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Monitor Audio was displaying two systems. The first showcased a pair of the company's Studio 89 monitors ($2999/pair, + $799 for Studio 89 stands) and Anthra W12 subwoofer ($3700), fed by a 140Wpc, class-A/B Rotel RAS-5000 integrated amplifier ($3999), while cabling and the component rack, in systems 1 and 2, were by Audience and Norstone, respectively.

On a Roon-supplied high-res file of an Eric Clapton and B.B. King track taken from the duo's Riding With the King release, Clapton's and King's vocals were transparent, throaty, and expressive,…

Some products at audio shows create a buzz. They get people excited and raving about them in the venue’s corridors. One such product at this year’s show was the Elac Concentro S 503 standmount speaker ($12,000/pair).

On its website, Elac calls the S 503 a bookshelf speaker, but I feel “bookshelf” doesn’t do the speaker justice—in looks alone; when I saw the S 503 as I walked into Winnipeg-based retailer Altitudo’s exhibit room, I thought, "what a smart-looking speaker". It looked distinguished with its trapezoid-shaped, beveled cabinet in its high-gloss…

At every Toronto Audiofest, EQ Audio Video hosts the same room and it's easily the biggest one at the show—it's the size of a palatial Austrian ballroom—which the retailer subdivides into several closed-off demos that play at different times. EQ Audio Video owner Ed O'Herlihy knows how to put demos together so they always sound impressive, and this year I got to hear two of the best systems, not only in the EQ room, but at the entire show.

The first system I heard was centered around Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista electronics, including a 300Wpc, fully…

Takeaways?
First, if what I saw of this year's inaugural Earvanafest was any indication of the high-end headphone industry's general health, it must be doing very well. The couple of times I stole a gander at the event, it was teeming with activity. It might explain why this year the Audiofest organizers decided to host the headphone component of the show in a much bigger space than usual, and call it Earvanafest!

Second, ribbon-based tweeters are…

Motor Drive and Platter Module
At the heart of the Model One is the Motor Drive and Platter Module, designed for both high performance and flexibility. Mounted on an aluminum plate with a resonance-damping layer, this module minimizes vibrations. It features a 300rpm belt-drive motor (500rpm in regions with 230V power) equipped with…

For Scott, cymbals are one of many litmus tests for a sound system. If he'd heard how fabulously BennyAudio’s Odyssey turntable, which is equipped with a short belt drive, one arm, and a van den Hul Frog Gold cartridge, reproduced the sound of cymbals. On "Dating" from E.S.T.…

The Standard Max Supreme exemplifies J. Sikora’s underlying philosophy of addressing resonances by combining different metals and alloys in different proportions. Fifteen years of experience with metals and machining have passed since the initial…

The box has five CDs, each holding a different set of Memphis recordings. Disc 1, Sun Single Masters, contains those musical lightning bolts captured at Sam Phillips's Sun…

My first exposure to the perils of dating happened when I was 12. For my mother's birthday, my grandparents gave her a membership in a computer…

The Sound of Red October
I have to start this section with a caveat for can heads: Though I've been using good headphones for much of my adult life, I strongly prefer listening through speakers. So my impressions of the Red October's headphone capabilities lack the subtlety and knowhow of a true headspace aficionado like Herb Reichert. That said, I used four sets of cans—the Audeze LCD-3, the Sennheiser HD 650, the HiFiMan HE-R10P, and the Meze Elite—and listened to both vinyl and streaming.

Though the Ampsandsound flagship lacked the near-silent backgrounds of some solid…