Part 6: Montreal Audiofest Chronicles 2024
The Lower Level, Montreal, and Westmount Rooms.
Montreal Audiofest 2024 Show Report By Rick Becker

M3  Totem Acoustic And La Boutique Techno

Coming back to the long hallway between the Montreal and Westmount rooms this young boy was gazing at his perfect vision of an executive suite desk.

A bunch of entry-level gear including Totem speakers, Sennheiser headphones, and a handful of LPs.

So this was what La Boutique Techno was all about – and they were selling them, too!

The entrance to the Totem Acoustics room is always inviting.

The men lined up in awe of the large graphics of beautiful women.

Lucy informed me there was nothing new at Montreal this year, but they would have a new speaker presented shortly at Axpona. The press release arrived before I wrote this but I won't spill the beans… except to say the new Loon is a small two-way monitor with a new optional finish that sounds like it would be great for a desktop system or surround speakers. Oops!

Around a large partition in the Totem room was a home theater set-up, complete with comfy home theater seats. I'm a fan of the Tribe speakers, but I question the use of the silver flange on the drivers in home theater settings – particularly if you have a video projector.

M4  Focal-Naim Canada

The Focal-Naim room at Montreal and everywhere else they present is like a small audio show in itself.

Here again was the big rig but this time it sounded much, much better than at the Toronto show where the room dimensions and a walkway right between the seats and the speakers delivered poor results.

And their outdoor audio display with grass that never needs mowing.

IsoAcoustics had been going gang-busters with their Gaia footers, even helping to design versions for specific speaker manufacturers. Other companies have followed suit with variations on the footer theme.

Dave Morrison (in the burgundy coat), founder and president of the company shows up at shows to give demonstrations of the footers on identical speakers – one set with and one set without the Gaia footers. At a previous show, when I was still skeptical, I had trouble differentiating when Dave was pressing the button. But once he relented and handed the remote to me, I could quickly pick up on the difference. Not only am I now a believer, but I see more and more speakers showing up with footers rather than spikes.

Their in-wall & ceiling speaker display.

The Focal headphone emporium is always a popular spot as they make some good ones. Traffic was light here because it was still Sunday morning.

The possibility of using a Focal studio speaker in a high-end rig has always intrigued me, but I never get around to asking.

A new Brown Concrete finish was offered on the Sopra No 2. It's not made from concrete – just a textured finish and the sample was not as dark as the image on the banner. I can see how this could be very popular among those who prefer neutral or earth-tone decorating schemes. It was way more subtle than stark black or white.

Focal-Naim has taken on the distribution of Avid turntables, though only one was on display, and it was cleverly disguised with the Plexiglas platter and tonearm protector. Somebody needs to come by with a Swiffer several times a day... and not just in this room, either.

This Musical Fidelity Nu Vista Pre preamp and separate power supply were quite handsome... and deeper (front to back) than it was wide. My video notes confirm it was a two-toned finish. I also saw what looked like a power amp with meters and a separate power supply.

The new Aria Evo X No3 ($6598/pr.) was being promoted for $5278 along with Naim's Uniti Star ($6,999) at $5,599 for the all-in-one unit. I had a listen to it placed up near a wall in a wide open space and I was just as impressed with it as when the original Aria series was introduced. This was a great two-piece rig for someone who wants good music but doesn't want to get caught up in the high-end merry-go-round... though Focal and Naim would be glad to help you with that if you do become addicted. It stopped me in my tracks, just as I was about to leave, with ZZ Top playing "Fool For Your Stockings."

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