Robert Schryer

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.

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 Apple Tree owner and distributor of BSC Research speakers must have done some research on what it would take to put this hard-nosed reporter on his good side because the first he did when I walked into his room was offer me a microbrewery beer. So sneaky. I took a rain check on the beer, but I wouldn't have needed a beer to enjoy the sound I heard in this room.

Hi everyone. This is Rob Schryer reporting live from Toronto's Westin Airport Hotel. In case you haven't heard, it's at this venue that the Toronto Audiofest is taking place from October 21 to 23 with 89 exhibit rooms from purveyors of audio all vying to charm our pants off.