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Talk about a dream triad of fabulous gear from Switzerland: darTZeel, Stenheim, Merging Technologies. The first thing I said to myself when I saw this simple, sharp-looking spread in Toronto-based retailer Sonic Artistry's room was, "Damn, this is an attractive group!".

That attractiveness extended to the Swiss group's collective sound. Doing hosting duties at the time of my visit was all-around great guy and Audio Fest regular Walter Schofield, proprietor of Nexus Audio Technologies, which represents Stenheim among other high-end brands. Walter Tidal-streamed an array of dazzling…

When I asked Totem's Vince Bruzzese, at last year's "static" launch of the new Bison series, what the impetus was to create the Bison range, he said it came down to wanting to create something special to mark the company's 35th birthday but also that of the Model 1, which came out in the year of the company's founding, 1987. "I wanted to bring us back to Model 1 territory," Vince said, "where people were wowed and saying, 'oh my gosh, I spent how much in the past and never got this?'"

The Bison series includes the two-way Bison Monitor ($2250), which Vince told me is like the…

I have bumped into manufacturer Artist Cloner’s owner and designer, Sylvio Comtois, many times at audio shows. He strikes me as being a bit of a mad scientist. Not “crazy” mad but mad in the sense of being obsessed with a particular objective.

In Sylvio’s case, that objective is the realization of the ultimate in sound reproduction through meticulous system synergy. It’s why he designs, builds, and demoes entire ArtistCloner systems, to show what can result when everything in the playback chain, from cables to speakers…

As usual, I found cellist and Audio Note UK music ambassador Vincent Bélanger hosting the Audio Note UK room, but this time, Vincent wasn't alone. He was accompanied by two sales executives hailing from Audio Note central in England: Daniel Qvortrup, son of company founder Peter, and a chap who, at night, goes by the artist name A:D and by day, Adrian Ford-Crush. Adrian composes a style of bass-heavy electronic music that's popular in England called drum and bass. He and Daniel came to Montreal to help…

I was running out of time.

The show was closing soon and I hadn't heard either of Gershman Acoustics's two new offerings at the show. Well, one new, the other new-ish. The new-ish one was the company's Grand Avant Garde 30th Anniversary Edition model. This wasn't a Special Edition with a limited run but a tweaked version of the popular Grand Avant Garde, a speaker I always liked for its rich, full-bodied sound. It replaced the original, and it offers bass extension specified to go 2dB lower.

The other model was genuinely new: It launched at…

Finally, it snowed during the weekend of the show, on Saturday, which was disappointing. It meant I wasn’t in an alternate 'verse of the multiverse after all and, consequently, I wasn’t Alternate Rob with a half-million-dollar hi-fi waiting at home.

On the good side, in my 'verse, the Montreal Audiofest 2023 was a bonafide hit, in two ways in particular. First, there's attendance, which was larger and more varied—many women and youngsters—than I remember ever seeing at the Montreal show. Organizer Sarah Tremblay remarked with incredulity that it was the first time the show has…

On a warm day in September 2022, alongside 40 or so press colleagues, I was treated to an advance demonstration of the Dolby Atmos mix of The Beatles' Revolver, at Republic Studios on Broadway In New York City's midtown. Producer/mixer Giles Martin—son of original Beatles producer Sir George Martin—was our host. Giles Martin's demeanor was self-deprecating, and he seemed to know all there is to know about the Beatles and their productions. As Martin played songs from Revolver in surround sound, the assembled group seemed amazed by what they heard.

Played through…

KM: I noticed on some of the mixes, I heard a lot of rear channel information, some were more upfront stereo. How did you make that differentiation?

GM: Depends on the content. Take "Taxman" or "Dr. Robert," which is guitar, bass, and drums. It was all recorded together, but we've demixed it. You can't put the guitar in the back, it's the band playing. But with "Yellow Submarine," the ocean and the sound effects, you can put that in the rear channels because they're not part of…

Listening
Since installing the Mystique X SE DAC in my system about four weeks ago, I have not taken it out. The Mojo's extremely natural, easy-flowing sound trumped every inclination I had to do comparisons with some other digital source. Its nuclear-level pheromone emissions led me amorously from one streaming track to another. In most ways, that's the main story of this review. That's the effect the Mystique had on me and my system. Nevertheless, I must earn my shilling and sixpence, so I will commence with a few descriptions from my listening experiences.

One night, a few…