Part 5 — Lower Level, And Left (Outremont / St. Laurent Rooms) At The Montreal Audiofest 2026 Show
Major demos, new high-end audio tech, and very interesting audiophile innovation.
Montreal Audiofest Show Report By Rick Becker

Part 1:  1200 And 1300 Hallways

Part 2:  2300 And 2400 Hallways

Part 3:  Industry Gala Banquet

Part 4: Lower Level, And Left (Montreal / Westmount Rooms)

This Is Part 5:  Lower Level, And Right (St. Laurent / Outremont Rooms)

Coming Soon
Part 6:  Best Rooms And Honorable Mentions

  In Part 5 we tackle the other main hallway on the lower level. which is to the right as you come down the escalator. I'll first go down the Outremont rooms. which are large, but not as large as the St. Laurent rooms.

OK1  Audio-Technica Canada
Straight ahead and off to the right as you come down the escalator was the long counter full of Audio-Technica Canada headphones Sorry about the soft focus. I was in a hurry to get a shot off before someone else walked in front of me on this busy thoroughfare between the two main corridors. A large poster listed all of the products on display at the show with Show Special pricing that would save you from $10 to $700. depending on the item.

The AT-LPA2 acrylic turntable with dust cover and separate power supply, for example, was marked down to $2000. a saving of $700. making this a very attractive package for the price, even at full markup.

As eye-catching as this McLaren sports car was the coffee and snack counter just to the right drew a much bigger crowd. The audio connection to the McLaren was the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 McLaren Edition headphones. seen on the mural beside the car.

Outremont Rooms

01  Planete Haute Fidelite
Turning to the left on the long hallway, I started at the 01 room of Planete Haute Fidelite.

The astronaut floating on the ceiling above the rack echoed the theme of the room's sponsor. It was the Stable 33.33 turntable below that caught my attention and Sylvain Pichette was quick to greet me. I've watched Sylvain's expertise grow since he exhibited at Montreal in 2019. but probably earlier. He has become an established. First-class manufacturer.

The Stable 33.33 turntable shown had an AC motor with dual pulleys for 33 and 45 rpm, and a vinyl platter to absorb noise. It is also available with a DC power supply with pitch control. and with an aluminum platter.

The Stable 33.33 turntable shown had an AC motor with dual pulleys for 33 and 45 rpm, and a vinyl platter to absorb noise. It is also available with a DC power supply with pitch control and with an aluminum platter.

The new toy from Sylvain was a remote control unit for the tonearm, which will lift and lower the tonearm at any point on the record with the press of a button, and automatically lift the tonearm when it reaches the end of the lead-out groove. The little black box between the platter and the tonearm bass contains the lifting device, which is coupled to the tonearm with a small arm and affixed with a thin rubber band. It is currently available for any of his turntables and will eventually be adapted to many other tonearms. I'm currently first in line, as this would make reviewing using LPs as a source a whole lot easier.

It has been more than a few years since I've heard the Martin Logan Neolith speaker, now $120k USD, and once again, it was shown in red, which is very striking and befitting of a speaker in this class.

As were the people shown here, I was once again very impressed—and like most of the people in the photo, I was far from the sweet spot of these hybrid electrostatic speakers.

The huge Moon monoblocks had an iron fist control over the speakers. The rest of the electronics were also from Moon by Simaudio, all made in Canada.

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