Part 7: The Lower Level, Outremont, And St. Laurent Rooms
A symphony of spectacular high-fidelity sound!
Montreal Audiofest 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker

S4   Bowers & Wilkins, Marantz, And Masimo
A more modest rig was displayed with stand-mounted monitors for people to gauge as they wandered about. These brands drew a big crowd as their product line extended down to more affordable products.

New Marantz products included the round Grand Horizon ($7500 ea.), and Horizon ($4500 ea.) with a tripod stand ($950). I didn't get the whole story here, as it wasn't clear in this room who was the host and who was the visitor. They appear to be all-in-ones that can be linked for stereo.

I thought they were quite attractive, and a welcome lifestyle product for the people who want music without the look of typical stereo gear. Ultimately, this kind of product may draw more people to high-end audio.

While it looks spherical from the front, like the Cabasse design we saw earlier, it is not, thus being more sophisticated and upscale with multiple textures. It appears to be more like home décor than audiophile hi-fi. If this is marketed heavily in the Interior Design & Home Style magazines, I expect it will become a very successful product.

The Marantz CD60 CD player ($1399) and Model 60n Network Integrated Amplifier ($2k) seem to be new, more affordable versions of previously released models. Marantz still has true high-end SACD players at premium prices.

S5   Lenbrook Americas
Lenbrook Americas is an umbrella company for brands we know well. The three relatively new Bluesound streamers were on display with a couple of experts to explain them to folks who don't already know. They were very helpful to me at the Toronto show last fall, and I've read good things about the Nodes in the press, particularly their ease of use.

Once inside the room, I found two more Lenbrook Americas brands: NAD, a brand we all know and love since the 1960s, and DALI, the Danish speaker manufacturer.

These guys were admiring the NAD Masters M66 BluOS Streaming DAC / Preamplifier  $7799 on the right and the M23 Hybrid Digital Stereo Power Amplifier ($4899) featuring Purifi Audio's Eigentakt design, on the left.

The DALI Epikore 9 ($50k) had a gorgeous gloss finish. This is a very refined speaker, worthy of a much better front end and amplifiers than shown here, as its price suggests. The Epikore series includes a three-way stand-mounted monitor and two other floorstanders — one smaller, and one larger.

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