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

343  Toronto Home of Audiophiles Ltd
Toronto Home of Audiophiles put together a very fine-sounding room with a lot of top names in the High End. The Gershman Acoustics Grande Avant Garde 30th Anniversary floorstanding loudspeakers ($18k) are perennial favorites and these speakers will play just as well in much larger rooms with the appropriate amplification. What looks like a riser on the bottom is actually an extension of the speaker that enhances bass performance. This is an outstanding full-range speaker in a size that will not visually overpower your room, though its unique design will certainly draw the attention of visitors.

On the left rack were a Melco N100-H50 NAS for music storage ($4295) and a Lumin U2 Streaming Network transport ($7500). Below that was a row of three Weiss products including a DAC204 in the center and a DAC 501 Mk II with DSP and headphone amp on the right ($15,495). And on the bottom was a MaxCon Extreme power conditioner from Gutwire ($4499).

In the rack on the right were an Accuphase DP 570 SACD / CD Player ($15k) on the top shelf, a Pass Labs XP-12 preamp ($8900) below it, and a Pass Labs XA 30.8 Class A stereo amp ($10,500) rated at 30 Wpc, but delivering much more.

Cables from Siltech (expensive) and Gutwire (mid-priced) were listed, but I'm not sure which were employed in the various positions. This room was one of the contenders for a Best Rooms award.

345  Audioarcan
Audioarcan is a Canadian Distributor for Icon Audio UK, Graham Slee UK, Pure Fidelity, EAR Yoshino Audio, and PMC. I was familiar with these brands, but Audioarcan was new to me.

They certainly put together a very fine-sounding room here and the seats were full when I visited.

The Pure Fidelity turntables with their gorgeous veneers have appeared in a lot of rooms in recent years. More exclusive here was the Urushi Gold phono cartridge ($18k) that provided outstanding air and resolution. Unfortunately, my camera's auto-focus just missed the Urushi Gold cartridge but I included the photo anyway because who knows when I'll ever get to hear this cartridge again. This was one of those special moments that makes coming to shows so worthwhile.

Below the turntable on the right was an Ikeda IST 201 MC Step-up transformer ($6k).

An Icon LA4 Mk III ($3895) preamp was on top of the right side rack. Below it was an HP-8 Headphone amp ($1950). On the bottom shelf was an Icon Stereo 40 MkIV amp with 50 Wpc, Class A, all triode front end, with a matched quartet of KT88 tubes. ($5k). The Icon Audio is a boutique manufacturer in the UK. They design their equipment and wind their own transformers. The amps are then built in a small factory in China and returned to the UK where they are hand tweaked by David Shaw, the owner. His work is relatively affordable and widely acclaimed.

The speakers here were the PMC Fact 12 ($30k) driven by what looked like Icon Audio MB845 Mk II monoblocks (list, $21k, demo price $14k). They delivered the fine sound coming from the analog front end when I was there. Here, too, we have a contender for Best Rooms at the show.

I'm halfway through the 3rd Floor at this point and in the interest of getting new material online I'll call it a wrap for Part 2. I should be able to pick up speed now so Part 3 with the remainder of the 3rd Floor should be along in a few days.

---> Onward to Part 3 of Rick Becker's Toronto Audiofest 2024 Show Report.

---> Back to the main Toronto Audiofest 2024 show report homepage.