Part 2: Hi-Fi Heaven At The Montreal Audiofest 2025 Audiophile Show
Visiting the 1300 Hallway here at Montreal Audiofest high-end audio event.
Montreal Audiofest 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker

1321   Altitudo Audio, ELAC, Zesto Audio, Moonriver Audio, Tri-Art, And HRS
The guys at Altitudo Audio truck in from Winnipeg, Manitoba. I've been to six Canadian Provinces, but Alberta and Manitoba are still on my bucket list. Altitudo carries a lot of brands and they seem to bring something from almost every one of them to the Montreal and Toronto shows. The floor plan indicates they had two rooms, but I was so overwhelmed by their offerings I could swear they had a third room along this hall. And I'm not sure if they don't change the rigs around multiple times during the show.

That's an ELAC monitor on the stand, a Trilogy 994 monoblock on the floor with an Aesthetics Atlas amp beside it with an HRS damping block on top. On the unique Tri-Art equipment rack, I didn't recognize the bright red unit near the bottom (Eversolo?), but that was a Zesto Leto Ultra II tube line stage directly above it. That would be an Aesthetics CD player on the top shelf flanked by a pair of CAD (Computer Audio Design) Ground blocks decorated especially for Canada. Just below it was a Gold Note DS-1000 EVO streaming DAC from Italy. Many speakers and components had vibration-absorbing blocks on them that looked like cell phones in the photo. A few components had vibration pads or aftermarket footers supporting them. I was also intrigued by the spacers that kept the two runs of speaker cables separated.

A banner portraying Moonriver Audio components from Sweden also had the Tri-Cell logo on it, suggesting they may have teamed up on the room.

The Trilogy 994 monoblock had an HRS damping block on it and a Tri-Art stand made from their signature plyboo beneath it. And again, the cable spacers.

1322   Altitudo Audio, Nordost, German Physiks, Electrocompaniet, And Tri-Art, Mitmat
In their other (next?) room on another Tri-Art plyboo rack, I spotted an Eversolo DMP-A8 Music Streamer / DAP / DAC / Pre-amp atop an Electrocompaniet ECM 1 Mk II DAC and Streamer, so likely there was a lot of switching going on here. Sitting below that was an EAR 912 Professional Tube Control Center (preamp) sitting on a Mitmat Foundation 1 vibration pad made in Canada.

I heard the Audio Physics Codex, shown here in red, sounding very good in this room. Next to it was an OePhi entry-level model.

The silver amp here was a German Physiks resting on an HRS platform. Behind it on the bottom shelf of the rack was a larger CAD Ground block. The black monoblocks were Electrocompaniet resting on new upscale Tri-Art platforms that looked very classy in an organic way. I also noticed the cute Tri-Art cable lifters and a Nordost power strip in the background.

I spotted this unusual pair of Hartley monitors and learned that this manufacturer of uniquely designed speakers has been bought by Tri-Art in Kingston, Ontario, so production will continue. Note the unusual drivers.

Further along, was this cute little pair of Tri-Art monitors with an open-baffle tweeter with an open cone behind it.

I heard the OePhi Transcendence 2.5 Loudspeakers ($8245) from Denmark with the Purifi drivers with unusual wrinkled surrounds sounding good. OePhi has a more upscale   Reference 3.5  model ($21,500). I've heard these drivers in other speakers, I believe, and they have sounded very good, which leads me to suspect we will see more widespread use in the future.

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