Salon Audio Montreal / Audio Fest 2022 Show Report
Montreal Audiofest 2022 show report part 5.
Montreal Audio Fest 2022 Coverage By Rick Becker

Bouncing over to the Montreal 6 room I finally caught up with Vincent Belanger on cello playing and encouraging young students in the Audio Note space. He gave these performances throughout the weekend. A page in the Audiofest program in French suggests to me that he has special performances coming up with the Maison Symphonique on 08-09-22 in Montreal and Salle Raoul-Jobin on 09-09-22. Motet Art & Musique and GFN productions appear to be the sponsors. Best of luck, Vincent.

Next door, in the large Montreal 5 room, Focal sponsored a live recording studio where recording sessions were demonstrated/performed for the duration of the show. This has been an annual event for years and people get to watch what goes on in the process of making a studio recording. At times, this room drew a sizeable audience.

Heading back up to the first floor I doubled back to the Altitudo Audio room that had been too packed with people to enter on Saturday. It was still busy on Sunday afternoon and for good reason. Altitudo is a new dealer in Winnipeg, MB, Canada and they carry an odd assortment of components which is understandable, as major brands typically have well-established territories. The rigs here were eclectic in nationality, style and price range. But as I said, the room was packed on Saturday... and standing room only when I returned on Sunday. As you see, everyone was masked at the show. Everyone!

And for that, I am grateful. Having been close to death in the hospital twice in my life, I don't want to repeat that performance. And with a wife who is immune-compromised, well, I don't want to lose her either. Thank you, Canadiens! I wish I could be as proud of my own countrymen.

I'm very familiar with Tri-Art Audio and have spoken highly of them for many years. But their rooms have always been comprised of their own gear, and only their own — well, once I remember they had some fine-sounding Rosso Fiorentino speakers. That typically made for a lot of concrete or bamboo — whatever stage of their evolution was at the time. Here was a chance to hear their top speaker driven by something else. The 5.0 Open baffle is rated at 8 Ohms with 94dB/W/m sensitivity and a frequency range of 35Hz to 40kHz or 27Hz to 40kHz, depending on which part of the web page you are looking at.

There are five drivers with most of the music coming through an 8" full-range driver that is supplemented with a fabric dome tweeter and super-tweeter above and a 15" woofer (top) and 18" woofer below. There is also an external crossover that can be seen on the floor to the left of the speaker. The full-range driver has an adjustable volume control. Now that's something different. It was driven by the Auris Fortissimo integrated tube amp from Russia seen in silver on the floor. The music was smooth and seamless from top to bottom... and open and transparent in a way that open baffle speakers usually are, due to the excellent resolution. Even standing off to the side I was drawn into the music like so many others who packed this room.

Other Tri-Art gear in the room included these intricate plyboo speaker stands, the equipment rack, amp stands and the turntable on top. As I said, they make everything with plyboo these days, including a wide variety of speakers that includes open baffle subwoofers and even desktop speakers. There was a page floating in the room with very significant discounts on many small tweak-type products. Many of these are labor-intensive, but I expect they are effective. They offer several finishes (natural, grey, black) and the dark, distressed finish on the speakers here was an extra-cost option. Most often I've seen them in the Classic natural finish.

Also in the room was the French speaker that looked somewhat like a B&W. I'm told it sounded very good also with a strong bass, driven by Electrocompaniet solid-state monoblocks and preamp from Norway. And on one of the shelves there was also a Zidoo all-in-one media player which was seen in several rooms at the show.

At the top of the escalator, I met Michele Plante whom I had seen many times throughout the show and wished him well in his new career direction. (I asked him to remove his mask for this photo op.) I also apologized for not encountering his wife, Sarah Tremblay, Executive Producer of the show, or thanking her for her hospitality. Everyone was masked and I simply never recognized her.

Encountering Michele also made me realize I had missed the Filtronique display in the LeClub room at the top of the escalator. Founded in 1968, to say they've been around a while is an understatement. They have obviously kept up with the times as shown above by the gorgeous Fyne Audio F702 speaker in gloss walnut, a 2.5-way design with a downward port that fires into a Tractrix diffuser. The top driver is a coincident two-way with a horn-loaded dome tweeter. The high 92dB/W/m efficiency of this speaker makes it an appropriate mate to the little wood presentation box on the floor next to it that contains two new (not new-old-stock) Western Electric 300B vacuum tubes.

I've heard from a source that has tried these that they are better, though slightly different than the even more expensive Takatsuki tubes. I admired the Fyne Audio line when it first came out a few years ago and I'm glad to see they are now going strong. Other finishes and lots of other models are available over a wide price range.

Speaking of Western Electric, there was also one of their 91E integrated amps with 300B tubes on display in black finish. I've seen it when it was first introduced in either nickel (silver) or champagne. Champagne is the richer look for this truly elegant amplifier. While its look is classic, it is a thoroughly modern amp with self-bias tubes and Bluetooth compatibility. Output power is 14 Watts per channel into 8 Ohms with 3% THD. Imagine this teamed up with the  BSC Research Dundee 8 speaker seen in Part 4 with 96dB/W/m efficiency.

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