Montreal Audio Fest 2022

This year's annual audio-industry cocktail/supper ceremony was held in a ballroom-like room that gave the proceedings a bit of an Oscar-night flair. (Our invitation to Will Smith was rescinded in light of current events.)

GO, KLH! The brand has become one of my coup de coeurs—which loosely translates as "darlings of the heart"—based on the two models I've heard at the show, the Model 3 in the Le Studio du Son room and now the Model 5 ($3750 w/stands) in this room.

When I first saw the big black banner on the wall in importer/distributor Asona's room, which was, despite the chronological order of my postings, actually one of the first rooms I'd visited at the show, inscribed in big bold letters with Innuos across it, I thought: "Hey, Innuos, isn't that the company that makes streaming products?

Montreal retailer Studio du Son's room was a blast from the past, complete with peace-sign door beads, a 50s-style wood-framed Black & White TV—okay, technically it was a blast from at least two different pasts—vintage photos of old-school rock stars, and a fat-knobbed radio and record player console. Oh, and KLH speakers.

You want sound that's narcotically intimate? Seductively expressive? Molecularly textured?

The Music First room was playing some tasty music with eye-popping gear, including the Hungarian-made Bayz Audio Courante loudspeakers ($60,000/pair US with carbon fibre construction), a unique, patented, omnidirectional design.

Maybe the earth-toned, smoke-spewing phallus standing in the back of the room had something to do with it.