19,990/pair). These isodynamic panels didn't look like anything else at the show, nor did they sound like anything else. Their sound is almost 2A3 SET-…

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…

All prices listed are in Canadian dollars.

I heard rarefied, potently musical sound (out-of-this-world sound? hehe) in the Moon by Simaudio room.

The system included, from Moon by Simaudio's North Collection, the Moon 891 network player / preamplifier with built-in DAC and MM / MC phono stage (starting at $32,500), a 300Wpc Moon 861 power amplifier (starting at $29,000), and a pair of the curvaceous, somewhat futuristic-looking (perfect for Moon products) Estelon XB Mkll Reference speakers ($64,600/pair). Cabling was by Cardas.

This system offered some of the most…

Timely if nothing else, that email came just after I had serendipitously acquired a new-to-my-collection, first-pressing LP copy of the first Guy Clark album, Old No. 1. Killing time before a doctor's appointment near…