Toronto Audiofest 2019 Show Report
Part 2 By Rick Becker

  Simon Au was on hand with a wide range of cables and connectors from Furutech and others offered through AuDIYo.com that has been a mainstay on the Canadian scene for many, many years.

Likewise, Steven Huang of Audio Sensibility was on hand to educate consumers about his cables and other products. I stopped by Steven's table several times, but could not get a 'hello' or a handshake past his enthusiastic customers. Nice to see a father and son ganging up on Steven in this photo. Looks like a future electrical engineer in the making.

Todd Garfinkle of MA Recordings is a regular on the audio show circuit with his high quality recordings done on location using minimalist recording technique. I marveled at his blue eyeglasses — shades of Elton John. Ask yourself, 'How many recordings to I own where I've actually met the person who made the CD or LP?"

2nd Floor Guest Rooms
Starting on the long hall of hotel guest rooms, down at the far left in 235 was a rig comprised of two Anthem integrated amplifiers, each powering one of two sets of Paradigm Persona loudspeakers — a monitor and a floorstanding speaker.

A Torus power conditioner off to the left presumably served both rigs. Paradigm and Anthem being sister companies, it is understandable that they would share a room. But here again, I've wondered if the Paradigm speakers might be more successful with other, perhaps a bit warmer electronics.

Room 227 was the first of three room sponsored by American Sound of Canada at the show. It was a real treat to hear the large Franco Serblin floorstanding speakers driven by an HRS rack full of Esoteric components. Esoteric is the very well-known high end brand from TEAC of Japan. Franco Serblin is a world renown Italian speaker manufacturer that is largely obscure in North America — something that should definitely change. We're talking artisanal craftsmanship on the level of the finest musical string instruments as well as artisanal design with first class musicality. But be prepared to spend for the kind of exclusivity that comes with owning the Ktema speaker seen here ($55kCDN).

I would have guessed I was listening to a master tape of Elton John's Rocket Man had I not been able to see there was no tape deck in the room. While the 92dB/W/m sensitivity of the Ktema might suggest compatibility with most tube amps, the nominal 4 Ohm impedance with a low of 2 Ohms at 70Hz dictates a high quality amp is a necessity. The Esoteric amp obviously had no trouble with the Ktema.

In the second American Sound room in the long hall (225), I met Josh Clark, the new owner Rockport Technologies, a new line for Angie, but certainly one of the most respected brands in the industry. For those familiar with Rockport, fear not, founder Andy Payor remains in charge of research and development. Josh has the youth, drive and marketing expertise to propel the company forward for many years to come. They look poised for a smooth generational transition and Andy will now have some free time to enjoy his GTO and sailboat.

The rig here, on an HRS rack, was clean and straight forward with a dCS digital front end feeding an Audio Research pre and power amp. Transparent cables made the connections. The speaker was the Atria II model (~$26,500 USD) and it did not disappoint. The photo of the woofer with its woven carbon fiber cone only hints at the ultra-light sandwich layers of the woofer and midrange drivers, not to mention the technology concealed beneath the impeccable piano gloss black finish.

The photo here illustrates why so many of the guest rooms sounded so good at the Westin. The walls behind the speakers come together in almost a "V", eliminating problematic corners behind the speakers. And since there was a window on at least one of those walls, there was drapery on that side to further disrupt reflections. And in this room, at least, they used a large plant to serve the same purpose on the left hand wall. The second major contributor was the synthetic wood-look flooring which is typically used in commercial applications because of its durability and reasonable cost, relative to engineered or solid wood. The thin softer intermediary layer of the synthetic wood is said to allow the floor to flex with the sound and tame the bass to a degree not possible with solid wood, or worse, concrete flooring. Those who placed their speakers against the wall to my back as I took this photo, missed out on the advantages of the room geometry.

Moving on to 223 I encountered Reinhard Goerner who typically features Grandinote amplifiers driving someone else's speakers. To my surprise, this year I encountered a complete Grandinote system, accompanied by Massimiliano (Max) Magri, chief designer and owner. Grandinote comes from a very small town south of Milan, I learned. The organ music they played put me right in a large church with a sense of transparency and huge space. A drum cut was very dynamic with very good tonal color. The Mach nine speakers (with nine full-range drivers, 16 tweeters) have no crossover, which explains much of the transparency. With a cabinet of carbon fiber that has a greenish tint, the 5' 3" transmission line towers weigh only 100 pounds.

The 99dB/w/m efficiency makes them an easy load for the 37 Wpc Shinai integrated amplifier which is solid state, but utilizes the schematic of a tube amp with a very high quality output transformer. The result is a wide bandwidth, high damping factor and tube-like sound. The outstanding results were quite evident. And if you have a very large room, or perhaps a ballroom, there are Mach 16 and Mach 36 versions of this speaker. The smaller component beneath the amplifier in the photo is their Volta server. Price of the Mach 9 was $38k USD.

---> Next Page.