Lobby Level: Toronto Audiofest 2024 Show Report
Let's visit the Ground Floor and hear what's new.
Toronto Audiofest 2024 Show Report By Rick Becker

Easton  Audio by Mark Jones
Mark Jones loves to play LPs from his collection and when you listen, you understand why. The music here is always great, though at this level there are still differences among the brands. Having just heard the Gershman and Audio Note rooms, the music coming through the Magico S3 (2023) was slightly less liquid – for better or worse, depending on your personal taste. Still, it was easy to close my eyes and imagine being in the recording studio.

On top of the rack was The Record Player RG-1 Reference Groove ($43k USD), the flagship of the Vertere line which will cause you to think twice about spending a quarter or half a million dollars on a turntable, especially when Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong are so skillfully reproduced as they were here. That was a Lyra Kleos cartridge in the carbon fiber unipivot tonearm.

Below the Vertere was a highly regarded MU1 Grimm streamer and DAC. Below that was the CH Precision preamp from Switzerland indicating it was taking the signal from the CH P1 phono stage on the shelf below. The CH P1 phono stage indicated the Kleos SL cartridge was being used. (The rig was pretty well set up, I'd say.) On the bottom shelf was the CH Precision A1.5 stereo power amp that puts out 150 Wpc into 8 Ohms. The display can show either amplifier status, including temperature, or power output.

A SolidSteel rack held everything in place and Nordost cabling and power distribution bar were used.

PMA Lounge  I Love the Fab Four
With time still available before the industry dinner I walked through the hotel lobby and down the hall where I came upon Gerry Dube at his "I Love the Fab Four" display of Beatles memorabilia.

I had a great chat with Gerry, who is not exactly an extrovert, but he opened up when I started to ask questions. Gerry is a musician (several instruments), songwriter, and a piano tuner…and maybe a few other skills in addition to being a fervent collector. I have seen his collection a couple of times at the Montreal show but the well-lit space here was even more impressive.

Well, these were not the exact guitars the Beatles played or there would have been Royal Canadian Mounted Police on horseback all over the place. Rather these were the same models of instruments played by the Beatles throughout their career. Plus a lot of additional items such as gold records, lithographs, and photos. You can check out his collection on his website.

Sutton A   Acora Acoustics
Ascending the stairs to the hallway with the largest room at the show, I found Val Cora in Sutton A with a rather modest rig by his standards, but still sounding very high-end. The speaker was a combination of the Acora SRB two-way monitor atop a matching bass unit with a rear-firing woofer.

As you can see, the combination is bi-wired with Cardas cable which Val has used consistently. The two units blended seamlessly and easily filled the large room. The woofer seems larger than he uses on the SRC 1 and SRC 2. Possibly it comes from the flagship VRC.

The speaker was not just bi-wired but also bi-amp'ed with the Gryphon Audio Essence on the left and a large McIntosh MC462 Quad Balanced power amp on the right. The Gryphon Comander preamplifier was on the top shelf of the Acora granite equipment rack. Below it was a Lumin streamer and further down was a two-chassis MSB DAC. The bottom shelf held the power supply for the Gryphon Commander. So while the system was simplified by not having an analog front end, it was still comprised of top-shelf components. Note the amps were also on Acora black granite stands. Val said he kept the rig simple because he has a quick turnaround for Capital Audiofest 2024.

But it wasn't a bare-bones presentation. I was lured through the partition halfway back in the room by the sounds of Ricki Lee Jones to hear a new speaker to be formally introduced at Capital Audiofest 2024 later this week. Taking a page from the Magico playbook, but not moving production to China, Val has developed a new series using a more conventional rectangular cabinet which is easier to machine, and the pieces can be handled by just one man, keeping production costs down. He is also using a new stone (marble?). Without a direct comparison – there were different rigs at each end of the room, I can't speak definitively, but it sounded very close to the more expensive SRC model in granite. I will find out more later this week.

On the top two shelves were an MSB DAC. Below that was a smaller Lumin streamer and on the bottom shelf was The Gryphon Diablo 333 integrated amp. The shelves used in this Acora rack were made from the same stone as the new speakers. Again, the cables were from Cardas Audio and the music was from Qobuz. Pricing for the new speakers has not been finalized, but you can expect it to be less than the Quartz series. Val said the monitor should come in under $10k USD, so it is still not inexpensive. Even with this scaled-down system, the music sounded very, very good and this new speaker should open up Acora speakers to a wider audience.

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