Home  Hi-Fi Audio Reviews  |  Audiophile Shows  |  Partner Mags  Music News       

  High-End High-Performance Audiophile Review Magazine & Hi-Fi Audio Equipment Reviews

  High-Performance Audio Reviews
  Music News, Show Reports, And More!

  Celebrating 29 Years Of Service To Music Lovers

 

 

Salon Son & Image 2015 Report Montreal High-End Audio Show
Salon Son & Image Report 2015 -- Montreal High-End Audio Show
Report By Rick Becker -- Part 1

La Maison du Son had a lot of gear on display on tables as well as a rig playing. There was a table full of Marantz gear with what looked like an NA6005 Network Player and a PM7006 integrated amplifier driving a small stand mounted monitor. Focal headphones and affordable turntables from Project and Marantz were on side tables. An Audioengine sound bar was mounted near the ceiling at the entryway and Cambridge Audio banners were prominent. This room was pretty full with lots of young people examining the more affordable gear found here—a good sign.

 

The IsoAcoustics room was demonstrating their vibration isolation stands by mounting identical Focal monitors on stands, one with their isolation stand beneath the monitor and the duplicate monitor adjusted to the same height with wood spacers. A short piece of music was played repeatedly while the presenter switched between monitors with a remote control. I found it difficult to identify which speaker was playing at any given time but on occasion I would notice some differences in certain parts of the music. They use their patented technology for the aluminum matrix stands of various sizes for speakers, subwoofers, guitar amps and even a stage for a drum kit. In their Canadian Manufacturers display they had a small monitor on one of their units and I was able to wiggle it about with my hand, but the naked units themselves seem very stiff, so they apparently exhibit greater compliance when loaded with greater weight.

 

In the Soltanus Acoustics room I heard a very nice presentation of Stevie Ray Vaughan coming from the ESL Virtuoso loudspeakers being driven by a 1978 vintage Threshold 400A cascade/Class A power amplifier. This full range (40Hz to 20kHz) electrostatic speaker is unique in that there is no crossover in the design, although there is some adjustment capability in the choice of speaker binding posts on the back for amplifiers with damping factors above and below 25, and adjustment for damping factors below 25 via a knob to tweak it for use with tube amplifiers. Additionally, there is an adjustment for tweeter bias, though it is not clear to me how this differs from what we normally consider a crossover. It certainly appears that it is designed to mate well with a variety of amplifiers. One such amp would be the Maestro prototype seen on silent display, and reported by North American distributor Jody Crane to work very well with the ESL. Mr. Zoltan Mikovity from Serbia, the inventor and partner in Soltanus Acoustics was present, but I didn't get to speak with him. The current dumping amp will be slightly larger in its final form and puts out 150 watts per channel, Class AB. It is claimed to be stable down to one Ohm. Projected price on the amp is $6500 to $6800CDN, and the speakers are $10,995CDN. The amp, in particular was exceptionally beautiful. At the back of the room I ran into Joe Kubala, whose Kubala-Sosna cables were used in this room, and a long-time friend Bill Parish of GTT Audio in New Jersey. The room was packed with people, as well it should have been judging from the seemingly high quality of the music here, but the conversations made it too difficult to get a really good listen. Out in the hall I commented to Mark that this is the kind of frenzy this show created back in the late ‘90s, early 2000s. It was Saturday morning, for sure.

 

  

Vienna Acoustic Beethoven Concert Grand speakers were sounding very good driven by an all-McIntosh system including a C2500 tube preamp, D150 Digital Preamplifier, MCD1100 SACD/CD Player, and MC152 power amp with 150 wpc with auto-transformers that allow you to choose from 2, 4 and 8 Ohm outputs on the backside. The amp alone is about $5000 to $6000US. Their MT5 turntable on top of the stand plays 33, 45 and 78 records. The straight tonearm is their own and seems to have an adjustable angle on the headshell—something I had never noticed before. Like the warm feeling their green logos created in the darkened room, the music here was warm with a firm foundation in the bass. On silent display was the new MXA Integrated Audio System with a built-in DAC with both USB and Coaxial inputs as well as a headphone amplifier. S/N ratio is said to be 105dB and power is rated at 50 wpc. Price is about $4500US for this moderately down-sized component. Unfortunately, obtaining review samples from McIntosh is more difficult than robbing banks. One last visual treat in this room was the McIntosh headphones that reminded me of Paul Simon's song, Boy in a Bubble.

 

---> Next Page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     
 

Quick Links


Premium Audio Review Magazine
High-End Audiophile Equipment Reviews

 

Equipment Review Archives
Turntables, Cartridges, Etc
Digital Source
Do It Yourself (DIY)
Preamplifiers
Amplifiers
Cables, Wires, Etc
Loudspeakers/ Monitors
Headphones, IEMs, Tweaks, Etc
Superior Audio Gear Reviews

 

 


Show Reports
HIGH END Munich 2024
AXPONA 2024 Show Report
Montreal Audiofest 2024 Report

Southwest Audio Fest 2024
Florida Intl. Audio Expo 2024
Capital Audiofest 2023 Report
Toronto Audiofest 2023 Report
UK Audio Show 2023 Report
Pacific Audio Fest 2023 Report
T.H.E. Show 2023 Report
Australian Hi-Fi Show 2023 Report
...More Show Reports

 

Videos
Our Featured Videos

 


Industry & Music News

High-Performance Audio & Music News

 

Partner Print Magazines
audioXpress
Australian Hi-Fi Magazine
hi-fi+ Magazine
Sound Practices
VALVE Magazine

 

For The Press & Industry
About Us
Press Releases
Official Site Graphics

 

 

 

     

Home   |   Hi-Fi Audio Reviews   |   News   |   Press Releases   |   About Us   |   Contact Us

 

All contents copyright©  1995 - 2024  Enjoy the Music.com®
May not be copied or reproduced without permission.  All rights reserved.