It was a dark and stormy night, just like Snoopy
wrote. High winds, driving rain and standing water on the highway made use of
cruise control unwise. At the high bridge crossing the St. Lawrence I
seriously asked the toll lady if it was safe to cross. In the fifteen years
I've been making this trip, maybe once the weather was not
a factor. With the Festival Son-Image (now a Salon)
moved back to early April, the probability of camping out in the Hotel Tracker
in sub-zero degrees (F) is greatly diminished. Linda is grateful, and I miss
the bragging rights.
We downloaded our duffel bags into storage at the Best
Western Europa across the street from the Sheraton Centre and parked the
Tracker in an open lot where the attendant refused to give us a 20 percent
break on our U.S. currency. Linda checked her coat and we found our press
badges waiting for us. The Press Room was not, however. Not Saturday or Sunday
either. Sensing my irritation, Linda treated me to a large coffee from the
hotel cafe, for which the industry owes her deep gratitude. Coffee is a mind
altering drug that greatly enhances my amazement and appreciation of audio
gear and music. If my comments on a given room seem minimal, it is probably
because I was not inspired by
what I saw or heard, not because I was sleepy. (It was a large
cup of coffee, like I said).
First stop was on the Seventh
Floor where we visited the Gemme
Audio Green Gem loudspeakers that I had just reviewed. It was
supposed to be driven by the newest version of the TubeMagic monoblocks and
preamplifier, but with a lot of RFI in downtown
Montreal
, in combination with the high sensitivity loudspeakers (97 dB), the system
picked up radio transmissions. In its place were very small King Rex pre and power amplifiers that did a reasonable job
with the Green Gem, but did not have the liquidity of the tube gear I used in
my review. Robert Gaboury and Jean-Pierre Boudreau quickly substituted the
Katana model for comparison. It was immediately evident that the Green Gem was
more neutral, but I could certainly live with the slight colorations of the
Katana, especially at less than a third the price. In the back corner of the
room was a pair of small floorstander prototypes from a new entry level series
that features a ribbon tweeter. Two other models from this series were seen
elsewhere at the show, but I heard none of them. I revisited this room several
times during the show, as it was a great way for me to recalibrate my ears. On
my last visit they were using a Neodio
integrated amplifier that visually coordinated with the Neodio CD player with
candy copper chassis. This amplification, along with switching the phase of
the stand mounted monitors of the Green Gem and repositioning them resulted in
much improved sound, but was still not as good as I achieved with the TubeMagic
amps, or heard at CES in January with the Angelis
Labor tube gear. Maybe it is just a tube vs. solid-state thing.
Still, it was one of the Best Rooms at the show. The Neodio CD player was used
as a source in the Lamm room at CES, so obviously it is held in very high
regard.
Jean-Pierre treated me to a cut from a FIM
recording using their K2 HD mastering technique that utilizes 100 kHz and 24
bit resolution. It sounded quite special. FIM is noted for their
experimentation and innovation. In 2007 Mr. Ma gave me two of their XRCD24
recordings with blue AVM sprayed on the CD to improve the resolution. Their
recording of the classic Sheffield Lab Drum and Track Disc is a treasured tool
for evaluation.
There was a buzz about the Blueberry
Hill Audio cables that were used in the Gemme Audio room, but
nobody had any specific information. I noted the vibration absorbing O-rings
at the ends. Keep an ear out for this company.
It usually takes me a room or two to get my act
together and I tripped up on this one. It looks like a Nova Physics Memory
Player on top of the rack, along with something from Audio Aero below. The
flaming golden veneer of the loudspeaker was very eye catching.
Eddie Wong of
TubeMagic grabbed us in the hall and dragged us in to hear the
latest Mk 3 version of his M23SE monoblocks (CAD$6700 pr). I have recently
reviewed the Mk 2. They were driving a pair of 1977 Kef
105 loudspeakers that didn't sound the least bit dated. Eddie
shared with me the modifications: taking away Fuses, Overload protection circuit; replaced all internal wiring; upper
speakers a 2" tweeter & 5" mid originally sitting on a metal pivot;
replaced with an AOS System. Underneath is a 12" woofer sitting on furniture
castors, now sitting on an AOS System Power amplifier Large platform. Man,
talk about stealth technology. NASCAR teams would be impressed! The
preamplifier was the P22SE (CAD$4400) utilizing 2A3 tubes which Eddie claims
sound even better than the 300B tubes in the P23SE preamp that I have in for
review. Beneath everything, including the Kef loudspeakers as seen here was
the TubeMagic A.O.S. passive hydraulic shock absorbing platform (CAD$800 each)
that is the most effective damping device I have reviewed. TubeMagic plays a
lot of attention to vibration — both internal and external — and it
clearly paid off with one of the Best Rooms at the show.
9th Floor
Preferring to work from the top down, we skipped up to
the 9th Floor
where Jay Rein
of
Bluebird Music was playing the new A6 two-way floorstander ($3700)
from Spendor positioned right up
against the front wall. The A6 uses drivers and crossover technology from the
new flagship ST model ($11,000) seen against the outer walls. The ST was quite
striking in a combination of piano gloss black with a wood veneer inlay on the
front, also in a gloss finish. Electronics were a relatively modest Exposure
CD player and integrated amplifier. The upscale looking Exposure CD player
(~$8000 US) and preamplifier (~$8000 US) from the new flagship MCX series were
on silent display when I visited the room and represent a large step up for
the company.
I had been looking forward to revisiting the Avantgarde
Acoustic Uno Nano loudspeaker that had impressed me at CES. At
Montreal
they seemed considerably larger than I remembered. In fact, I was listening to
the larger Duo Grosso model ($37,500 US) powered by the One Control
preamplifier ($55,500 US) that I had seen last year, and the new One Power
monoblocks ($22,500 each) that put out 50 watts each in Class A utilizing a
unique single ended push-pull design with zero feedback. Given the small size
of the room, they sounded very good, although with 107dB/W/m efficiency they
could have played in a much larger venue. In the adjacent smaller
room I found the Uno Nano loudspeakers ($16,500 US) mounted on the long
wall with three chairs against the opposite wall, not far away. The
source was an Audioaero Capitole Classic CD player. I was impressed with the
quality achieved by these horn speakers in such a small room. The Uno Nano was
driven by the Avantgarde Model Three integrated amplifier ($8700 US) that puts
out 0.4 watts into 8 Ohms in Class A, and 38 watts in Class AB — far more
than is needed by the 104dB/W/m efficiency Uno Nano in a home environment. The
integrated amplifier, like the separates in the other room, was a unique
contemporary design. The lighted central panel provided a touch of warmth to
the darkened room that was made even more inviting by numerous large plants.
Due to the directivity of the Avantgarde horn designs the Uno Nano were toed
in toward the center seat which I had only a short time to visit. Placing my
hand on the pillars that support the horn, I could still feel vibrations which
suggest there is still room for improvement in this very fine loudspeaker.
At long
last I had an opportunity to hear the Gradient
Helsinki loudspeaker ($7500), one of the most unique designs in audio. Its sound
quality belies its small stature and I was told it was very easy to position
in a room because of its design. Its "look at me" visual design becomes "listen to me" when music is played and it seemed to have a non-critical
sweet spot with wide dispersion and exceptional soundstaging for such a wide
listening area. This is clearly a loudspeaker to be taken very seriously from
both an acoustic and visual standpoint. So, just for fun, put a Pop-Art
painting on the wall between them.
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High-Performance Audio Reviews
