Part 4 — Lower Level, Left (St. Laurent & Outremont Rooms) At The Montreal Audiofest 2026 Show
A deep dive into the Montreal Audiofest 2026, featuring early-morning impressions, high-end audio's latest innovations, audiophile solutions, and standout demonstrations.
Montreal Audiofest Show Report By Rick Becker

MK2  Artysan Audio
Artysan Audio is a new cable company, and their presentation at the table here had a lot more product on display than at the Toronto show. It's difficult to get a company started, but they seem to be on the upswing. I'll check in with them in Toronto in the fall to learn more about them.

M5  Wynn Audio
Wynn Wong is a master of presentation, and he carries some of the most exclusive brands in this industry, so it is always a treat to visit his room.

These kiosks are a way for him to promote brands that may not be on display in the active rigs. They also afford a closer look at items.

Vimberg monitors gave some exposure to the line he has frequently displayed at previous shows.

Crystal Cable is an item that is too beautiful to hide behind components at a show, so here you can peer up close.

The new center channel speaker in the Borresen X line opens that line to home theater applications at a high level. He had the X2 and X6 floorstanders on silent display next to the kiosk.

Peter Hansen of Audio Group Denmark had their trademark illuminated backdrop against the wall and the speakers far apart, far out from the wall, and angled in toward the seating area, as they usually do. And as usual, the sound was excellent.

Green has been the alt-color to piano gloss black and silver for a couple of years now. This particular shade was close to my jade plant leaves, so it will fit nicely in rooms with lots of plants to disperse the sound and freshen the air.

The racks held the new flagship series components with a stunningly sophisticated industrial design. That's the I 880 integrated amp on the right and the SD 880 streaming DAC on the left. Note how the copper accents on the faceplates were picked up in the copper stain on the shelves. Wynn pays exquisite attention to details like that.

This rig was at the upper end of their offerings, although you can opt for more expensive speakers. Other levels below this have broader appeal, though it is difficult to sort them out on their website. You really need to work with a dealer with this line.

The other large rig in this room featured a new Avalos Sound Design speaker from the fono Acustica cable manufacturer in Spain. Wynn always features at least two, sometimes three, distinct systems at shows. He was using Ansuz speaker cables with these speakers to achieve a better sound with these components in this rig, which was actually two rigs! The speaker is rated at 92dB efficiency, so it was easily driven by the Kondo amp mentioned below.

The analog playback featured a Kondo cartridge feeding a Kondo silver step-up transformer that led to the phono stage in the Kondo preamp on the middle shelf on the right, which then fed the Kondo Ongaku integrated amp with 211 tubes putting out 27 Watts per channel on the bottom right shelf.

Speaking of attention to detail, Wynn ordered the Thiele turntable custom-painted to match the purple Critical Mass Systems Maxxum Ultra racks, and I also noted the CD he was playing had a purple label. Coincidence? The tonearm is a special Thiele articulating arm designed to keep the arm tangential to the record groove. Beneath the turntable itself is the new Thiele DB damping base, which includes the stainless steel plate that has numerous cutouts in it, along with steel balls and the purple base beneath the silver layer.

The digital front end was a full-featured Kalista with CD player, streamer, and DAC built in. This unit has a separate power supply (bottom left shelf) with two separate power supplies—one for the CD player, and one for the DAC. It was feeding a Brama preamp from Vinnie Rossi with 300B tubes hidden inside. This preamp was feeding Karan monoblocs that Wynn describes as pure Class A with sliding bias that puts out 2000 Watts (each) into 8 Ohms.

The music, by the way, reminded me of Stephan Grapelli, though it had no violin, but the CD was by Itzhak Perlman and Oscar Peterson, below.

Around back, Wynn typically uses Entreq ground boxes, available in various sizes of wood boxes, this being the largest model, and his rigs are dead quiet.

At well over $1,000,000 when the Crystal Cables and racks are factored in, this rig displayed the care in system building that Wynn typically presents at shows and was easily one of the Best Rooms at the show.

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