After all that work on the first day, a break was in order. A record-shopping break.
The evening before the show started, I was told by co-organizer Sarah Tremblay that the LP-vending area for Montreal Audio Fest 2018 was double that of last year's show—news akin to telling a retiree that the senior citizen's discount at Cracker Barrel has just been doubled. I made a beeline to the foire du vinyle in one of the Hotel's Fontaine Ballrooms and was thrilled at the sheer quantity of LPs on offer.
The selection was impressive, spanning every genre. I believe all of the vendors…
The venerable Japanese firm Luxman and the German turntable manufacturer Acoustic Signature—whose President, Gunther Frohnhofer, I had the pleasure of meeting on Friday—shared a room in which Raidho C3.2 and D2.1 loudspeakers (respectively $US37,500/pair and $US44,00/pair) were driven by Luxman M700u power amps running in mono ($US8995/pair), in turn driven by a Luxman C700u preamplifier ($US8995), fed by a Luxman EQ500 phono preamp ($US6495) and Melco N1ZH v2 music server ($US5000). LPs were played on Acoustic Signature Double X ($CAD5500) and Storm turntables ($CAD9000), both fitted with…
As I broached the Bonaventure Hotel's lobby into Montreal's Audio Fest on Sunday, my immediate thought was: "Where is everybody?", followed soon after by "Yay, free listening seats!" Why attendees flock en masse to the show on Saturday rather than spread themselves out into Sunday, a day when exhibitor rooms have been optimized over three days to sound their best, is a mystery to me that feels not unlike a secret I'm better off not sharing with anyone but my closest audio buds.
And speaking of audio buds, my fake award for overall best retail audio store representative at this year's…
On Saturday morning, the Montreal Audio Fest seemed to get crowded in the blink of an eye: One minute I was stepping out of my room in the Hotel Bonaventure, the next minute I was excusez-moi-ing my way into one SRO room after another. I confess that, for one very brief moment, I wished I was back with the howling old owl in the woods.
Homesickness was dispelled the moment I heard the system in the first of three rooms sponsored by Motet Distribution of Toronto, this one featuring Triangle Australe speakers ($CAD5500/pair), driven by a VTL S-200 stereo amp ($CAD17,500) and 5.5 preamp ($…
I began my Saturday afternoon with a visit to the Montreal Audio Fest's Audiofilles room, the name being a pun (en Francais, bien sur) on audio girls. For the occasion, a number of partnering manufacturers contributed elements of what turned out to be a fine-sounding system: an Oracle Paris MkV turntable with tonearm and Paris PH200 phono preamplifier; McIntosh MB50 streaming audio player and MA7200 integrated amplifier; Luna Cables Orange interconnects, speaker cables, and AC cords; Modulum equipment supports; and a pair of Totem Forest Signature loudspeakers, in high-gloss mahogany finish…
The loudness wars are over. The valiant but hopelessly outnumbered forces that stood against squashing the dynamics and life out of recordings, all in the name of almighty loudness, have been vanquished. Scattered across the smoking battlefield are the lifeless bodies of thousands of disappointed listeners, many so young they will never now know what it's like to hear a natural, uncompressed recording.
Moby, a wily survivor, has come to terms with the victorious barbarian hordes.
"Subjectively, I don't listen to anything that has been mastered in the last 10 years. And I don't…
"As for worst there are two albums, 18 [2002] and Hotel [2005]. They're not technically bad, but boy, there's sterility to the way in which they were mixed and edited and processed. I wish they had a little more space."
Although in the recording studio the loudness war has been lost, if only for the moment (though that may be my naïveté talking), what most concerns Moby is the far larger issue of humanity's current path. The multi-talented musician, songwriter, remixer, and deejay became one of the biggest names in dance music in the 1990s, when his albums Play (1999) and 18 became…
I've found that some audio amplifiers have sonic signatures so subtle that they emerge only over weeks of listening; yet other amps sound so distinctive—more vivid, more transparent, more dynamic—that their signatures are immediately apparent. Can those latter qualities really be inherent in the recording, or are they colorations produced in the amplifier?
The question arose soon after I moved from New York to San Rafael, California. My New York listening room had been big—25' by 13', with a 12' semi-cathedral ceiling. I now listen to music in a room only 11' by 11.5', with a flat…
It was. The Stereo 1.0's manual (p.8) reveals that, as with the Levinson, the user must wait at least three seconds between activations of the power switches. In fact, the Constellation's Power/Standby bar must be held down all that time, until an internal relay clicks as it triggers the turn-on sequence, during which the bar's LED shifts from glowing steady red (Standby) to flashing green (Warmup). That flashing-green phase, too, is inviolate—pressing the bar again won't bypass it. At the end of that long minute, the relay clicks again, the LED glows steady blue, and the Stereo 1.0 is…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-channel solid-state power amplifier. Inputs: 2 single-ended (RCA), 2 balanced (XLR), 2 Constellation Direct (XLR). Outputs: 2 pairs speaker binding posts. Power output (1kHz at 1% THD+N): 200Wpc into 8 ohms (23dBW), 400Wpc into 4 ohms (23dBW). Voltage gain: 26dB (14dB, Constellation Direct). Frequency response: 10Hz–80kHz, +0/–0.5dB. THD+N: <0.05% (1kHz at up to 90% of rated power). Output noise: <70µV, 500kHz bandwidth, –116dB ref. 250W. Signal/noise: >95dB, A-weighted. Input impedance: 20k ohms (Constellation Direct, balanced), 10k…
