Part 4 — Lower Level, Left (St. Laurent & Outremont Rooms) At The Montreal Audiofest 2026 Show
A deep dive into the Montreal Audiofest 2026, featuring early-morning impressions, high-end audio's latest innovations, audiophile solutions, and standout demonstrations.
Montreal Audiofest Show Report By Rick Becker

Montreal Rooms

M1  DR Acoustics
Coming off the escalator, I turned to the left, zigged to the right past the coatroom, and took another left down the hall to the Montreal 1 room.

A crowd of people was listening intently to the Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 speakers driven by the handsome Classe Delta monoblocks and preamp, strung with a loom of DR Acoustics cables.

The black components stacked on the left were an assortment of DR Acoustics products, including the Haemon, a virtual grounding system, the Megara, another virtual grounding system, and the Antigone, a power conditioner that has been in the line for a long time.

A video display off to the side provided a variety of configurations using various combinations of their products. These are replicated in the Buyer's Guide on their website, for power conditioning, chassis grounding, and signal grounding.

DR Acoustics makes several series of cabling to meet a variety of price points, all manufactured in Montreal. Their website is a good source of knowledge on powering, cabling, and grounding your system. They offer power cords in 3-, 4-, 5-, and 7-AWG for components requiring high current. The 7-AWG Red Fire power cord uses pure silver conductors at a very reasonable price.

M2  Essentia Technology
Essentia Technology is an importer and distributor near Mississauga, Ontario, that has upped its displays at both the Toronto and Montreal Audiofests. Their room had a modest rig featuring Q Acoustic Concept 500 floorstander, Concept 300 bookshelf, and Concept 50 floorstander speakers, driven by Saturn Audio 701 integrated amp, with Saturn 202 DAC, and 103C MkII power filter. A Lumin U2 streamer with Canor DAC, and a Mitchell Gyro turntable with Techno Arm 2, Cusis S MC cartridge, and Michell Apollo Muse phono stage with QED cables rounds out the rig.

This was the current flagship Michell turntable, the Gyro ($10k). This British line has been around since the ‘70s and is experiencing a resurgence with the next generation coming into play.

Michell offers four styles starting at $3500. In the foreground were two variations of their plinths.

Their most recent plinth, with brass and synthetic vibration-absorbing material, is shown on the right, above. They also do some phono cartridges and phono stages.

This photo picked up a gold tint via reflection off its polished aluminum surface. It shows the detail and quality of their work.

A new flagship model, the Spheris, is nearing completion. I will be keeping an eye out for it at the Toronto Audiofest in the fall.

John Rowland is the grandson of the founder of Michell and part of the new wave driving the company forward. With him is Leonie Alexander-Tomas of Essentia, who is the driving force behind all the displays for the Michell gear at the show. I'm sensing a lot of new energy behind Mitchell, both at the company and their distribution arm in Canada.

John shared the unusual requests they keep having for turntable parts that were part of the original Star Wars costumes his grandfather used in designing them for the film back in the 1970s. Apparently, the costumes are still popular for Halloween or parties today.

Essential also distributes Goldring turntables and their 13 phono cartridges that were clearly differentiated on the chart on the right.

QED, in Great Britain, makes a line of affordable cables that are also distributed by Essentia Technology.

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