Part 3: Sensational Sound During The Montreal Audiofest 2025 High-End Audio Show
Exploring the 2300 Hallway here at Montreal Audiofest high-end audio event.
Montreal Audiofest 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker

2341  Hearken Audio, Rob Wyatt, Glanz, MasterBuilt, And Miyajima
The Hearken Audio room is always a challenge, even for experienced audiophiles, because it is typically filled with a lot of complex, esoteric products and one can never be sure just what is hooked up at any given time. The commonality of their rooms is that they always sound superb, or very close to it.

The speaker this year was the Bastanis Imperial Uno ($85k) from The Netherlands, with an open-baffle horn tweeter and 12" wide-band driver (100Hz to 7kHz) on top with a 15" side-firing woofer in the cabinet supporting the baffle. It is a high-efficiency, dynamic, and very transparent speaker offering micro-dynamics and inner detail, bringing me close to "being there" with the musicians. A nice touch on the design here was the use of speaker grille cloth to cover the back side of the large wide-band driver.

The turntable was a Jean Nantais Reference with a Garrard 401 idler-drive ($14k, plus the donor Garrard turntable) being offered as a show special at $14k including the Garrard turntable. Other interesting veneers are available if the one here does not suit your taste. It was equipped with a Glanz 1200s tonearm (at the rear, $12,375) and a Thai-Scandinavian Bird of Prey tonearm (right, $23,750) fitted with a Miyajima Destiny cartridge ($11,120). A Miyajima Zero Mono cartridge ($3420) may have been on the Glanz tonearm. A Stein Carbon Signature interface (turntable mat, $750) was also listed.

I had a nice chat with Rob Wyatt of Robyatt Audio, a US importer, who also had his own MC-3 Step-up transformers on display — mono ($1450) on the left, stereo ($2175) on the right. A Robyatt Micro Seiki metal mat ($2175) was also on the list and I can see a copper edge beneath the LP in my photo, so I believe it was in use. Another photo revealed the copper mat but it looked thinner than the 7mm thick Micro-Seiki original. Further investigation is needed.

A Cinnamon Audio Galle DAC ($22k) from Portugal with the brass circle on what looks like a handmade block of concrete was connected with a MasterBuilt digital cable ($4615) to an Antipodes server, but this was not heard.

A Miyajima 2010 OTL amp ($26k) had its tubes glowing brightly.

A 432Evo Aeon server ($11,900) was listed but I spotted this Antipodes K50 music streamer/server ($14k USD?), however, it was not in use at the time.

This Miyajima Laboratories EC-5 Vacuum Tube-type Amplifier ($10k) was a very cool phono preamplifier. Note the two knobs for adjustable phono impedance on the left side, plus a 47kOhm setting for MM cartridges — perfect for the turntables with three arms.

A Miyajima E64S-5 power amp ($7200) with an HRS anti-vibration damping block on top of two of the transformers was fitted with Western Electric 6SN7 tubes driving 6B4G tubes made in the U.S.A., said to be good for 10 to 15 Watts in push-pull, Class AB.

There were also a lot of tweaks from Stein Music listed on the product sheet that you can explore on the Stein Music website. I've not tried any of them, but I have found great success with other companies with similar products. This can be a great way to enhance your music without spending mega-bucks on new components or speakers.

And last, but probably not least, the cables were by Yeti and Bastanis, priced at least $1k and as much as $7k. That can sound outrageous, I know, but as I climb the cable ladder I find you often reach new heights by spending more in this category. While not to be ignored, it is also important to live within your means, so don't go crazy with cables.

As in previous years, the Hearken Audio room was a ‘must see' room, even if the products were a bit overwhelming.

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