March 24-26, 2000 • Montreal • Canada
Show Report By Rick Becker

  The Linn room this year was much more active with lots of people getting a formal lecture in French. I waited patiently for some music, and was finally treated to some pretty good sound, even from where I sat in the second row, far off center. Maybe next year they will lighten up a little more and...dare I suggest ROCK?!!! They were also pushing their high quality mini-systems, but I couldn't wait around.

Martin Logan had an Aerius i in black (pictured right) with bright purple stained maple wood strips on the side that was gorgeous! (but on silent display). One of their larger speakers--a Prodigy, I believe--was being driven by a massive pair of Sugden monoblocks, about $11,000 pr. with an appropriate front end, but I didn't really feel any magic here. The only time I really felt the high end of a ML speaker was smooth and in control, was at NY where they were driven by the Clayton amp making it's debut. I'm sure there must be other amps that can make them sing, but it must be a long search.

An interesting stand & shelf product was appropriately on static display. The big one, for speakers and amps was about 2' by 2'. The bottom part was like a shallow sand box filled with black ground rubber. A top plate floats on top of the ground rubber and your speaker or amp sits on top of that. It kind of giggled so I guess it must have been fairly effective. I asked him if it was high tech racing rubber from the corners of NASCAR circuits. A smaller shelf version is also available. Save the Planet!!!

Linda liked the coffee table with the butterfly marquetry on top. I explained to her about the evil of flat reflecting surfaces in front of the listening chair, and how, if we ever had one, my piles of audio magazines would probably hide the beautiful butterfly, and make it difficult to lift the top to get to the concealed CD storage. (Last year I raved over the wall hanging model with the marquetry of Marilyn Monroe. He must have sold it). We crossed the street over to the Sheraton Four Points where there were several other floors filled with music.

Wilson Benesch had one of their Act 1 floorstanding speakers (pictured left) being driven by a Plinius integrated amp. A Metronome Technologie CD transport and DAC was the source. Pretty good sound for the small room. Next door, the room stayed the same size, roughly, and the system got bigger. I squeezed my way in for a listen. The Wilson Benesch Bishops, sans grilles, were doing a very fine job. CD was from a Camelot Uther 2.0 DAC and transport. A Plinius preamp and separate phono stage took signal from the Wilson Benesch Circle turntable. The Bishops have opposed woofers mounted down the front of their slim towers, so with the grilles off, you were faced with the butt end of the woofers. Great for listening in the dark, but keep the grilles on in daylight! The business end of the electronics was a Plinius SA-200 that had the speakers under complete control.

I shared with the host that I was the proud owner of a Plinius SA-100, and felt it was grossly under-rated in its "Class AB" power mode. Sure, it is a little better in "Class A", but for casual listening (about 80% of my time) "Class AB" is just great! The importer for Plinius had just taken on the Wilson Benesch line, and the importer and manufacturer were just getting to know each other at the show. The importer hopes to offer the Benesch line to its Plinius dealers first. Both manufacturers are certainly in the upper echelon. Last time I looked, Wilson Benesch had a pretty fine web page--check it out. So, Does this all mean that Stereophile will have to re-instate the Circle turntable into the Recommended Components list? Stay tuned in October! It's a beauty.

In keeping with the British/Australian axis, the next room down the hall featured Redgum amplifiers with genuine (presumably Australian) wood faces. The Osborn loudspeakers were also from Australia. These rooms rocked pretty well with the medium size floor standers, but I was wishing they had the 6' towers hooked up. I know...size isn't everything, but still...

In the next room we found Redgum again (pictured right). This time getting real smooth sound from Ambience ribbon speakers with a 6" Seas long throw woofer. The Ambience come in three sizes: tall, taller, and tallest! And they certainly deserve more critical scrutiny. Is anybody out there in magazineland reading this? Also in the Sheraton were rooms featuring Matisse 120 wpc push-pull monoblocks using KT88 tubes to get good sound to Verity Audio Fidelios. It seems I remember more beautiful tube amps from this British company at previous shows. Meanwhile the JMLabs Mezzo Utopias were sounding great behind Audio Aero single ended monoblocks putting out 40 wpc. Nifty Audio Aero CD player, too.

We doubled back over to the Delta for one last sweep of the ground floor. Damn if I didn't stumble on the perfect speaker for traveling salesmen! Sonance had drivers mounted in each half of a Samsonite-type hard-shell suitcase! Not bookshelf speakers, mind you, but real floor standers with heavy metal braces to keep these 5' tall speakers properly aimed! The amp for these trick speakers was a heavy Parasound HCA 3500! Actually, I was wondering if these speakers could be powered by a dc rig powered by a car battery. Yep, fold 'em up, strap them on the roof and head out with Linda for a little Boogie in the Badlands!

BTW, Linda asked me to pass along her thoughts on the show. She enjoyed being able to discern the differences between the different rigs. (She's getting a pretty educated ear). She paid particular attention to the room treatments in different rooms, and enjoyed the beauty and artistic design elements of the various speakers and electronic pieces--especially the tube amps!!! (Say, maybe we should do a little amp auditioning)!

Our final few minutes were spent in the large ballroom (with a rug that precluded serious dancing) listening to the wonderful Sonus Faber Armati helped out down low with a REL Studio II. Wadia 270 Transport/Wadia 27x(?)dac/Audio Research LS 25 preamp/Audio Research VT-200 power amp. Man, I get goose bumps just listening to it playing on my digital video notes! Next year I bring my furniture truck and back it up to the door! Make that one Best of Show, to go, please! And what could have made it better? Well, how about rolling up the rug and letting us dance to the Armati's on Saturday Night! Rock ON!!!

That's all, folks. Next year...

Rick