Part 2 — 2300 And 2400 Hallways: Montreal Audiofest 2026 Show Report
High-end audio gear reviews, in-depth hi-fi technical details, and exhibit room listening notes.
Montreal Audiofest Show Report By Rick Becker

2334  Linear Tube Audio, PureAudioProject, And Silversmith Audio
Ze'ev Schlik of PureAudioProject was busy tending his LPs when I entered. He was showing the Duet 15 speaker with a Voxativ AC-1.6, the same driver I had heard earlier in the Voxativ folded horn speaker. This was quite a different sound, coming from the open baffle design. I am a fan of open baffle designs, but I also love the high efficiency sound of the Voxativ speaker. The price difference is large, with the PureAudioProject being much more affordable.

The Duet 15 is not as efficient as most other PureAudioProject speakers, but the LTA Z40+ integrated with mm/mc phono stage and four power tubes protruding from the top had no trouble driving it. For streaming, an Eversolo streamer fed an LTA Aero tube DAC. The turntable was from SOTA.

Stepping behind the Duet revealed construction that was greatly simplified from the World Premier review I did of the PureAudioProject Trio 15 TB ppen baffle loudspeaker back in 2015. I also saw the gold-colored ribbon speaker cable from Silversmith Audio that I have had the pleasure to use on occasion. The interconnects were also from Silversmith and are now in production, though their construction differs from the speaker cable.

2342  ABSOLU par Centre Hi-Fi
Centre Hi-Fi seems to be a major mass marketer of electronic goods in Canada, and the ABSOLU part of it seems to be a high-end specialty store-within-a-store, kind of like Magnolia is (or was?) for Best Buy here in the states. They are based in Quebec, and it was much easier to find them on the internet than last year, so all is good.

The room was dark, and the chairs were all full as this room featured more affordable products, including a pair of Advance Paris integrated amplifiers driving either stand-mounted or floor-standing Triangle Acoustics speakers. I couldn't catch the brand of the turntable or the CD player on the bottom shelf. Triangle speakers, including the drivers, are made in France, and Advance Paris is a French company that outsources production; it was unsurprising that they were playing Diana Krall's Live in Paris LP.

2346  Linn Products
Linn is one of a small number of companies that make everything you need for your system, whether you prefer an analog or digital front end. With two LP12 turntables, I suspect there was some kind of comparison going on. The LP12 can be bought at a wide variety of price points. They are all upgradeable, even vintage models, depending on your wallet. In the past couple of years, I've noted their speakers, which used to drive me out of the room, have become quite palatable.

The seats were all taken, and nobody seemed ready to leave during my visit. Unfortunately, there was no room list to help me out.

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