Third Floor Part 1: The Toronto Audiofest 2024 Show
Thrilling music on the third floor.
Toronto Audiofest 2024 Show Report By Rick Becker

317  Chord Company / English Electric
The Chord Company (the cable company, not the amplifier people) was running comparison demonstrations starting at the top of the hour. This type of comparison demo can be extremely helpful in convincing newcomers that cables really do make a difference – or whatever else might be compared. I highly recommend them.

By Sunday afternoon they had reverted to an open-door policy for the few people with the patience and wisdom to check them out, so I ducked in and snapped a shot of their modest rig with the components facing the front wall to make it easy to switch cables.

321  Altitudo Audio
Altitudo Audio have cleverly posted all the products in their room right on their home page, complete with pricing. They come from Winnipeg, Manitoba each year. A second room, apparently booked too late to be listed in the program, was located a few doors down.

They pack a lot of gear into each room and rotate the speakers from time to time.

The Trilogy monoblocks, seen elsewhere at the show, too, were sitting on an HRS amp stand and had an HRS damping block bridging them.

The Audio Physic Spark speakers had a rich-looking veneer and were topped with a smaller HRS damping block.

Their multiple brands were listed on the banners in the room. Again, you can check out the prices of what you see here or hear in person at their website.

325  VinylSound
VinylSound had a room with an intriguing mix of components that some people might have brushed by only briefly.

On top of the rack was the Thorens turntable I had seen earlier. It was shown here in the optional gloss black plinth. (I liked the walnut plinth better, but you're welcome to your own opinion.)  Below it was the Chord M-Scaler digital upsampler ($6700) in silver which was sitting on the Chord BerTTi stereo power amp ($7600). To the right, in front, was the Chord Hugo TT 2 DAC / Preamplifier / Headphone amplifier ($7600). And tucked in behind it was the Chord Huei Phono Stage ($2300).

The integrated amp on the next shelf down was a Mark Levinson, as was the component on the bottom shelf – probably a CD player. The stand itself was from Norstone.

The real delight for me was to hear the JBL L100 Classic ($7200) on the optional JBL JS 120 stands. It was sounding as good or better as the new Audiovector speaker heard earlier in the show. And I've heard it sound better still with more expensive gear in the past. I love that you can tune the midrange and tweeter on this speaker to suit your music. All that was missing was the classic orange waffle grill foam.

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