Part 6: The Lower Level, Montreal, And Westmount Rooms
Robots, high-end audio exhibition rooms, plus audiophile rock 'n' roll.
Montreal Audiofest 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker

Audio Sensibility
Steven and Jean Huang of Audio Sensibility were on hand, as always at the Canadian shows, talking with customers and showing off their fine cables and power distribution boxes. Steven asked me to ensure that Enjoy the Music.com watches for him at AXPONA 2025 in two weeks, where he will have his booth for the first time.

I tried in vain to get a good shot of Steven holding his new XLR splitter cable, but the fierce overhead lighting in the hallway was relentless in casting ghoulish shadows across his face. The cable, seen above on the table, allows you to feed two amplifiers from a single XLR output on your preamp. Audio Sensibility is a prime destination for unusual custom-made cables at various price points.

M6   Audiolight And Marchand Audio Video
Audiolight was a Quebec retailer for nearly 60 years which was said to be closing down last year. Perhaps Marchand has bought them out and is continuing their business? It seems I missed a story here.

Last year I had heard the Davis The Wall speakers in a smaller room across the hall. They were sounding much better here with some space to breathe, as they have dual rear ports. They can be placed up near a wall as the name and shape suggest, but they can easily be pulled out into the room as they are on castors. The wood veneer is stunning, and the slanted black portion gives this two-way speaker a unique design. It sounded much better here. It was driven by the tube amp on the rack, possibly a Jadis amp from France, like the speaker.

The wooden stand was also classy. I spotlighted the manufacturer who had a display in the hall last year. Marchand Audio can probably help you out if you're interested.

On another wall were a pair of integrated amps wired up to a trio of speakers. The innermost speaker was the Trapeze Reimagined speaker from Audiovector in Denmark. I've heard this speaker underperforming its $20k USD price point, and while it sounded better here, I still question its value, especially in comparison with Audiovector's other outstanding contemporary designs. The floorstanders to the outside were modest examples. The range extends considerably higher in style, fit, and finish, and price.

That's a Fezz Audio Titania ($4575 / $2950 show special) on the left and an Advance Paris A12 Classic ($4250) hybrid amp with remote control on the right. Notice the very nice solid wood stands I was mentioning above.

M7   Audiolight, Marchand Audio Video
Walking around the corner to M7, there was another room sponsored by Audiolight and Marchand Audio Video. Stacked against a wall were boxes of Fezz tube amps on special sale. From the left was the Silver Luna Prestige ($4075, Special $2450), the Alfa Lupi ($3275, Special $1650, and the Sagita preamp ($3160, show special $1695). I couldn't get the tall stack on the far left in the frame, but there were some serious deals to be had here that are likely still available. Perhaps these are from a buy-out of Audiolight?

Also seen, but not heard, was this beautiful Jadis Orchestra Reference from France.

And a table of Crescendo cables, made in Quebec, which was a new name to me.

The real treat in this large room was this modest rig playing to empty rows of seats.

On the rack was an Anthem STR integrated amp with built-in DAC and streamer, and an Audioquest Niagara 5000 power conditioner.

The speaker was the new GoldenEar T44, which will be about $6k when it comes out in a couple of months. Like the T66, it had a powered subwoofer built in and should be fairly efficient. It was sounding impressive, even in this large room. I've often complained that GoldenEar speakers don't get shown with amplification capable of revealing the true quality of the speaker. This modest combination stopped me in my tracks as I was leaving the room and nailed me to the sweetspot. At $6k CDN, I'd get in line for this one. Maybe pair it with the FezzTitania integrated amp with 45 Wpc on sale for a killer combo for $9k CDN.

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