TAVES Consumer Electronics Show 2017 Show Report 
Toronto Audio Video Entertainment Show Part 2
TAVES 2017 Show Report By Rick Becker

  On the analog front end in the Wynn Audio room was the Thales TTT Compact Mk 2 ($19,000) with the special gold plated Statement tonearm ($30,000) and I once again noticed the rare Lyra Olympos cartridge that is a combination of classic old parts from donor cartridges and new modern parts. It may be available, but only if you have a donor cartridge. Other components of note here were the new Critical Mass Olympus racks ($13,000 each) and the Entreq Olympus Tellus Ground Box ($12,000).

Passing back through the Mirvish Hallway I stopped to chat with Todd Garfinkle, who is MA Recordings, about his purist recording technique that I so admired when my buddy Tom brought over La Segunda by Sera una Noche for a listening session. Todd's work is so good that I've often thought about having him come to Rochester to record music at Jazz Fest. We talked about the legal complications and concluded that first I have to win the lottery. Todd, with smart phone in hand, is seen here with Leonard Goldstein of DVL Audio who was co-hosting the room with Audio by Mark Jones mentioned in Part 1.

Off in a quiet corner of the Mirvish Hallway were a couple of paintings on easels with a portfolio of portrait artist Sylvia Chan who offers to paint your personality, your story. I flipped through the portfolio and found some of the works very interesting.

Main Pavillion And Hi-Fi Listening Rooms

Entering the Main Pavillion with large open space and 15 independent constructed Hi-Fi Listening room, labeled A thru O, I was confronted by a lot of innovative products that had little to do with High End audio, my chosen beat. I'm not sure the Tesla S would be of much use in commuting from Rochester to Toronto or Montreal for audio shows.

Eventually, I began to see some familiar faces, including Gerard Rejskind, editor of the renowned Canadian UHF Magazine, with whom I always exchange pleasantries.

A few steps further and I encountered Trevor Doyle of Massif Audio with a table of almost "sold out" stands for displaying LP jackets made from left-over pieces of the beautiful wood he uses to make his audio equipment racks and amp stands. I've commented on these in previous rooms, but his best was yet to come.

Mitchell & Johnson was a new brand for me and they had a handsome preamp and power amp on display in addition to a pair of very nice headphones. Naturally, I preferred the more expensive MJ2 with the light colored solid maple (?) shells. The S815 power amp has both balanced and single ended inputs as well as stereo line outputs for bi-amp'ing. The 160 Wpc at 8 Ohms doubles down to 320 at 4 Ohms. Dual sets of speaker binding posts are included for bi-wiring. It operates in class A/B and is a high current design. There is also a 12 Volt power link. Surely there must be some system that could use one or two of these? Keep an eye on these guys. They are very up and coming.

Time and again I came upon little and big people exploring a virtual reality and begging to be hit by a bus. From an evolutionary standpoint, it's easy to see how our arms will atrophy until we look something like T-Rex.

Damn, if I didn't forget to bring my tubes to be tested by Dany Friedman of the Ontario Vintage Radio Association again this year. And I mean, talk about a horn speaker! They've got 'em!  Always a pleasant stop at the show.

And for the kids who are ready to go to college right out of the fourth grade, Humber School of Applied Technology was there to recruit them.

There were several exhibits of 3D printing, but none of them seemed to be ready to challenge VPI's printed tonearm.

At another table I tried my hand at artificial intelligence and discovered I already had enough of that.

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