Salon Audio Montreal / Audio Fest 2019 Show Report
Part 3
Salon Audio Montreal / Audio Fest 2019 Show Report By Rick Becker

Moving Across To The Other Hall In The Lower Level
In the often-difficult St. Laurent 8 room I heard excellent music from Gershman Acoustic's flagship speaker with a VPI turntable and VPI phono preamplifier driving Krell monoblocks. Like their long-running Black Swan model, the newer Posh has side supports that hold the midrange and tweeter module above the bass module, but with a more contemporary design and smaller footprint.

I've heard the Posh on numerous occasions with different amplification and this was probably the best I've heard it sound. Perhaps the VPI turntable configured with rim drive and the solid state VPI Voyager phono preamp ($2500US) had something to do with it. The voyager can accept mm and mc on each of two inputs with adjustable loading and gain. The Krell monoblocks had more than sufficient grip on the woofer. The speakers were well away from the back wall that was quite a bit further back than the curtain would suggest. Excellent sound here as you would expect from these flagship speakers.

Son Ultime in the Outremont 7 room had an expansive layout featuring mostly McIntosh electronics. The large MC 1.25KW monoblocks (1200 Watts, each) were in action when I visited but there was also the attractive new 70^th Anniversary 2152 tube stereo power amp capable of 150 Wpc with carbon fiber side panels sitting in front of the rack. For all that power, the meters consistently hovered around twelve Watts when an electric guitar was playing. The speakers were Sonus Faber Amati, a superbly designed and finished Italian 3.5-way design vented down the backbone. While they are rated down to 28Hz, they were supplemented here with a pair of REL Acoustics 212SE subwoofers ($4200US ea.) with 1000 Watts each. The RELs undoubtedly opened up the midrange and contributed to the air of the music by taking it all the way to the bottom. Electric guitar music was supremely liquid and airy. They had no trouble pulling visitors into this room. The rig was priced at $170k but I wouldn't have blinked at $300k or been surprised at half a million. They got this room really, really right and it was among the very Best Rooms at the show.

Wynn Wong of Wynn Audio features upper-end lines in the High End, but here he scaled down the speaker from the Tidal line from Germany to Tidal's more affordable Vimberg brand, in this case the Tonda D model at $43k CDN. Front end was the more affordable Metronome AQWO SACD/CD player ($22,800 CDN) than the flagship Metronome Kalista that they've featured in their print ads. They also had a SOtM sMS-1000SQ music server ($4680) and the Karan Acoustics L Ref preamp ($24k) and M2000 monoblocks ($78k) that he has been carrying for some time now. The trio of wooden boxes were Entreq grounding boxes that have also been showing up for a few years as people are starting to pay more attention to system grounding to achieve the hallowed blacker background. Wynn said the Vimberg speakers have been doing well because they give up very little to their much more expensive Tidal stable mates. On Sunday he showed up with a small humidifier for the arid room—a nice touch for this dry environment. The sound here was excellent, but drier than the previous room, lacking the liquidity and bloom, but giving a more detailed sound that seemed more precise, if not more emotionally involving. Different strokes for different folks at about the same price and still ranking among the Best Rooms at the show.

At the front part of the room, Wynn had a smaller rig in which he featured very expensive Crystal Cable Future Dream cables featuring mono-crystal silver and silver/gold alloy. It featured the Minissimo Diamond speaker with integrated stands ($27,999 CDN) driven by a Cube integrated amp ($20k) and again, the Metronome SACD/CD player used in the larger system. It was all on silent display when I passed through this room.

ELAC took another of the long St. Laurent rooms to display virtually all of their speakers. The line is growing in both the number of models and the price range they offer.

At long last I had an opportunity to hear the fabled reincarnation of the JBL L100 speaker that was so highly prized in my young adulthood. Somehow, the new JBL L100 Classic ($4000 US) (reviewed here) seemed a lot larger than the original I remembered. NAD M12 preamp/DAC with streamer option ($4k), NAD M22 v.2 ($3499) hybrid amp putting out 300 Wpc and NAD M50.2 ($4599) digital music player were doing the JBL L100 justice. Appropriately, they were playing Leonard Cohen singing "You Want It Darker" for the vintage audiophiles who were drawn to this speaker and facing their own mortality. The song gripped my soul and as I left, I said to the younger host, "This is what it's all about", pounding my fist to my chest with an audible thud. For that reason alone (Isn't that enough?) it gets a Best Rooms calling.

Crossing the hall to St. Laurent 5, JVCKenwood of Canada had video projectors in action. I watched a train climb through the mountains, reminding me of the Silverton (Colorado) to Durango bicycle ride I did, maybe a decade and a half ago, cresting three high passes. Projection is definitely the way to go if you want it big.

Crossing back to Outremont 5 I admired the Moon by Simaudio 390 preamp/network player ($6900 CDN) flanked by a pair of 400M monoblocks ($4500 each) on a low solid wood table with a live edge and metal legs. Elegant. And they controlled the new Dynaudio C20 Confidence series stand mounted monitor (about $12k US) with ease and grace.

Next door in Outremont 3 was a table full of Atoll electronics sporting what to me looked like handsome new faceplates. The table was flanked by Davis loudspeakers, also from France. This is a fine combination of modestly priced electronics and speakers, both from long-established companies. The large 2-piece ported speaker in wood stain that had a classic look about it may have been their Renoir 3-way with 94dB efficiency for $15k CDN. Music was not playing in this room when I came through, so I kept on trucking', but my impression of Davis speakers from the past has been a high-value positive one.

The Muraudio PX2 omni-directional speaker ($46,700 US) was driven by Triangle Art TA-350M tube monoblocks when I dropped by their room in St. Laurent 4. The PX2 is slightly heavier and more stylish than their original PX1 ($32,800 US). I was also surprised to see it was a tad shorter than the DA1 ($14,700) that comes with its own stands. I heard the DA1 at RMAF last fall and was mightily impressed with the bi-polar design with a planar driver capped top and bottom with dynamic cone drivers in a D'appolito configuration. Murray said price was the driving factor making the PX1 a runaway hit for them—plus it is available in a wide range of paints and veneers. And being a bi-polar speaker, it is less sensitive to being placed close to side walls than the much more expensive omni-directional styles that put the company on the map. The Muraudio require a lot of power though the DA1 at 86dB efficiency is considerably easier to drive. The Triangle Art tube amps were more than capable of driving either style and while they are expensive, they are also gorgeous—never failing to give a premier performance. Here again, was another Best Room at the show with an analog front end.

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