Toronto Audiofest 2022

Exasound products have always been the source—literally, they make front end equipment—of good sound when I've heard them at audio shows, and this time was no different.

Exasound was sharing a room with Muraudio and Constellation—a constellation of three companies, if you will. The trio's setup included the Muraudio SP1 speaker (US$19,500/pair), an electrostatic/dynamic hybrid that radiates sound 120° horizontally and 16° vertically, a pattern said to prevent soundwave interactions with the floor and ceiling to achieve better imaging and bass.

There is something ancestrally earthy about the sound of Acora speakers that is hard to pinpoint. Sure, the fact their enclosures are made of stone might have something to do with the Stonehenge vibe I'm getting from them, but once you hear Acora speakers, I think you'll get a glimpse of what I'm talking about. They sound timeless and wise, like musical sages from another time. They convey the earth-bound existence of artists before they died like few other speakers do. They conjure the essence of music, back to when cavemen tapped sticks on stones.

I heard welcoming sound in the room shared by retailer Corby's Audio and manufacturer Saturn Audio when I walked in on Steely Dan playing on a system fronted by a pair of 3-way Alta Audio Adam speakers ($19,000/pair) that looked spiffy in their premium Rosewood finish ($1000 extra).

It's the first music I heard in the morning and the last I heard come evening, after doing my last round of the day of room-to-room visits: Pink Floyd, courtesy my neighbor, two doors down from me in the Crown Mountain Imports/Audio by Mark Jones room. I like Pink Floyd, so it was all good. And it's not like my neighbor only played Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd just seemed to bookend the listening days there, probably to provide both a boost of encouragement and a respite for the host. I was also intrigued by the sound in that room, because even though I'd only heard the music it played through my wall or from the hallway as I scurried by but slowed down just enough to steal a peak inside my neighbor's room, it always somehow sounded better than I thought it should.

Audio Note UK is one of those companies that makes entire systems, including cables, so that you don't need to look elsewhere for compatible products—same-brand audiophile systems have the theoretical advantage of using components that were made to work well together. This can also, theoretically, avoid misfires when trying to match different components, especially those made by people who don't share the same design philosophies, or just don't listen to music the same way.

The Anthem/Paradigm system may have been simply assembled, but don't let that fool you into thinking it wasn't sophisticated technologically or sound-wise. The Anthem STR integrated ($6000) outputs 200Wpc, comes with a hi-rez DAC, a USB audio input that supports up to 32/384 PCM, a pair of MM/MC phono inputs, and offers room correction. The speakers being fed by the Anthem were the fancy-looking five-driver, 95dB-sensitive, class-D bass-amplified Paradigm Founder 120H speakers ($11,000/pair; review to appear in the December issue of Stereophile).

The speakers on display in the Kennedy room included two pairs of Focal 926s, one of which, standing higher than the other, were threaded with IsoAcoustics Gaia ll feet, the other with the stock feet. Electronics included a Naim ND5 SS2 streamer ($5540 US), which comes with four 24/192 digital inputs, and a 70Wpc Naim Nait SX 3 integrated amp ($5540 US), while cabling consisted of Kimber Kable's Carbon series.