Toronto Audiofest 2026 Show Report Part 1
High-End Audio Highlights, New Gear Debuts, And Must-See Listening Rooms
Top-performing listening rooms, exciting product introductions, prestigious audio gear, and value-packed hi-fi sound systems that captivate music lovers.
Toronto Audiofest 2026 Show Report By Rick Becker

Third Floor   (7 Rooms)

322  Audio Experience Distribution, Soniquex, And Studio 67
I wasn't sure what was going on in this room at first. Music was playing, and this guy was talking with other visitors. Eventually, I figured out he was explaining the Soniquex component. It seems to be a device that allows you to manipulate the size and tone of the soundstage. It would have been better if he had cut the music and presented a more condensed and cohesive explanation of the product, and then demonstrated some of its capabilities with music playing. It is wonderful to see such young innovators in the industry. Hopefully, he will polish his presentation and win over a customer base.

From what I could gather, the device is similar to what Ted Denney is developing at Synergistic Research. The rig was set up on a pair of Stillpoints racks.

The Auris Lumins amp from Serbia featured parallel Psvane 300B tubes putting out 20 Wpc in Class A. The Luminis model shown here is priced at $20k USD. Auris has been around for years, but this is their finest-looking amplifier I've seen. They are also well known for their wide variety of high-end tonearms.

326  Passionaudio.ca
In the first of two rooms, Passion Audio put on a very fine display featuring top brands at every position. Passion Audio is a boutique audio retailer and record store in Châteauguay, Quebec, just southwest of Montreal, across the St. Laurence Seaway.

Wolf von Langa Organic speakers with full-range field coil drivers and excellent craftsmanship. The top plate gave access to the driver, which was mounted in a recess on the front baffle with no external screws visible. The "Wolf von Langa" logo was burned into the wood baffle. This played a lot deeper than you would expect.

On the left of the console top shelf was the power supply for the Thivan Labs Ultimate 300 preamp with optical & MM/MC phono stage. It featured single-ended 300B tubes from Psvane. This was a very handsome pair of units with wood and metal chassis. I noted a very unusual footer under the power supply, but none under the amp itself, which I thought was unusual. I'll have to give that configuration a try with my own phono stage.

On the bottom shelves were the digital front end from Matrix Audio, an SS-1, SI-1, and NT-1. To the far right was a LampizatOr Kraftwerk-10 AC filter.

Mavis P200 tube MOSFET transformer monoblocks drove the speakers. Next to it was a LampizatOr Poseidon-2 DAC/preamp. Cabling was from Cardas.

330  Northstar Audio And Passionaudio.ca
Northstar Audio is a Canadian distributor of elite high end brands, among them, Dutch & Dutch speakers shown here. They teamed up with Passion Audio to present this minimalist system.

This Dutch & Dutch Model 6c speaker incorporates all the necessary electronics, but requires a power cord for each speaker. It is priced at $14,250 in standard colors, and other colors are available at an upcharge. I've heard the larger Model 8, and the 6c sounded just as good, but lacked the deepest bass of its larger stablemate.

Rather than rely on Bluetooth, which can be inconsistent at shows, they used a Rockna Wavelight Server Streamer-2T, which comes equipped with all the outputs and inputs you need at $9,995. Below it was a unit from Lhy Audio, perhaps an Ethernet filter?

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