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

Motet Distribution
Don Rhule, representing Kimber Kable, had set up a very appealing small rig with an Accuphase E-3000 integrated amp ($10k) driving Acora's entry-level MRC-1 speaker. A Lumin D3 Network music player ($3,499) was the source.

Further back in the room was a larger rig with a Lumin T3x Network music player ($7,500) as the front end for Accuphase C-2300 preamp ($15k) and A-80 power amp ($28k) driving Acora 2.5 way MRC-3 floorstanders. All the Acora MRC floorstanders have the same footprint; you move up in their ability to play loudly in a larger room while maintaining clarity and dimensionality as you go up the line.

A PS Audio Dectet Power Center was the modest power conditioner used here. There was a lot of talking and activity in this room when I visited and I didn't get a chance to hear this larger system, though I've been impressed by both Accuphase gear and these Acora speakers in the past.

Artysan
I may have missed the small Knightsbridge room, as there were tables in the hallway with Artysan product on them, which I will cover after I finish the rooms on the second floor. I didn't notice any doorway into the room.

Cardas Audio, Eon Art Canada, Gershman Acoustics, Oracle Audio Technologies, And Solid Muebles

This is the room that I like to mention when I cover Gershman speakers at other shows. The combination of players here is pretty much the gold standard for Gershman speakers, no matter what the model. This room typically earns a Best Rooms Award as it did again this year, though the rig was downsized a bit with a new speaker and the use of a single Eon Art amplifier.

The speaker is Gershman's new Symphoria ($70k USD), which fills the huge gap between their 30th Anniversary Black Swan and 30th Anniversary Grand Avant Garde. The mid-tweeter module sits in a groove in the bass unit, cushioned and damped with vibration absorbing units designed in cooperation with IsoAcoustics, who also makes the fancy footers for the Gershman floorstanders.

Note the atypical cone and surround on the mid/woofer. Using a more organically shaped surround is becoming a trend. You will see something similar in a DALI woofer near the end of my report. Reportedly, this combats distortion from the surround at high excursion.

Finished in Piano Gloss Black, "Symphoria" is left in mat finish, as are a couple of bands on the bass units, giving the speaker a distinctive, high-class look.

A cutaway of the chassis illustrated the internal bracing and driver isolation.

Wood grilles are also available and give the speaker an attractive additional design element for those who need protection for the drivers. Ofra Gershman told me they cut down on the sound quality very little. Keep an eye out for this speaker in the Madison room at Capital Audiofest 2025 in November.

On the Solid Muebles racks, which I've only seen here at the Toronto show, were the Oracle Delphi Mk VII Signature turntable with the Reference-1 tonearm fitted with an Oracle Corinth low-output MC cartridge. An Allnic H5500 tube phono amplifier was below in silver, along with the power supply for the turntable in black. On the rack to the right was the large Eon Art Quark integrated amplifier. The sound I heard here from the analog source ranked up with the Best Rooms at the show, but it was not quite as good as I've heard with their Black Swan speaker, or with dual Eon Art amps used in a monoblock configuration. I look forward to hearing what Ofra and Eli present at Capital Audiofest, as they typically have a substantially different rig at other shows.

Off to the side was another Oracle turntable that Jacques Riendeau could use to explain the technology without disturbing the listeners in this large room.

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