Le Festival Son et Image
de Montréal 2001

Montreal 2001 Show Goodies!
by Rick Becker

  Symphonic Line showed a pair of two-way floor standing speakers for $2,500. Their Odessey amps sported new faceplates and nicely turned knobs on the preamp. I presume they are still relatively affordable.

 

Triangle loudspeakers have had a lot of press in the past several years, and I certainly remember commenting favorably on them in my earliest Montreal reports. In light of the Stereophile recommendation, I took special note of the Titus xs on silent display on the Boomerang stands. The large floor standing Zays model ($3,300 CD) powered by Cairn electronics sounded decent, but I was expecting more. I found more from Triangle, but it was in another room where I found the best Real World sound at the show... or one of the best. A CAL Audio Labs CD player was feeding an MGD 80 wpc. integrated hybrid amplifier (tube/solid state), which was driving Triangle's Antal floor stander ($1,595 US). If I had to start all over again, I thought...

 

And in another MGD room came more great sound, albeit further up the food chain. Separate MGD preamp and 80 wpc, high current power amp were driving Opera Pavarotti small tower speakers (~$3,000 CD), which came with a tweeter and two small woofers each. MGD also used their $500/pr. speaker cables in this system that totaled about $10,000 CD.

 

I briefly stepped into the System Audio room and was pleased with what I heard. My recollection is that their line is reasonably priced and a good value.

 

Very nice music came from a pair of Spendor FL9s with a Paganini cd player, Rogue #66 preamp and Rogue 120 monoblocks. This is probably the best system I've heard using the Rogue gear. Now if they would only get rid of the damn crow on their faceplates. Don't they know what crows eat? Not in my living room!

 

Several rooms were using analog front ends at the show. Among them, I heard an all Rega system. I've heard lots of systems using Rega electronics, so I was disappointed that the speakers seemed to be holding back the rest of the system. On silent display I saw a P3 turntable with a light purple plinth--very pretty, and helpful for cuing up records in low-light situations.

 

Antique Sound Labs had lots of fascinating pieces. They showed two new 2A3 amps: the Orchid 2A3 Integre, 3.5 watt X 2 SET integrated at $1,499 CD, and the Tulip 2A3 x2 at $1,349. Check their website for the differences. They also had the amp that created something of a stir at the show: the Wave DT, a 10 wpc tube monoblock that sells for $149 CD. Looking like a small shoebox, it powered the Reference 3A model MM de Capo speakers ($2,900 CD) like a champ. But the piece that caught my ear was their Head DT headphone amp. It sounded quite good in spite of conflicting music being played elsewhere in the room.

 

And then, sitting right next to the Antique Audio Labs headphone amplifier, was the gorgeous new Audio Valve RKV III at $1,790 with its tinted transparent top, unfortunately, on static display. Are we having a headphone revival that I haven't heard about yet? I've raved about the gorgeous Audio Valve equipment in the past. Maybe this time someone will take notice.

 

Alchemist has undergone a transformation from a style standpoint at the very least. The new look is modern, but not as close to the edge as the predecessors with radical heat sinks and gold knobs. I predict the old style will become collector's items, while the new ones will probably make the company richer. Of special interest was the 24-bit/192kHz DAC at $2,500 CD with its matching $2,500 transport. Unfortunately, none of the Alchemist was hooked up for listening.

 

Audio Static was given standing room for only one speaker, their DCI Electrostatic that runs from 28 Hz to 22kHz, 8 ohms, $10,000 CD/pr. I remember hearing an earlier model many years ago in Rochester, and I was quite impressed with them.

 

Coming full circle to the importance of the room as a major component of the system, I ventured into one of the larger conference rooms that I visit every year. Lots of JMLabs and YBA equipment, among other brands. Two rows of seats were set up in the listening end of the room with lights dimmed and curtains hung behind the large speakers. I can't recall that I ever heard really good music in this room, in spite of the reputations of components and speakers being played. And there have been many highly rated pieces in this room before. Sometimes, I suspect, the music was not being played loudly enough for the speakers to "come alive". The music played is carefully selected and volume set by an attendant.

 

This time, maybe it was my badge, or maybe it was again the end of the day, the attendant willingly accepted my CD and graciously cranked it up a "little" louder than what was playing before. Had the music been cranked up another notch or two more, the system might have made it into the circle of systems I mentioned at the beginning of this report. Still, it was great. I finally experienced what my buddy Art Shapiro has raved about for many years in the JMLabs Utopia speaker. And what finally made the sound in this room great was not just the speaker, but an amp big enough to power it in this large room, for while the listening end of the room was reasonably sized, it opened into a static display area that is easily as large or larger. And God and a few hotel employees know how much space is behind the curtains. The source was a Wadia cd player, the preamp was a YBA, and the speakers were driven by YBA Passion Monoblocks. It was Sunday afternoon and I was definitely in "Church" with Lyle Lovett. And while a $70,000 US system may be an obscene expenditure for most people, it made beautiful music in that very difficult room.

 

Last year I dubbed the show the Birth of Massage Theater. So what about home theater and surround sound this year? Well, it was there again, but with a little more medium and a little less massage, to put a little "shake and bake" move on Marshall McLuhan.

 

The D-Box system with a platform that shook, rattled and rolled in sync with the action in the movie was much more subtle this year, and hence, more effective. But I'm not convinced that I need to be this physically involved with the movie, in order to be emotionally involved. The demo was an automotive chase scene, and I came away wondering how they might interpret other genres of film. The $16,000 US system started production last December. Not to be overlooked, these people make great subwoofers, too.

 

Sony demonstrated SACD in both two channel and surround modes using a prototype stand mounted speaker that is near completion. The speaker will be about $400 each and the sub about $1200. The source was a 555ES five-disc changer with SACD, which fed a Pass X5 amp. The sound was quite good in both stereo and surround modes. And there was a definite perceivable and believable difference in the two modes, but I'm not sure the surround mode cleared the "So what?" hurdle, at least with the drum music that was played.

On the ground floor, Sony had a large room full of various surround and video displays. The DVP S9000 ES was showcased both in a system and in an opened model that exposed the interior layout. I believe this is a combo DVD/SACD player.

In a direct view 36" HDTV set they displayed pristine still photos of exotic automobiles. This model is available now, and a 40" model is due in the fall. These TVs incorporate Sony's DRC Technology, which is claimed to give 4 times the visual resolution from ANY analog source. As a fan of direct view TVs I was VERY impressed. Even standing a mere 4 feet in front of the set, I was not bothered by scan lines. Of course, sitting closer to the set is an easy way to get a bigger picture, which is especially helpful when watching those letterbox movies, or the instant playback of a questionable football play.

For Joe and Josie Cool, Sony showed their own foray into Massage Theater with a metal frame director's chair with a tiny speaker mounted and the front end of each arm, and a woofer mounted in a box that rested on the frame of the chair below the seat (to transmit vibrations). The chair ensemble is $1500 CD. Complete the picture with their wide screen wraparound sunglasses that plug into your video source... say VCR or portable DVD player. I really wanted to be impressed by this rig, but the image in the sunglasses was blurry. I'm quite nearsighted, so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

Texas Instruments had their Dream Vision DLP video projector at work putting up a large image on a screen. This reminds me of the old filmstrip projectors we had in grade school back in the '50s. Very Retro. Linda and I had a chance to borrow a DLP projector for an evening, and we had quite a lot of fun with it after dark. Of course, what's a home theater without black walls and opaque windows?

 

Sharp had their XVZ7000U liquid crystal HDTV projector throwing up a very sharp image. At $10,000 CD this model number is not likely to become a household name, but it is certainly one to check out if you insist on a large screen.

 

Cabasse's Systeme IO is a spherical "eye" that magnetically couples to a metal base that can be wall mounted for surround sound, or stand-mounted, if you prefer. It comes in grey, black or white and is a little larger than a softball, and a lot heavier! At $1000 CD per corner, and $800 for the center, it probably deserved better than the Rotel DVD player and receiver that were playing them. Other Cabasses I have heard sounded much smoother.

 

Dolby Headphones had a bank of TVs set up with headphones providing surround sound. I've experienced this effect years ago under another brand name. It's a great idea for late night watching, especially in the bedroom.

 

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