Moving from one great room to another, AudiophileExperts.com
put together a very fine rig for a large room with a Clearaudio Ovation turntable ($7500) with Esoteric
E03 phono preamp and Esoteric digital front end comprised of the K01 Lecteur
CD player ($21,000) and external master clock ($18,000). The preamp was a
classy looking Linar P107 ($9000)
feeding Linar A120 monoblocks ($9000ea). Kimber Select cable carried the
signals, ultimately to the large Focal Utopia
Scala Version II floorstanding speakers ($35,000), supplemented with a large
Utopia Subwoofer EM ($15,000) powered by a Velodyne
SC-1250 dedicated subwoofer amp. A PS Audio
P5 regenerator ($3500) supplied pristine electricity, no doubt. While not as
warm as the previous room, this rig was tonally rich and a bit brighter. I
noted a jumper cable at the speaker crossover that allowed normal, high and
low settings for the tweeter. It was set at normal. They were playing the
digital front end both times I visited. On the wall was posted sale prices for
Focal 800V and 800W series speakers at substantial savings through mid-April,
if my interpretation of French is correct. It wouldn't hurt to contact them if
you're interested.
Importer Reinhard
Goerner displayed a virtually identical rig to what I saw at
Toronto featuring an Acoustic Signature Storm turntable with a 12" FX.R II tonearm
from Funk Firm. The turntable was
resting on special multi-layer footers from Audio
Physic. Grandinote
Demone monoblocks (60W, Class A, fully balanced) powered the Audio Physic
Avantera speakers. A Grandinote Domino was the preamp while the Grandinote
Celio was the mm/mc phono stage. These are not contenders for the most
gorgeous amplifiers in this industry; they are all about the music with their
exclusive Magnetosolid-VHP technology and at this level they compete very
well. I also had the pleasure of meeting Brian
Tucker of Pro Audio Ltd. based in Chicago who imports Funk Firm
into the USA. And yes, that's snow in the courtyard of the rooftop Hilton
Bonaventure in downtown Montreal. With buds barely appearing on the trees in
North Carolina last week, I can estimate that spring is a month late this
year.
Audiophonie
is a Montreal retailer who presented another British room complete with Stirling
BBC LS3/6 monitors ($5279), Hanss Acoustic
T60 TT ($6500), Quad Classic
Phono stage QC-24P ($2500), QC-24 preamp ($1250), Quad Elite CD-S ($1300)
and Quad Classic QII 80 monoblocks ($5250/channel). Well, maybe
Hanss is no longer British, seeing they're from Hong Kong. On silent display
was the newish NAD integrated
lifestyle amplifier, which was much smaller than I anticipated, along with
some PSB small speakers and NAD/PSB headphones. This might have
comprised their $5k rig, but I didn't notice the official signage.
In the Stereo
Plus & Design, operating as Cable
& Son, there was a beautiful sounding combination of McIntosh
gear driving Totem
Forest Signature speakers. From what I understand, Vince Bruzzese has decided
not to make corporate presentations, at least at Montreal and Toronto, in
favor of lending corporate support to his local dealers in these towns. His
Forest Signature model sounded much better than my recollection of the
standard Forest, perhaps partly due to the McIntosh MC452 power amp driving
them. An MPC1500 power controller was also in the system with blue meters for
amps and volts. An MCD500 SACD/CD player was seemingly fed from an Elite
Music Server and the files playing at the time were standard Red Book, not hi-rez,
so I can imagine that it could only get even better. A Men220 Room Correction
System was also in the rack, but it was in bypass mode when I was there. The
Mac preamp was a C48. The Forest Signature reportedly has greater power
handling capability, lower bass and a premium piano gloss finish that was,
well... gorgeous. The Signature is about $6000, a $1000 upcharge from the
standard Forest. Given the small form factor, beautiful finish and outstanding
sound, this is a speaker to be considered by those who want both performance
and elegance in a traditional design.
Lots more to come, so stay tuned for Part 3!
--->
Click here to see part 3.
High-Performance Audio Reviews
