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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…

It's not often that I come across a piece of gear at an audio show that I pine to own. The Simaudio Moon 40th Anniversary Limited Edition system is in that category, but I'd better hurry: Production is limited to 40 systems.

The system comprises the 125Wpc Moon 600i v2 integrated amplifier and the Roon-ready 680D DAC. The package, including cabling, "starts at" $38,000, the price depending on—what? Finish? Cable choices? I'm not sure. Each unit’s side and front panels are finished in a "deluxe rose red color," and the top…

Who knew I’d meet Paul Simon—the Paul Simon, pop star, the shorter half of Simon and Garfunkel—at the Toronto Audiofest? I wasn't expecting to, but there he was, singing to me. I also met Satch, a/k/a Louis Armstrong. Both were in the room belonging to Acora Acoustics, builders of speakers made with natural granite enclosures.

Okay, those musicians weren’t really there, but you could have fooled me! Such was the system’s ability to convey the tone of instruments and the tiny inflections and breathing patterns that…

Do your speakers that go low and tight in the bass? Here's a test: Use your system to stream the tracks "Bubbles" by Yosi Horikawa and "Make us Stronger" by Ghost Rider. I heard these two tracks at the Kennedy Hi-Fi room; they were making the rounds at the show, and for good reason: They contain kick-butt bass sections, they’re 3D-spacious, and the music and sound are actually good.

The sound they made coming out of the 200Wpc, class-D NAD Masters Series M33 BluOS streaming DAC integrated amplifier ($6999; see Kal…

I generally avoid home theater rooms at an audio show because typically—and reasonably—they’ve been set up mainly with the cinematic experience in mind rather than the musical one. So I hesitated before entering the two adjoining EQ Audio Video rooms because they had screens. But with a little prodding from company owner Ed O’Herlihy—he assured me that the systems in the rooms were strictly stereo—I acquiesced. I’m glad I did.

The first system, which comprised a Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista CD player ($9000), a Nu-Vista…

Olga Oreshyna is an artist who makes, as she calls it, "non-traditional art." She begins by collecting old wood, “with scratches, cracks, knots, and other imperfections that are similar to real life." She carves it into pieces, dries it, colors it with acrylic paint or stain, and “fits [it] to a specifically designated position” among other wood pieces to create a mosaic sculpture.

One day, a friend of Olga’s pointed out that her sculptures could double as acoustic panels, and that’s how her acoustic-panel business…

Let me break it down. On the one hand, handshakes were replaced with fist and elbow bumps, real smiles by eyes smiling over masks, whispers by conversations at regular volume. There were fewer attendees than at prepandemic shows, and fewer exhibitors. That situation will surely improve with time.

On the other hand, everyone there seemed to be having a good time. You could feel it in the air, the vibe; it felt like a mixture of relief and gratitude to be back among fellow audio passionates, reuniting with old friends and familiar faces, and seeing new…

Why is Stereophile publishing its fourth review (at least) in three years of a recording of Bach's Six Cello Suites? Partly it's because the suites, which were composed ca 1720 but remained in obscurity until a young Pablo Casals rediscovered them in a secondhand sheet music store in Barcelona in 1890, contain some…