Mike Tang
delighted me last time and he had a repeat performance this year at Montreal.
A master tweaker, he takes the road less traveled to achieve excellent
results tweaking such vintage gear as an old Thorens
TD124 turntable, Marantz
preamp and a CV4055 push-pull tube amp that puts out 8 watts into 16 Ohm and
20 Ohm loads. He also builds speaker cabinets for full range drivers such as
the Feastrex model heard in his room. The finish was a gorgeous
(and hopefully not endangered) veneer looking somewhat like curly maple. Price
for the speakers is $7000 as shown and $5000 in plywood. Mike had me pick up a
paper cone assembly from a Feastrex driver that weighed a mere 4 grams... or
was that eight? Either way, it felt like a feather and featured a very pliable
leather surround.
But what really blew me away was the gorgeous copper Carrot
One 6wpc integrated amplifier designed in Italy by Ernestolo
and manufactured in China. I heard them driving a pair of Chario
floor standing speakers about 40" tall and I'm here to tell you THIS
is the key to bringing High End to the masses! It functions as a
headphone amp with a 92dB signal to noise ratio putting out 3 watts per
channel with 10kOhm input impedance using a 6DJ8 or 6922 tube. With its Tripath power stage, it puts out 6 wpc. This is serious desktop
office jewelry for middle management and above.
The Dr. Feickert Analogue
turntable has been gaining visibility in recent years and it sounded quite
good mated with Rogue phono
stage, Athena preamp and Medusa hybrid power amp driving Harbeth
Compact 7 loudspeakers. The Compact 7 was one of the speakers I lusted after
when I first discovered the high end back in the 1990's. It was about $1800
back then, I believe. It now goes for $3600 and is still competitive.
In the Rega room
I got the scoop on this $6300 all-Rega rig from Robert
de Koninck of Son Ideal
in Montreal. The Apollo transport fed a Rega DAC, then into the Brio
integrated amp (with phono) and on to the RS-5 speakers. The price includes
the P3 turntable, too. While most audiophiles don't buy complete systems
from the same manufacturer, this room is a respectable way to enter High End
audio.
Parasound's
CD1 CD player ($4999), developed by Holm
Acoustics in Denmark, employs a dual read for greater bit accuracy,
a fast CD ROM for lower error rates, and a Linux based Intel computer for data
processing. The JC 2 Ultra-Premium pre-amp ($4529) was designed by John
Curl and the gang at CTC who
showed at Montreal some time ago as I recall. The A21 power amp, also designed
by Curl is a 2-channel, 250 wpc design with balanced inputs and high bias
Class A/AB operation. At $2599, it is the bargain of the group. That is,
except for the acclaimed Atlantic Technology
AT-1 floor standing speakers they were driving. (I liked them at the previous
show, too.) How good did they sound? Well, not as good as the next
room where a JC1 monoblock/JC2 preamp combination was driving Genesis
5.3 speakers ($23,500). The analog front end, here, was comprised
of a SOTA Essential turntable
($1500) feeding the relatively new Parasound Halo JC3 phono stage ($2350 US
price). I noted the Canadian price of the JC1 monoblocks was quite a bit
higher than the US price, unless there has been a recent price increase. My
preference in rooms here was more than just digital vs. analog front ends. The
Genesis is certainly better than the high-value Atlantic Technology speaker
and quite a bit more expensive. Both rooms were presented by Audiophonic
of Montreal.
Audiopathways, Inc.
is a distributor of premium high end brands such as Audia
Flight, Jeff Rowland Design Group, Sutherland,
NBS and others. They were putting
out reggae music with Audia Flight electronics driving a pair of Chario
floorstanders with a gorgeous wood cabinet finished in a flat sheen. The
monoblocks, at $25,000/pair, were 300wpc with the first 40-50 being Class A.
Very good sound here for those with serious money to spend. And on the
sidelines were two other gems to be noted. First was a stunning copper NBS
phono stage with adjustability for cartridge loading and selection of
cartridge type, as well as mono/stereo for each setting. I was told it weighed
a hundred pounds and urged to try lifting it. Yep, it is about as heavy as the
sofas I carry around at my day job. At $35,000 you can bet there is a lot of
copper in there. The other gem on silent display was a VAC
Statement 450 Stereo amplifier with its linear power supply in a separate
chassis.
Walking into the Fidelio
Audio room at the Montreal show is like finding an oasis in the
desert. Every year. I don't know how Rene
Laflamme does it. Perhaps it is because Fidelio sells CDs,
downloads and LPs. People enter his room to listen to the music, not to
evaluate the equipment. Serenity prevails. Perhaps it is his purist approach
to recording classical and jazz music that begs you to crave the detail and
feel the meaning. For those who need to know, 96kHz music files were fed to
the USB input of a dCs DAC. The
preamp was a KX-R from Ayre, and
the Ayre power amp drove Audio Physics
Avanterra speakers. Power conditioning was by a Shunyata Research Talos and the power cables were also by
Shunyata. This was easily one of the Best Rooms at the show.
At this point I took a break and split back to my room for
Mt. Dew and a granola bar, my traditional nourishment for bicycling and
climbing mountains. A long, glass walled hallway was lined with original
paintings by Patrick Larrivee
which all featured portraits of performing musicians, perfect for your
dedicated listening room. Check his work out at PatrickLarrivee.com. On my way
back to where I left off, I encountered a long line blocking the hallway. "Is this the line for ice cream?" I asked. No, it was the line for the Sony
room. I took a rain check, but unfortunately never made it back.
There is LOTS
MORE to come, including one of the most intriguing
presentations I've heard in more than 15 years of covering this show. Check
back in a few days.
Click here for part 2.
High-Performance Audio Reviews
