Salon Audio Montréal Audiofest Show Report Part 1
Rick Becker's Montreal Chronicles 2023.
Report By Rick Becker

Room 1326 Atelier Audio
Samuel Furon of Atelier Audio presented the Diptyque DP 160 Signature electrostatic speaker from France, about $15k USD. New to North America, I raved about the entry-level model ($8k USD) I heard during the Capital Audiofest 2022 last November. This larger model was even more impressive. That's the external crossover next to it on the floor. Note the ribbon tweeter embedded in the wood pillar attached to the white panel. This is a di-pole design, hence the slotted wood room treatment behind the panel.

Also of interest was the Miyajima EC-5 preamp in the system, an item rarely seen in North America. The small knobs on the left were for adjusting the loading of phono cartridges — a huge convenience for those who swap phono cartridges frequently.

A Puritan Ground Master and Route Master were employed in this rig, as well as an Aqua Formula xHD rev2 DAC and Kora TB200 amp.

Room 1327 Innuos And ASONA Ltd
Richard Kohlruss was busy directing traffic in the busy ASONA headphone room of this suite. There was likely the new flagship headphone from Meze, as well as headphones from Dan Clark…and the far table was manned by the gentleman from Stax. I expect there were others, but it was too busy to wedge into the space.

In the larger room of the suite, the space was wide-open and filled with luscious music from a new (to me) electrostatic speaker manufacturer, Fonica International, from Italy. These Flag S models are priced at around 13k$.  The pair shown were passive but they also make an active version, as well as one with DSP. With the active digital version, you only need to add a source component.

ASONA is a distributor for Innuos, so it was not surprising to see their Statement music server and Phoenixnet streamer in the rig. Below that was the highly regarded DSDAC 1.0. The gorgeous and unmistakable Pathos integrated amp on the bottom shelf drove the electrostatics with aplomb.

The seats were filled here as people paused to enjoy the music and I could have spent a lot more time in this room than I could afford.

Rounding Out Part 1
That's it for the 1200 and 1300 hallways of the sleeping quarters. I'll jump up to the 2300 and 2400 hallways in Part 2 in a few more days. Much more to come!

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