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It's a reasonable question coming at the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel tail-end (fingers crossed) of a worldwide pandemic.

I'm about to find out because I'm at the 2021 Toronto Audiofest, held at the Westin Toronto Airport Hotel from October 22–24.

I don't know what to expect except that I already know it's going to be smaller than the prepandemic Toronto show I attended in 2019. Will it be different in other ways? Will it be awkward? Will people stay close to the walls to avoid close contact? Refuse to shake hands with old…

“Hello Toronto Audiofest! It’s good to be back!”

That was my first thought when I entered the Westin Toronto Airport Hotel, the same venue used for the previous, and first ever, Toronto Audiofest in 2019. It was also the thought I had inside the first exhibit room I visited, sponsored by importer Wynn Audio and helmed by the amiable Wynn Wong.

A minute into listening to a CD through the Metronome AQWO SACD/CD Player ($26,000)—by Junko Kimura’s jazz trio, with its fat tones, flailing limbs, and gusts of air—I just knew…

My third room belonged to audio importer Motet and Winnipeg-based retailer AltitudoAudio. The gear in this room was more modestly priced than in previous rooms, but it delivered the musical goods.

At the heart of the system was an Auris Fortissimo integrated amplifier ($15,000). Source duties went to an Earmen DAC ($800) and streamer ($1500), a brand you may not have heard of because it won’t be sold to end-users for another month or so. But let me say this: from what I heard in this room, and in another room I’ll get…

It’s under the new Genesis banner that I heard a system that included a pair of standard-version Marten Parker Duos in Piano Walnut ($17,550/pair)—standard version meaning the ones with the ceramic tweeter and not the more expensive Duo Diamond Edition with the diamond tweeter. (See John Atkinson's review of the larger Parker Trio Diamond Edition, here.) The…

Okay, so what next?

BIG speakers, namely the 3-way PMC Fenestria ($90,000), which loomed tall in the second Motet room. Upstream components included an Accuphase A75 amplifier ($25,600), Accuphase C2850 preamplifier ($25,000), Lumin U1 streamer ($10,000), and—get this—an iFi Diablo DAC that retails for $1200!

Here was another room using a budget source to deliver music to an otherwise megabuck system. But the music coming from this system didn’t sound budget: It was lively, delicately rendered, and finely textured…

They say staring is impolite, but as I listened to the music from this system in the American Sound room, it was hard to keep my eye from wandering to gaze lustily at the assembled gear, including the Estelon Forza speakers in Black Pearl Gloss, ($195,000/pair), the class-A, 600Wpc Boulder 2160 power amplifier ($78,000), the VAC Statement preamplifier ($80,000), and the digital duo of the Wadax Reference server ($90,000) and Wadax Reference DAC ($190,000). That's a combined retail cost of $916,250 with the HRS stands and…

In the mood for an under $20,000 audiophile-grade system? Excellent, because I found one in the room sponsored by Wired with Sound. There, I met owner James Drew, a chap I liked as soon as he’d offered me a beer (which, for the record, I politely declined). On display was a simple (but potent) little system comprising a pair of 3-way Definitive Technology Demand D15 speakers ($3999/pair), the 100Wpc class-D Marantz Model 30 integrated amplifier ($3999; see Herb Reichert's review, here), and 30N SACD-streamer ($3999), with…

Whether at the Toronto Audiofest or the Montreal one, Audio Note UK always has a room set up that is simple to string together, not very expensive, and eminently musical. It was no different at this year’s Toronto show, where cellist extraordinaire and Audio Note UK rep Vincent Bélanger once again took up MC’ing duties to present a system comprised of the Audio Note K-LX speakers in Slate finish ($8995), a CDT one transport ($6195), and a 28Wpc, class-A, push-pull Cobra EL34 integrated amp (yum, right?). It had never…

In a near-repeat of my visit to the Gershman Acoustics room at 2019’s Toronto Audiofest, I got the chance to meet up with the Toronto-based company’s Ofra and Eli Gershman and also Krell COO Walter Schofield. This time I also got to meet Exasound president George Klissarov, to chat about audio and listen to good music from a system using a Krell 150Wpc (the first 90 watts in class-A) K300i integrated amplifier (US$7500, US$8500 with DAC; see Jason Victor Serinus's review, here.), Gershman Acoustics’s Grande Avant Garde…