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

Westmount Medium Rooms
To keep the sequence of rooms flowing in increasing numerical order, I walked back down the hall toward the escalator to cover the Westmount rooms. These rooms were the size of a typical living room, I would guess. They were considerably smaller than the large Montreal rooms on the other side of the hallway.

W1  ASONA Ltd And Innuos

ASONA had a very clean-looking rig with Innuos gear at the front end feeding a Pathos InPol Heritage Mk II integrated amp. They also had a great headphone room upstairs in room 1327.

The black component on the bottom shelf was from Audio Analogue.

The Pathos Acoustics InPol Heritage Mk II integrated amp puts out 80 Wpc with their proprietary InPol circuitry. I still think with all their attention to design this Italian company could have figured out how to make their logo heatsinks read correctly on both sides of the amp. The plywood amp stand seen here was the bottom of the shipping crate seen on the floor just outside the room.

When you see handles on both ends of a crate like this, it tells you something.

Note to the industry: This is a great way to design your shipping crates, with the screws across the bottom periphery. This allows the crate to be lifted up and out of the way. The heavy amp can then be lifted directly off the bottom of the box with less risk of straining your back. The use of Torx head screws allows easy removal and re-insertion without stripping the head when using a power driver. Thank you.

W2  Motet Distribution

Motet had a very good-sounding room with three sets of speakers in rotation. Having stopped by a couple of times, I was able to hear all three. The large PMC MB2-SE stand-mounted monitors here are not your typical stand-mounted monitor. They are derived from studio monitors developed early in the company's history and are quite famous in the pro-audio world. They were far more speaker than necessary to fill this room but it was easy to appreciate their efficiency from the dynamics of the music. I've heard a doubled-up version of this speaker and I can tell you, unless your room is cavernous, a single pair is all you need. At $50k/pr, it is a big step for most people.

The best performances of this speaker, for audiophiles at least, have been with Accuphase electronics and the E4000 integrated amp used here was very good. The floor-standing PMC Prodigy 5 speaker ($4k) acquitted itself quite nicely, too. In addition to the Lumin U2 network streamer seen above ($7,499), there were a couple of Eversolo streamer / DACs that might also have been playing during the weekend, including the DMP-A6 Master Edition ($2k) and the DMP-A8 ($2,700). The cabling was all from Kimber Kable.

I have to tell you, when I returned to the show later on I had to walk up to the little PMC Prodigy 1 speaker ($2500/pr.) to make sure that was the speaker in use. The music being played didn't contain deep base, so it was hard to tell. This little monitor can sing.

W3  Kevro International

The Kevro room was both a delight and a disappointment. The large Michi M8 monoblocks ($10k ea.) were driving Monitor's new flagship speaker, the Hyphn ($130k) which sounded incredibly good at the Toronto show where they premiered in white. The white speakers against the black background looked spectacular with light shining on them. Here, in black, they looked pretty dull with their matt finish. And the sound was not as spectacular either. I expect the room was simply too small for them. Nonetheless, this is a speaker that needs your attention if you are in this price league with a larger room.

The monoblocks are very powerful, putting out 1080 Watts @ 8 Ohms and 1800 Watts @ 4 Ohms. The meters can be configured as peak power meters or spectrum analyzers as shown above. The design is tastefully conservative, allowing the Hyphn to grab your attention.

The unique styling grabs your attention without being garish or offensive in any way. The Hyphn in white has a white grille over the tweeters.

The Monitor Platinum 3G on silent display is among my favorite speakers for its excellent sound, fine finish, and outstanding value.

I was curious about the footers, wondering if aftermarket footers could somehow be attached. I learned that a great deal of attention was applied to the factory footers that are belied by the low-profile, stylish appearance.

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