Toronto Audiofest 2025: Complete Show Coverage, Biggest Gear Reveals, And Best Demos
What happened, what to buy, special highlights, plus our best audiophile gear picks!
Toronto Audiofest 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker

Sunday Morning
Downtown Toronto was barely visible on the horizon from the 15th floor of the Westin by the airport.

Level 2

Essentia Technology, Inc.

Starting where the stairs reached the second Floor hallway around the open atrium, Essentia Technology in Georgetown, Ontario, had a long display with the four Michell turntables from Great Britain. Michell dates back to the 1970s, making it a contemporary of the Linn LP12 turntable.

On the left was the flagship Gyro turntable, which now has the motor unit CNC machined out of a solid billet of aluminum, rather than three pieces. This table also features an inverted bearing with the spindle attached to the bearing, rather than the platter. It has two helical grooves acting as an Archimedes screw to draw oil up into the bearing when it rotates. The plinth is now CNC-machined and more highly engineered than the one in the other models, as seen below in the hands of Steve Rowland.

In the center is the new Revolv model with a thicker plinth, yet still has clearance for some brass weights attached to it to boost inertia and damp vibrations. It also has a new, separate power supply.

The 3rd table on the right is the Gyro SE ($6,500), which is their bread and butter turntable. The SE stands for Spider Edition, not Special Edition, so it falls below the Gyro in their hierarchy. Tucked behind it in the photo is their entry-level TechnoDec ($3,700).

Steve Rowland from Michell proudly showed off the CNC plinth of the Gyro with brass weights inset to balance the deck and black damping material inset to quell vibrations.

That's the Michell Apollo phono stage ($5,600) on the left and the Muse power supply for it on the right.

Tiglon Co. Ltd. And Charisma Audio

At the corner table, I found my friend Bernard Li of Charisma Audio (right) with Raymond Lee of Wynn Audio helping out. When presenting in a room, Bernard typically shows a wide variety of the brands he represents, as well as his own line of phono cartridges that are doing well on the global stage.

Here, he was focused on a new line of cables from Tiglon in Japan. The unusual feature of Tiglon cables is their use of magnesium shielding, which is not only magnetically inert but also an excellent damping material. The two series he displayed were an entry-level series and an upscale series, but not priced in the stratosphere. Tiglon also uses magnesium in the pillars of the stands Bernard introduced last year for that same reason.

On the table to Bernard's left were some damping platforms and three sizes of metal damping sheets that sounded very much like the Soundeck sheets, platters, and footers I've reviewed in the past. We're talking two layers of metal with a visco-elastic polymer between them. The footers seen there had swivel tops, which seemed unusual, but the proof is always in the listening.

Bernard is an avid analog fan (I use his tonearm, turntable, and cartridges in my system), and he was very excited about the new Wonder Audio Labs P1 Deluxe Phono Stage ($8k) from Hong Kong. It is a fully balanced tube design using 12AU7 tubes from China, with fine adjustments made with the help of an LCD screen. It features both active and passive RIAA boards for a wide variety of record labels, and Lundahl transformers from Sweden.

Out back, there are inputs for three turntables with both RCA and XLR connectors, each input capable of being individually set. Naturally, there is a separate power supply in this price range. It looked very well laid out, and I was impressed with its styling and capabilities. At its price, it seems like a very high value for someone with multiple turntables who needs this much adjustability.

Anne Bisson

It was so early in the morning that Anne Bisson's partner was still in line for coffee down at the hotel café, but not so early that she couldn't flash a smile.

At an unmarked table, this guy was happy to be selling LPs, and perhaps watches under the table?

Across the hall were 2xHD vinyl, mostly 45 rpm, and mostly from original master tapes, for around $80 to $120.

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