TAVES Consumer Electronics Show 2016 Show Report 
Toronto Audio Video Entertainment Show Part 4
TAVES 2016 Show Report By Rick Becker

Maria Drazilov's photographic-based art work was complex both in subject matter and the use of additional media. Some of the works were intellectually challenging as well. Unlike last year, most of the work shown by artists was not related directly to music in any way. As a result, I think the overall level of work at this year's show was noticeably better, but a few pieces from last year's show still stick in my mind.

At the far end of the Lower Level lies the King City room where two separate rigs were assembled, one on each short wall, with chairs facing each direction. It's easy to miss this room as the door is around the corner and not visible down the length of the hallway that leads to it. I almost missed it last year, as well. At the far end were the JBL Everest DD67000 speakers with a pair of 15" woofers and a 4" Beryllium mid/high bi-radial horn load compression driver supplemented with a 1" Beryllium Ultra high frequency compression driver. They are somewhat infamous, as people have strong opinions about their looks. To me, they look like a more cosmopolitan version of the bar room Altec Voice of the Theater speakers I owned when I was young and foolish. The JBL are not as efficient, at 96dB/W/m, and at $120,000/pr USD, they were 300 times more expensive than what I paid for my used VoT back in the 1970s. But these JBL sounded a whole lot better. Frequency response is 29Hz to 60 kHz with 500 Watts recommended amp power. 500 watts driving a speaker with 96dB/W/m sensitivity sounds like a guarantee that no one in your neighborhood will accuse you of clipping your amps. I also noticed that the individual weight of the speaker is 313 lbs., which should help keep your homeowners policy reasonable. But then, in this price league, you probably live in a gated community.

You can also order other finishes if the Rosewood shown here does not work with your d้cor. In this "small" room (not really) they were using Mark Levinson 536 monoblocks ($24,100 each) that are rated at only 400 Wpc into 8 Ohms, but double down into 4, and are stable down to 2 Ohms. Mark Levinson, like JBL, is a Harman International company, so they were not about to use a SET amp here, though that sure would have been interesting. Mating the Everest with say, a Triode Labs amp could have been a real David and Goliath story with a different ending. But Harman is about selling and lifestyle and the Mark Levinson 519 Digital Audio Player ($28,999) that was at the front end of this rig could help you source music in PCM, DSD, CD, Spotify, Tidal, Deezer (?), and internet radio along with lots of system matching controls. It also boasted Clari-Fi, their proprietary music restoration technology that supposedly restores compressed digital files from a wide variety of sources. The 519 was accompanied by the 526 Dual Mono Preamp with DAC and phono stage, also $28,999. I didn't notice the cabling, but in the photos it does not look like anything very special, which itself is remarkable. Of course cable can easily fool you, for better or for worse.

Over on the side wall on silent display were several JBL floorstanders at something closer to real world prices that caught my eye and would probably have caught my ear, too. Among them were the S4700 three-Way with a single 15" woofer, 1.8" high frequency compression driver with bi-radial horn, and a .75"d ultra-high frequency compression driver with 94dB/W/m sensitivity, 38Hz to 40 kHz range in a cabinet totaling 120 lbs. each, for $24,000/pr, a fifth the price of the Everest. For that savings, you have to suffer with titanium diaphragms in the compression drivers, rather than Beryllium. (It's a brutal hobby, isn't it?) Next in line was the S3900 with a pair of 10" woofers that extended the range down to 33Hz, but bumped the sensitivity down to 92dB — still quite suitable for a good SET with an 845 tube. And at only 86 lbs., I can still move this guy around by myself, a big plus, along with the $16,000 price tag. But real horn aficionados may want to go for the 4367, their two-way Studio Monitor with a 15" woofer and 3" mid/tweeter with 94dB/W/m sensitivity, but jumping up to 135 lbs. and $24,000. Maybe next year we will be so lucky as to hear a couple of these guys.

On the other short wall of this large room were two Revel floorstanding models, both from the Ultima 2 series, again powered by Mark Levinson gear. I heard the larger of the two, the Salon 2 four-way with three 8" titanium cone woofers, a 6.5" titanium mid-woofer, a 4" titanium midrange and a 1" Beryllium tweeter — a lot of drivers giving the speaker a 23 Hz to 45 kHz range. Its 86.4dB/W/m sensitivity and 6 Ohm impedance calls for the muscle that the Levinson gear delivers. In this case I believe I was listening to the 585 Integrated Amplifier ($19,500) with 200 Wpc and a pair of analog outputs in case you wanted to run a pair of subwoofers with some nice stand mounted monitors. Below it was the 534 Dual Monaural Power amp ($28,999) that puts out 250 Wpc into 8 Ohms and doubles down into 4, though this was not playing at the time. I was lucky to grab a snapshot of the fast-moving Kevin Voecks, designer of the Revel speakers. He was busy working with a customer at the time, so I didn't get a chance to chat with him.

The small floorstander in this photo is the F208 from his Performa 3 series, a step down from the Ultima series, but an easier speaker to drive. I had a short listen to the Salon 2 with some male chorale music and it is obviously a very competent loudspeaker. At the other end of the room, I only heard a bit of big band jazz — Pink Panther? — and some Stevie Ray Vaughan that played to the effortless dynamics of which the Everest is capable. I enjoyed my brief moment here, too. Next year I'll have to make an effort to get to their room earlier in the afternoon. Had I not experienced my camera battery failure on Saturday, necessitating doubling back to many rooms for photographs, I would have done just fine, but...

Along the way back to the Totem presentation in the Richmond D suite on the main floor I couldn't pass up the photo op at fashion designer Elina Ten's booth. This was a stroke of genius — not because I love to admire attractive women (it's a lot less expensive than being an audiophile), but because this is a point of interest for the spouses or girlfriends of audiophiles — an oasis that reminds everyone that life is not all about amplifiers and drones. Is this a direction that could be expanded in future shows?

I had stopped by the Totem Acoustic room at the close of the show on Saturday and almost forgot to double back on Sunday. That would have been a tragedy as Vince Bruzzese almost always has one of, if not the most spectacular presentation at a show. He knows that music is but one element of the way we fashion of our lives and he plays to that theme like no one else in the industry. It doesn't bring him success; it amplifies the success of his ability to design speakers that people want to listen to. The Model One, now discontinued, was the speaker that put Totem on the map, many years ago. He re-invented it here with the Sky, yet another two-way monitor at a reasonable price ($1850 CDN). Aside from the fact that the Sky plays very well even when placed close to the wall, there is nothing extraordinary about it except how great it sounds. It is comprised of the solid engineering and construction that typifies the rest of the Totem line, save perhaps a wide-dispersion tweeter that reaches up to 29 kHz.

Driven by modest electronics, it filled the large alcove with a solid soundscape, a fine sense of air, transparency and focus that invited you into the music. Its small dimensions are visually attractive with or without its magnetically attached grill. Sky is the kind of speaker you can buy when you're first getting hungry for better music, and then spend ten years upgrading the rest of your system to reach the full potential of these speakers. The Sky was one of the most exciting products I uncovered at TAVES this year, but the real tip of the hat goes to Vince and the people at Totem for being the major sponsor of the show this year. It is no small wonder that he was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Montreal show in 2011, and his efforts have not diminished since then.

Moving past the partition in the Totem room I found a larger rig featuring their flagship Element Metal speaker ($14,000 CDN) driven by some other-worldly looking amps from BSC Audio, the creation of Bret D'Agostino. As the son of two other D'Agostinos who each have their own audio companies, Bret felt obliged to flex his industrial design muscles to differentiate himself from the competition by creating a very polarizing product. It is much more accepted overseas and in Canada (who is very influenced by European design), than in the US. The 5 Series shown here has been out for almost four years, unbeknownst to me, but certainly achieves its goals, both visually and audibly. As Bret said, people either love it or hate it, but everyone agrees that these are very fine sounding amplifiers. Indeed, combined with a Naim CD player as transport, a Bricasti M1 dual mono DAC and Torus power conditioner, I have to agree that they sound top shelf with detail, delicacy and power delivering a very inviting sound with excellent control of the bass with the Totem Metal speakers. The M5 monoblocks ($30,000/pr. USD) are 150 watts each, Class A, into 8 Ohms, but they have a bias control switch that allow you to convert it to a high bias Class A/B design, or for parties or background music you can tune it down to the Eco mode which is one click up from a Class B amplifier and runs very cool. The L5 line stage ($16,000) has a unique 250 step "flying fader" attenuator that is a basically a very high-end version of a slider on a mixing board — a design that took a lot more work than Bret anticipated when he embarked on the project. He wanted a design that would quickly tell you where your gain was set, unlike more traditional rotary designs. Also available is the S5, a 75 Wpc stereo amp for $15,000.

Now, weeks after the show, as I wrap up my report, I've warmed up to the visual design as I've come to appreciate its Art Deco roots. And I can certainly appreciate that there are people who love to surround themselves with unique products. For those who can't, Bret says they will be coming out with a Mk II version of the 5-series in 2017 that will have a less polarizing aesthetic, yet still streamlined, that will appeal to a broader segment of the population. I sure hope so, because this was one of the Best Rooms at the show!

Wow, What A Way To End The TAVES 2016 Show!
Except that after returning home I discovered I missed the Audio Eden presentation in the Gormley room that featured Kharma speakers (one of my favorites) and a lot of other top lines. Each time I came down the stairs to the lower level I turned to the right and never saw the entrance to their room. Hopefully some of my peers covered their room as they were one of the very best last year. My apologies, gentlemen.

Also on my editing room floor I found literature referring to the World Premiere of the exaSound e32 DAC ($3499 USD) and e38 DAC with multi-channel and a Femto Clock for $3849 USD. There were scribbled notes about the new ESS 9028 chip and a new 9038 chip that will be coming out later that is even quieter. Stay tuned! This came from Room 7215 in the Best Western, which I may have written about earlier.

Also not accounted for was a handsome and complete brochure of the Icon Audio line of tube amplifiers, speakers and CD players from Great Britain that was reportedly in room 7209 with Simcoe Sound. My apologies.

As I mentioned at the start of Part 4, the level of presentations was very high this year — across the board. There were a lot of turntables on active (and silent) display, and there seemed to be a significant number of more reasonably priced products. It is still the High End, and expensive in the eyes of most people, but a good rig need not be any more expensive than a decked out fishing boat, a hot-rodded car, or a personal armory of firearms. And the good news is music is a four season sport and you don't have to worry about salt on the road or ice on the St. Lawrence.

Safe journey over the holidays and as always, enjoy the music!

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