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

Audio By Mark Jones
Next door, Mark Jones presided over the playing of select LPs on an outstanding rig easily worthy of a Best Rooms Award. And it is not the first time I've recognized this.

A Marten speaker from Sweden with Accuton ceramic drivers also featured vibration absorbing footers developed with IsoAcoustics.

On top of the Solidsteel rack was a Linn Bedrok Klimax LP12 turntable fitted with a Linn Ekstatik cartridge. The complete turntable setup including tone-arm, cartridge, and built-in phono pre-amp (The Urika) was $58,700. The tower beside it was a DS Audio ION-001 Ionizer that eliminates static from the surface of the LP during playback.

Further down were what looked like a Luxman streamer and preamp.

The Luxman M-10X flagship amplifier puts out 150 Wpc @ 8 Ohms in stereo, or 600W in mono @ 8 Ohms, as seen here.

Luxman introduced a new entry-level integrated amp, the 505z ($9195), but Mark was showing the more popular 507z ($13,695) integrated seen here, and the 509 ($18,995) off to the left.

Mark consistently exhibits systems that qualify for Best Rooms Awards and mixes them up for each of the Canadian shows. Audio by Mark Jones is located in Ajax, Ontario, just east of Toronto.

As I returned to the lobby from the mezzanine, I passed Gerry Dube's "I Love the Fab Four" exhibit once again.

Earvana Fest

Last year the Toronto Audiofest spilled over to the Holiday Inn next door, where several larger rooms were made available, and Earvana occupied the same banquet room where the Industry Dinner was held this year. It wasn't a smashing success, as many people didn't get the memo, and attendance was weak in the Holiday Inn rooms.

This year, Earvana was moved back into the Westin where it filled up the hallway and Sutton A, one of the three largest rooms at the show. (Acora Acoustics was moved to Plaza A on the second floor.) In this mainstream location Earvana seemed to thrive with most of the headphone vendors all within about 200 feet of one another. There were only a couple of rooms upstairs in the hotel that featured headphones, largely because they were an appendage of a manufacturer's core business. Earvana thrived with more energy, even though the attendance on Sunday was poor. Sunday is always the slowest day at a show, which is why I say it is a good time to go headphone and headphone amp shopping, as it is much easier to plug in to do some actual listening.

Another thought about Earvana (or any headphone area at an audio show) came to me when I read an essay about attracting younger people, and especially younger women, to high-end audio. What do you suppose would be the result of allowing women into the headphone area free of charge? Women do a lot of listening to music through headphones—usually cheap ones. This would be a way of exposing them to quality music with the kind of gear they are already comfortable using.

It could also be a 'date-event' where a guy could bring his girlfriend or wife for no additional expense and potentially turn her on to his hobby. Some of these people might even pay full fare to cross the line into the rest of the show. It certainly wouldn't hurt to have more women exposed to the high end, and offering them free admission to the Earvana section might be just the portal to make that happen.

Just as electronic circuitry has been miniaturized, so too have intergalactic space travelers.

I was delighted to meet John Grado and his cousin, Richard Grado, as he had helped me out with some parts in the past, and I got to thank him in person. I'm not the only person who recognizes Grado has a first-class reputation for service. I'm not a headphone aficionado, but I use my vintage Grado 80e every day as I work and take Zoom classes on my computer. They take quite a beating. While I was looking at the Signature HP100 SE headphones seen on the splamp on the counter above, a customer came by to pick up some cans he had ordered.

John presented him with his new GS3000e headphones in a box, which he had personally signed on the back. The guy was ecstatic. Not only had he bought these, but also a second, less expensive model he had bought earlier in the day. I guess his ship had come in. Hang onto that signed box, young man! Send me an email, and I'll send you the photo file of this photo to go along with it.

Sutton A was a long room, and the curtains behind the tables were set out from the wall to provide storage behind them, so it is actually wider than it looks.

Caleb Loo (@FC-Construct) of Headphones.com was a vlogger with his camera on a tripod right in front of him. I don't know if he was broadcasting live or recording for posting in the future, but I didn't interrupt to say hello.

These were two of the guys at table 12 at the Industry Dinner last night. Lee Da Estrela, on the right.

With only the brands of major suppliers, there was no clue that this was the table of ASONA Ltd.

The presence of Richard Kohlruss gave it away. He was delighted to show me a new boutique line from Erzetich in Slovenia. The dynamic headphone in his hands is the Mania ($1599). They have two dynamic headphones and two planar headphones, as well as headphone amplifiers. From what I heard through the Mania and one of the planar models, it is definitely a premium brand.

The young lady here is the owner of Princess Pasta Audio (PPA), a Canadian headphone distributor whom I've seen now at a couple of shows.

Out in the hallway, in front of Sutton B where EQ Audio had numerous systems on display, was their headphone presentation with Innuos and Ferrum streamers, and those gorgeous wood headphone stands.

---> Next Page.