Toronto Audiofest 2022 Show Report Part 4
Lower level rooms and ground floor in part 4.
Show Report By Rick Becker

  On the way out I took note of the fanciful display of Crystal Cables' Future Dream 22 cables as well as a complete rig from the Swiss company Goldmund.

While Goldmund also makes more affordable (and approachable) products, their higher-end lines such as the one shown here feature a very elite aesthetic.

Across the hall was a superb high-end home theater presentation by JVC / Kenwood in Canada. I slid inside during a long-winded introduction to the film "Ford v Ferrari", but since I was at that race in 1966 and knew the story, I snapped a photo and moved on.

Rene Evans and I go back to much earlier times at the Montreal Salon du Son and more recently he has developed Saturn Audio as an affordable, minimalist line with a distinctive look. He showed up in the Balmoral room, around the corner from Wynn Audio and I hope people looking for quality, real-world gear found their way to this room.

The front end included the fine, but not outrageously expensive Kuzma Stabi S turntable and Stogi S tonearm that has been around forever, it seems. It was a delight to hear it in action once again. That's an AC motor controller beside it. There is a phono stage, preamp, DAC, and stereo power amp below the Kuzma, in that order. The preamp is shown in the photo above.

It was most interesting to learn the lead designer for Saturn is Gilbert Yeung, now Angela Gilbert whose room I covered on the 3rd floor in Part 2. Their product is also placed in Audio by Mark Jones and Corby's Audio, two other retailers with rooms of high quality at the show. The speaker used here was Alta Audio's three-way Adam floorstander. Saturn is a young company, founded in 2017, but its core team has decades of experience to draw from and its lead designer is legendary. Having survived the brunt of the Covid pandemic, they should gain traction with their approachable design and fine sound quality.

With my bags already in the car and having checked out of my room earlier in the day, I took a final sweep of the show, stopping into several rooms to double-check my impressions. With a click of my camera to capture the lovely harpist, Isabeau Corriveau who played in the lobby during the show, I thought I was done for the day. Little did I know that having checked out earlier, my room card would no longer get me out of the parking garage. Two trips back to the front desk and I was finally set free.

The Best Rooms At Toronto Audiofest 2022
In the past I've identified some of what I felt were the Best Rooms at the show as I wrote the report. There are always so many variables it is never a level playing field. I'm not comfortable crowning 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. because I know I have my shortcomings and maybe it was just the particular music that was playing at the moment that swayed my opinion one way or the other. Instead, consider the "Best Rooms" those I would recommend an enthusiast visit if they only had a short amount of time to experience the show. Where could they go in a two or three-hour time span and leave thinking "Wow! I really heard and saw some great-sounding gear at this show!"

So in no particular order, except working from the 4th floor down, here's where I would have suggested you visit:

Fourth Floor (Part 1)
Tri-Art Audio (432)
Coherent Speakers and Baetis Audio (437)
Muraudio, Constellation Audio, and exaSound (441)
Apple Tree HiFi and BSC Research (443)
Magnepan (450) Concept presentation

Third Floor (Part 2)
Angela Yeung-Gilbert Yeung (353) Concept presentation
Lii Song Canada and Galion Audio  (354)

Second Floor (Part 3)
Oracle Audio Technologies, Gershman Acoustics, Eon Art, and Cardas Cables (Mayfair)

Lobby Level (Part 4)
Acora Acoustics (Sutton C)
Wynn Audio (Carlyle)

There were gems to be found in almost every room, depending on your budget and your particular needs, which is why I try to cover the whole show. I hope you found the coverage useful. I look forward to seeing you at the Capital Audiofest 2022 this weekend, November 11th through 13th.

Safe journey my friends and as always... enjoy the music.

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