Part 2 — 2300 And 2400 Hallways: Montreal Audiofest 2026 Show Report
High-end audio gear reviews, in-depth hi-fi technical details, and exhibit room listening notes.
Montreal Audiofest Show Report By Rick Becker

2328  Yzabel Audio, Rega Research, And Stereogroup
Directly opposite the Artist Cloner room, tucked back in the corner of the foyer at the top of the stairs, was a very good room many might have missed, although the signage drew my attention to it. In past years, with other vendors, this has been a difficult room to optimize the music in, but I was taken aback by the Yzabel Audio stand-mounted monitor from this first-time presenter. The effort they put into room treatment and component racks paid off.

The Yzabel Classic 1 two-way monitor is relatively conventional in appearance. It is another example of a trend toward protruding, angular front baffles for driver alignment that I mentioned earlier. There is just a small clipped corner at the lower corners of the baffle to give it a unique touch. The music had high resolution and recreated a sense of space with an inviting bloom that drew me into the music both acoustically and emotionally. It was driven by a Rega Osiris integrated amp on the top shelf ($16,599). Streaming was from a couple of Naim components below the Rega, and a Puritan power conditioner was to the right in the rack.

Hopefully, the specs in the photo are readable online.

On my sweep at the end of the show, I encountered Mario Isabel, the young builder, who is off to a flying start with his new speaker. I believe he told me the price was $4500, which seems a good value.

2333  SPL
SPL brought in a pair of Amphion speakers to use with their rack of electronic components. The D'appolito configuration upper section was probably a stand-alone monitor supplemented with the bass unit featuring two woofers firing out of each side. With the rig set up on the long wall and the speakers angled in as they were, the sweet spot was limited to one or two chairs along the opposite wall. Early afternoon on Saturday was very busy at the show, and all the seats here were taken.

That may have been Rega's flagship Naia turntable with its power supply directly behind it on the shelf. I noticed a set of the Coga vibration-absorbing footers beneath the feet of the turntable. They seemed to be getting around at the show. The other unit on the shelf, with the Bluetooth antenna, may also have been by Rega.

All of the gear below the turntable was by SPL, which you can see, is about 3/4 of the size of more typical components. The colorful cables suggest they were sourced from Luna Cables here in Quebec.

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