Toronto Audiofest 2023 Show Report
Part 5... Lobby Level And Lower Level
Show Report By Rick Becker

Lower Level
Somewhere, you could catch an elevator to the Lower Level, but I've always taken the stairs. There are only three large rooms down there, but they are important ones.

Windsor  JVC / Kenwood Canada
This is the perennial JVC / Kenwood room and it is the only serious home theater presentation at the show. It's very dark inside, which makes the projection video presentation all the more spectacular. FWIW, they were showing neither Barbie nor Oppenheimer. I snapped a photo and retraced my steps.

Carlyle  Wynn Audio
Wynn Wong always has a very fine room with true luxury-level brands. I've seen some of the more avant-garde speaker styles from Goldmund, but here was a rare opportunity to listen to a complete Goldmund rig from Switzerland.

The stand and the Eidos Reference SACD player on top are integrated units with a suspension enclosed in the pillars of the rack, all for $296k. The Mimesis 37S NG Analogue Preamplifier was $44.5k. The cables were from the Art Series by Crystal Cable of the Netherlands. The DaVinci speaker cable was $62,780. The DaVinci interconnect was $32,270. The DaVinci power cable was $19,700; the Van Gogh power cable was $12,150 and the Van Gogh interconnect was $19,700.

The Tethys passive speaker ($88k) is finely crafted with the tweeter and midrange drivers in the upper module with fluted sides, resting on the bass module at three points. The pipe at the rear carries the cables to the upper drivers and also anchors the module to the floor. The chassis are all aluminum. It is a 4 Ohm speaker with about 88dB/W/m efficiency, so optimized for solid-state electronics. It was a real pleasure to listen to this rig. It was much more refined than any rig I've heard with Stenheim speakers, another Swiss brand with aluminum chassis. The Goldmund rig was also a lot more expensive than the rigs I've heard with the Stenheims. In this league, you should be traveling to audition the system for yourself. Like, fly to Toronto for a weekend and have a great time when you go.

In the larger portion of this room, Wynn had a more eclectic system from six different European countries. The Tidal Akira speakers from Germany ($353k) were the big ticket item here, though the entire rig was visually integrated, except for the Entreq Pluton Groundbox ($15k) from Sweden that should have been set aside and decorated as a plant stand. Everything else was tied in beautifully with black, chrome, silver, and a touch of red from the Karan Acoustics electronics from Serbia. The Karan LINEa preamp with external power supply was $55k, the PHONOa phono preamp was $51k, and the POWERa monoblocks were $145/pr.

A Kalista DreamPlay XC CD/SACD player with DSD streaming digital preamp feature and external power supply from France topped out at $100k, a little less than the analog front end when the phono stage is included.

Here we see Wynn checking the cueing on the Thiele turntable. This was the first time I've seen the Thiele TT01/X turntable and tonearm from Germany ($41,500).

The Thiele tonearm is designed to correct stylus alignment in the groove so that it remains tangential to the groove as it moves across most of the LP. It was fitted with an X-quisite GT cartridge from Switzerland ($20k).

As I was leaving the room after extensive listening  I noticed a display with elegant cables from Fono Acustica of Spain. Look closely at the cast housings on the connectors. Negative and positive on the speaker cables, and left and right on the interconnects were differentiated with gold and silver housings. In looking at the product list for the room when I returned home, I learned that these cables were used to wire the system. From the Virtuoso series were the speaker cable ($75k), XLR interconnects ($27,300), and power cables ($21k). And from the Armonico series were XLR interconnects ($10,500) and power cables ($10,300).

I listened to a drum cut that was very highly resolved and dynamic with a superb rendition of cymbals. On another cut, Willie Nelson was right in the room without a hint of sibilance. Outstanding.

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