Toronto Audiofest 2025: Complete Show Coverage, Biggest Gear Reveals, And Best Demos
What happened, what to buy, special highlights, plus our best audiophile gear picks!
Toronto Audiofest 2025 Show Report By Rick Becker

Acora Acoustics And Sonic Artistry
Entering the impressive Acora Acoustics and Sonic Artistry room brought a quick smile to my face with its trompe-l'œil backdrop, as I am currently working on special psycho-acoustic project. The sound here was typical Acora and was replicated to a degree in other rooms at the show. While not up to the highest standard Val Cora usually presents with his top models and more expensive components, it was an excellent display of what more modest audiophiles might achieve with more typical budgets.

Speaking about trompe-l'œil, the Acora MRC-2 speaker ($17k) fooled my camera, and the focus is on the backdrop, but it reveals how this gorgeous stone elegantly looks at home in the highest level of traditional décor. I've heard numerous models from the MRC series at shows over the past year, and they all exhibited a very high value. Each stone has a very rich look, suitable for a wide variety of décor. With Acora speakers being relatively efficient and an easy load to drive, they can be used in a wide selection of amplification. I do quite well with my QRC-2 models driven with 18-Watt tube monoblocks in a fairly large room.

The rig was actually quite simple once you get past the extensive Nordost power conditioning gear and the four Seismion Reactio 2 active isolation bases (~$20k each). On the top left was a Kora TB200 integrated amp from France ($15,790), and on the right was a Grimm MU2 ($24k), analog preamp, DAC, Streamer, and Roon Core with 8 TB storage. A couple of Ferrum Audio pieces from Poland were on the floor on the left, and the Uberlight Frame light was the version that clamped onto the Acora Acoustics granite rack.

On silent display was the MRB-1 made with stone from the Niagara escarpment. The entire series features ceramic drivers from Accuton. The presentation easily falls within the Top Tier of rooms at this year's Toronto Audiofest 2025.

Essentia Technology, Corby's Audio, And Saturn Audio

Moving along the hallway on the second floor surrounding the open atrium to the opposite corner, I came to the Carlton room filled with very clean music emanating from relatively affordable Q Acoustics speakers from Great Britain. The Concept 300 monitors were $7,300, and the Concept 500 floorstanders were $10k.

Seen on this Tough Nut rack was a Michell Gyro SE turntable ($6,500) on top of an acrylic shelf on the Tough Nut turntable shelf of the rack. Saturn electronics filled the lowest three shelves with a Michell power supply and phono stage below the turntable. Audio Sensibility power cords were used here as well.

Corby's Audio And Saturn Audio

The larger Corby's Audio room in Bristol A is always fun with whatever the latest Coherent Audio speaker from Frank Fazzalari might be. The Coherent website is a little hard to find, but worth the trouble. The speakers are available through Corby's in Hamilton, Ontario, and Atelier 13 Audio in Nashville, plus a couple of others in North America, and a dealer in Sweden. If Frank were as much into marketing as he is into exploring high-efficiency coaxial speaker designs, he would have a huge cult following.

The banners indicate the many vendors in play here. Of particular note was the Audio Sensibility banner. This was the first time I recall that Audio Sensibility has supplied a full loom of cables at a show. They also had a table in the hallway that I will be covering.

Frank's M18 Carbon series speaker is a new design for him. The high-frequency driver is coincident with the 3" compression driver and 18' woofer. Crumpled-up carbon fiber fabric is employed for damping without destroying transparency or dynamics.

The appendage on top looks like a piece of driftwood, stained and lacquered, that houses a super-tweeter that gives the speaker more air on top.

With their high efficiency, the M18 can be used with 2A3 tube power amps. The little Triode Lab 2A3-S vacuum tube power amplifier from Canada that I reviewed back in 2014 would have been perfect.

The lovely Kuzma Audio turntable with its expensive tonearm was the heavy end of the stick here. Saturn Audio solid state electronics are now available in both black or silver finishes and are reasonably priced. The top shelf of the Tough Nut rack shows the specialized shelf for turntables, shown here with a Kuzma table and tonearm.

I had a nice talk with Derrick Francis of Tough Nut, whose racks impressed me from their earliest days just a few years ago. His line of footers has proven to be especially effective, too, receiving very positive reviews. Recently, his racks have been adapted to grounding for those who have invested in system grounding technology, hence the wire seen on top of this short rack.

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