Toronto Audiofest 2022 Show Report Part 3
Musical magic while listening on Level 2.
Show Report By Rick Becker

  Michel Plante and Sarah Tremblay, who also host the Montreal Audiofest, posed for a photo with the poster for the event that proudly proclaimed Enjoy The Music.com as a sponsor. Sarah is the actual director of these shows since Michel has taken on a new position within the industry but Michel let Sarah relax while he performed the MC duties at the dinner. As I missed last year's show (due to border crossing issues because of Covid, as I recall) I was quite touched by the toast to Ron Simek of Altronics.

Last year he was to have been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award, but was in the hospital, losing his battle with cancer. Members of the industry were videotaped at the dinner expressing their best wishes and the tape was shown to Ron shortly before he passed away two weeks later. It's actions like that which make me proud to be on the fringe of this industry.

I was invited to join the table with Valerio Cora of Acora Acoustics and found myself sitting next to Wendell Diller of Magnepan and across the table from Dave McNair of PTA and further down, Michel Plante. The conversations flowed effortlessly with joy.

As I had been up since 6 a.m. to drive to the show, I excused myself to send off some early photos to Steve, charge my camera batteries, and retire for a good night's sleep. Glancing back over my shoulder I caught a shot of a few friends and acquaintances. This was just a small portion of those in attendance.

From the 15th floor of the Westin Toronto Airport, I could barely make out downtown Toronto in the distant haze. My room was just around the corner from the Prime Minister Suite. As I waited for the elevator, laden with my bags, the door of the suite cracked open, but I had to jump aboard before whomever eventually emerged.

After loading my bags in the car, I returned to the Mayfair room on the 2nd floor where I met up again with Jacques Riendeau of Oracle, Eli and Ofra Gershman, and Stephane Hautcoeur of Eon Art.

The pearl white Oracle turntable was a Limited Edition Delphi Mk VI with a chrome finish on the aluminum parts and a pearl white base to match. The piano gloss black with 24kt gold plated tower model was the Delphi Signature with a bottom-lit platter that can be ordered with any color light, though it was originally conceived for people who wished to match their McIntosh gear.

A special version of the Oracle Origin, which normally comes with a single color lighted layer, was shown with a stack of colored layers to celebrate Gay Pride. Next to it was a sample of the Oracle PH100 Mk III phono stage ($1250) with full cartridge loading capability as well as three levels of output gain. Grounding can be accomplished either through the house ground or an isolated ground. Their upscale, but still modestly priced phono stage, the PH200 Mk III with a brushed aluminum finish ($2750) was being used in the very expensive rig playing music here and holding its own very well.

Turning now to that rig, an Oracle Delphi Reference Mk VI with Turbo power supply, a Reed 1H 9.5" tonearm, and an Oracle Corinth low output moving coil cartridge totaled $24,845. The phono stage, I just mentioned. On the digital side, an Oracle CD 1000 Mk III Transport ($11,500) fed an Eon Art Tachyon DAC ($70,364) which I did not hear.

The Eon Art amps included the Quark integrated stereo amplifier ($69,882) at the top of the rack with the drawer open and the Boson integrated mono amplifiers ($72,537 each) on the shelves below it. These amps use a tube front-end stage in Class A, followed by a Class D power output stage. This has to be the finest-sounding Class D amp I've ever heard. The Quark stereo version puts out 208 Wpc and the Boson puts out 250 Watts each. Both amps can be supplemented with an external additional power supply for tighter bass and greater silence. Eon Art is in partnership with Art Logik, an electronics and scientific computing firm whose capabilities were used extensively in the design of the Eon Art amplifiers. The chassis of the amps are manufactured by Oracle and have won two design awards. Most uniquely, the electronics pull out like a drawer from the lockable chassis for maintenance, or with age, the complete swapping out of critical circuit boards.

These circuit boards are 2.5mm thick and is comprised of eight layers — far above what is typically found in audio gear. Replacement circuit boards with parts that have degraded over many years cost $4500 to replace, but essentially give you an amplifier that sounds like brand new. There are only 50 units produced each year, which likely find homes in the yachts and estates of very wealthy people.

The speaker heard here was the Gershman Acoustics Grande Avant Garde equipped with IsoAcoustics feet for $16,995. (These were the same speakers presented in room 333.) Jacques pulled out some Willy Nelson LPs and a Linda Ronstadt with Nelson Riddle Orchestra that were ethereal. I've heard speakers that cost vastly more money than the Grand Avant Garde that didn't sound as good as what I heard in this system. That such beautiful music filled such a large room driven by such a modest size and reasonably priced speaker makes it a true value. It is not inexpensive, but you will likely spend many years and tens of thousands of dollars to reach the full potential of this speaker.

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