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

The Lobby Level(s)
I covered the lobby at the start of this report, but there was much more to be seen at this ground level. Directly behind the lobby was a mezzanine where the small restaurant was located. There were also three important rooms on the mezzanine, which were not prominent unless you were paying attention to the stickers on the floor indicating ‘more rooms this way,' or proficient with the map in the PMA program. I missed these rooms the first year the Toronto show was at this venue and vowed not to let that happen again.

I'll hit the mezzanine first, then wander over to the conference side of the building to explore Earvana for the headphones and a couple of large rooms, before descending to the lower level to finish up with a couple of very important rooms.

Bryston

James Tanner was sitting in his usual position among the director's chairs arranged in the listening area, so I wandered around and explored the product on pedestals at the back of the room.

Bryston is now joined with Axiom, a Canadian manufacturer of speakers, so there was a small arrangement of a series suitable for home theater.

In the opposite back corner was a new tube preamp from Magnum Dynalab who is now owned by Bryston. James later told me they wanted to get into some tube gear, but decided to put it under the Magnum Dynalab name since Bryston has always been solid state. A tube power amp will likely follow.

Similar in look to the Magnum Dynalab preamp was the new entry-level Bi 101 integrated amp with headphone jack from Bryston, hence, solid state.

Also new was the BAX 2 crossover, shown topless, on top of a BAX 1 in silver face. Both have DSP technology built in.

Eventually, I said hello to James and settled in to listen to some music. The system here is what Bryston refers to as an active speaker system with no crossover in the speaker.  There is the BR 20 preamplifier sitting below the new BAX 2 external DSP crossover on top of the rack. You then select the amplification appropriate for the particular Bryston speaker, the size of your room, and your listening level preferences. yston speaker, the size of your room, and your listening level preferences. A tri-amplifier system with two MONO 7B3 and two 4B3 Stereo amps was used here. The music was very easy to enjoy, even for this tube-guy, and ranked high among the Top Tier rooms at the show.

When I asked James for a room list, he directed me to the little stand-up page beside the speaker. While most presenters thoughtfully offer a detailed list of individual components, this one was prophetically simple. It wasn't until I was home and enhancing my photos that the genius of this sign and the value of this system truly dawned on me. In retrospect, James should have put this on a large banner on the front wall.

$60,000 is a lot of money for most people, but for a large bi-amplified system that sounded this good and could easily fill a much larger room, it is an incredible value. In the top tier of the high end, $60k for a single component, much less a speaker of any size, would not trigger the blink of an eye. But digging a little deeper, I questioned the price of the cables employed and the ‘power conditioning.' Surely they must be Pro-Audio cables from Canare or Mogami, I asked in an email to James. Here is his reply, printed with permission:

"The interconnects were Van Damme, and the speaker cables were just some copper Romex cables I made up years ago. I also use a standard Home Depot power bar. I am not trying to put down the value of good cables or quality power conditioning – I am trying to make the point that if you liked what you heard, then you have to give credit to the Bryston system, not to some expensive cables or power conditioning."

As I suggested above, his point escaped me until I returned home and examined his ‘room list.' And this point needs to be incorporated in the banner I suggested he put on the front wall. His reply also brings back a comment I made about a very fine sounding room at another show where a Bryston power amp was used: Bryston amps need to be heard in the context of more expensive systems to appreciate the sound quality of which they are capable.

His point is well taken, though, which is why I try not to "review" rooms at shows any deeper than giving an overall impression, because who knows what component is contributing which qualities in a combination of gear you've never heard before? On the other hand, repetitive exposure to components and brands over the years seems to give some degree of informed opinion. The bottom line here is that Bryston gear probably sounds even better than you heard in this room.

Audio Note UK

The Audio Note UK room is the room I love to listen to, but hate to write about because it has such a consistent level of ‘housesound' that even their less expensive models (and they have lots of price levels) sound as good as their most expensive gear, given the margin of error created by the time between shows. My advice is always, "Go listen to the Audio Note room." They are always among the Top Tier of rooms at shows.

They rarely have a room list, but a cursory look tells me this was a very upscale system in the Audio Note UK line.

This integrated amp has the inputs on the left side near the front and speaker jacks on the top at the rear. It deserves a more fitting amp stand, as it is as massive as the Kondo Ongaku that I encountered later on.

If you look closely, you will see this turntable has three motors—one peeping above the platter at the rear.

I've known Vincent Belanger since he first started appearing at the Canadian shows, long before he became a brand ambassador for Audio Note UK. His presentation of 'live versus recorded' comparisons underscores the sound quality of Audio Note systems, but there is no substitute for sitting five feet in front of a live cello.

I bought a copy of Vincent's new Songe CD, produced with the help of a Kickstarter drive plus support from Audio Note, Acora Acoustics, Mon Acoustics, LAiV, Engstrom, and more. It's a delightful collection of 11 pieces, including original compositions and adaptations of some classical pieces. Some of the songs include harp, double bass, and soprano. All-in-all, very interesting and moving pieces.

---> Next Page.