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

W6   Acora Acoustics And Audio Research
I had stopped by late on Saturday to chat with Val Cora. Outside the room, he had the new MRB-1 monitors in a special stone mined from the Niagara escarpment at Owen Sound up on the Georgian Bay in Ontario. The amp with the folded-paper hat, giving it an oriental pagoda look, was the new Audio Research 1/70 integrated amp (USD 9,950 base price, $11,450 loaded, preliminary pricing due to the tariff turmoil). And that was an Eversolo streamer in white.

The stone, he informs Enjoy the Music.com, is harvested in Canada, sent to Italy for cutting, then returned to Canada for final building. This stone, when cut in one direction, reveals the veins of sediment that built up over time. When cut in another direction, the bold pattern on the front baffle appears. This Eramosa stone is a special order finish. Accuton ceramic drivers are used in the new series.

The circular emblem on top is the badging for the new Reference products, paying homage to the 1970 origins of Audio Research. This integrated amp is not part of that Reference series, but it borrows the top cover design from the Ref330m model, so they left the badge in place, just changing the model to I/70.

When Val told me he would be in Westmount 6, I was worried. I've heard some pretty good systems fall very short in that square room. But Val is a master of setup, and I expect he pulled out his trusty laser tape measure tools. I've heard speakers from this new series before, and this was not the best I've heard them, but it was still better than most other presentations I've heard in this room. I'm being picky, but I've been paying close attention to the Acora line since the SRC series first came out.

As the banners suggest, the Audio Research LS-3 preamplifier ($7450 USD base, $8950 loaded, preliminary pricing) was used, but the power amp below it was the S-100 ($9450 USD). In the lower right corner of the rack was a Grimm Mu1 music player, and above the Grimm was a VPI turntable.

The speaker was the Acora MRC-2, which performed admirably, given the room, the rig, and the expert setup. With a pair of 7" Accuton drivers in a 2.5-way design, the music was as tight and deep as my reference QRC-2 speakers at home. Reviews of the new MRC series should start to materialize over the rest of this year. I can't imagine they would be anything but very favorable, if not raving.

The finish on this particular model seems to be a brownish version of Gregio Carnico. To my eye, the MRC finishes are all spectacular — at least all the ones I've seen.

Enjoy the Music.com followers who are wondering, as I was, the brown column in the back of the room seen here was a humidifier, which Val brings to this show because the rooms are always very dry. He found that adding humidity decreased the static and improved the sound, particularly the bass.

The VPI Forever Model One turntable was in play, and I listened to Dr. John and Ricki Lee Jones again, plus Ricki Lee Jones' "Coolsville" and that famous Louis Armstrong cut, "St. James Infirmary." It all sounded great.

Here is a look at the tentative US pricing for Audio Research. Because of the political situation, they do not have Canadian pricing yet.

That's A Wrap For Part 6
That wraps up the first half of the lower level. I'll continue with the second half in Part 7 as soon as possible. More of the very best rooms to come.

---> Onward to Part 7 of Rick Becker's Montreal Audiofest 2025 show report.

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