Le Festival Son et Image de Montréal 2002

Bonus Coverage Page 4
By Rick Becker

 

  In the Audioville retailer's room I viewed the new Aragon amplifiers on silent display. The new styling takes these amps up a notch...especially in the anodized silver finish. If the sound quality has increased commensurately, we will be hearing a lot about them in the press.

The Holiday Inn was a new addition to the Festival this year, allowing for a number of larger rooms in their conference and banquet facilities. I fear that many people might have missed this venue, located just next door to the Delta. It was here that I discovered what I felt was the best sounding room at the show. It should be no surprise to those who read my report last year. It must have been an "add on", as there is no mention of it in the Festival program.

Sanibel Sound presented essentially the same system I raved over last year, but with the larger Piega P10 at $9,995 USD and $12,125 for piano finish, powered by a larger Aloia ST15.01 amplifier. The Audiomeca CD player gave me heartbreak. It got stuck early on in the Hugh Masekela "Stimela" or "Coal Train" cut. Try as he could to clean the CD on his cotton shirtsleeve, the host could not make it play. After passing though so many hands at the show, I figured somebody had gummed it up.

The room was laid out perfectly, with cables neatly placed, and a couple of sound absorbing pillars, if I remember correctly. When I moved my chair into what formed an equilateral triangle with the loudspeakers, the host suggested that I might want to move it back to the wall, as there was a standing wave right where I had placed my chair. He was right! Steve Davis had left an hour before I found his room, but there was clear evidence of him being there. In another setting, he might be labeled "obsessive-compulsive", but at Montreal he gave me the finest musical experience of the show. The music was very tightly focused, very transparent, commanded a huge soundstage, was seamless from top to bottom, and had tremendous dynamics, both micro and macro. Was it big bucks? You bet! But unlike a lot of other very expensive systems at the show, the music moved me to the point where it did not matter how much it cost. To further credit this system, I had this experience at the end of the final day, when a mild headache had set in, probably from dehydration. Would I change anything? Man, I must really be dehydrated! Maybe I could try the smaller model Piega… or a Molson Export.

There was lots of Musical Fidelity NuVista equipment at the show. Their NuVista CD player and integrated amp fed a signal to Monsoon FPF-1000 planar loudspeakers with twin conventional woofers that put out some very nice music, especially for the $1,200 USD price. They sounded even better than I remembered them from last year. Actually, I had just lucked into this unauthorized audition, and the official loudspeaker, the Proac Future 0.5 was quickly reinstalled in the system. This new smaller Future model sounded much better than its larger sibling I heard last year in this same room. Perhaps it was the electronics, or perhaps they found the right positioning in the room--very important for these loudspeakers since both their ribbon tweeter and midrange are open to the backside. But at $9,500 CDN, it seems like a lot of money disappeared when they switched over from the Monsoons.

While on the subject of Proacs, I was not terribly impressed with their big buck surround system--way too expensive and way too polite for the relatively crude soundtracks of most movies. What DID impress me was the not-yet broken-in new Tablette Reference Eight at $1,795 CDN, another small stand mounted gem for nearfield listening.

 

I also liked the smooth, inviting sound of the Harbeth Model 40, which presented an amazingly good soundstage for a loudspeaker with such a large front. This is a loudspeaker for all-day listening, but its dated shape and $9,400 CDN price will probably keep most people away. But clearly, this is a venerable brand whose other models should spread their appeal to a wider audience.

 

The large Gershman Opera Sauvage loudspeaker was running with an Audio Aero Prima CD player, Orpheus Laboratories Two remote controlled preamp and Audio Aero tube stereo amp. The system was only fair with Buddy Guy and Rickie Lee Jones cuts, but much better with Hugh Masekela. Overall, it should have sounded better, but was probably in a too-small room. At $15,500 USD, this loudspeaker faces a lot of fine competition.

What will probably put a lot of meat and potatoes on the Gershman's table is their new Cameleon triangular two-way tower loudspeaker with a long port tube that exits at the bottom front. In a system with a modest Rega Planet CD player and Simaudio Celeste integrated amp this $1,795/pr. loudspeaker sounded great and should introduce a lot of people with modest means to the high end.

Another room I did not really get a good feel for until my final sweep of the show was the room with the Audes Blues loudspeakers. This Estonian loudspeaker line is kind of a take-off on the Sonus Faber line with wood side panels. What really caught my eye in this room was the Audio Harmony Triode Linestage with remote control for under $3,000 USD. It looked a bit like a CAT pre-amplifier for half the price. Somebody investigate this one, please. The room also featured a Museatex CD player and 100 watts per channel Roksan power amp. Another very fine sounding room here.

I suspect Israel Blume remembered me from the New York show last year. He was much more reserved and let his new Victory model speak for itself. I was so impressed with this room I made sure I came back for a second visit. The system was comprised of a Wadia CD player feeding his MP-300B monoblocks with two 300B tubes giving 18 watts. This was the first public showing of these $3,495/pr USD monoblocks, which are a further development of his SIP-300B stereo integrated amp, which sells for only $2,395 USD. I'm sure the cables were his own as well. The Coincident Loudspeaker Technology Victory, at 97dB sensitivity, was born to be driven by tubes, but only down to about 36Hz in order to keep its size under control, and its price down to $4,599 USD/pr. The loudspeakers did not want for power from these Asian built amps. I thought about asking for a review pair, but when I got home and read the rave review in his handout, reprinted with permission from AVguide.com, there was nothing more that needed to be said. If you need lower bass, or have a large room, you will just have to up the ante upwards of $11,500 USD for his larger Total Victory model. Did I mention that the woodwork was gorgeous and the dynamics and transparency were outstanding? Be sure and check these out at the New York show if you go.

 

Another amplifier that might do the Coincidents justice was a "walk-in" at Codell Audio, a Quebec retailer. Really!!! A guy walks into Codell and offers to show them his home-built amp. Not really expecting him to show up again, they said "Sure!" The guy comes back with a production ready single ended triode monoblock that really impresses them, and Phoenix Acoustics Corp's SE-15 "Revelation" amp becomes one of the darlings of the Montreal show this year.

On the home theater front, I heard a nice rig for small living rooms in the form of Ruark's Vita 100 system, which utilizes four satellites, a small center channel loudspeaker and an active subwoofer.

 

Montreal was the first active showing of Sonus Faber's new Cremona loudspeaker--the small Amati that they told me was in the works last year. Featuring modified Scanspeak drivers, and built with not as much care to the spine (or backbone) of the loudspeaker as they do with the Amati, and utilizing a more simple, but effective stand, they have created a beautifully sounding loudspeaker for $7,495 USD. It still features separate chambers for both of the woofers, and midrange -- both are ported. What is lacking is the obsessive care and construction that goes into the Amati Homage at $22,000 USD/pr. For $14,500 less, you get a very significant portion of the action. It made beautiful music with a Wadia CD player, Nagra pre-amplifier, and 50 watt Nagra tube monoblocks. At 90dB sensitivity and nominal 4 ohm impedance, you will want quality amplification in the 50 to 300 watt range for these Italian beauties.

"Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz
My friends all drive Porches
I must make amends.
Worked hard all my life time
No help from my friends.
Oh Lord, won't you buy me...." -- Janis Joplin

"And anyone can fill his life up with things
He can see but he just cannot touch." -- Bob Dylan


Dear Landlord

Hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did. 
Enjoy your music, folks.

 

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