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Best Speakers at Montreal Show this past weekend?

I'd like to hear from people who attended the Montreal Son & L'Image audio show this past weekend as to what rooms sounded the best in their opintion.

I was at the show for Friday & Saturday and saw it all. In my opinion the very best sound came from:
(1) Globe Audio distributors out of Stoney Creek, ON, showed the latest CD/SACD Audio Aero source, 4 prestigue AA monoblocks with a 5th amp driving the subwoofer, and incredible speakers by Weiner Loudspeaker Manufacturer (http://www.wlm-loudspeakers.com/) with one subwoofer using 2 12" drivers. Globe Audio also had 2 other rooms where the least and most expensive speakers were being fed with AA gear. Ernie Fisher of The Inner Ear magazine showed off the most expensive WLM speakers with the dual 18" woofer subwoofer speaker and wow what great sound, even in a smallish hotel room. Everyone was amazed at the "you are there" sound.
(2) FAB Audio speakers (made in Toronto, http://www.fabaudio.com/intro.htm) along with Korato pre/power amp (http://www.korato.com/company.php?id=5) and Audio Aero Capitale CD player sounded just as good as (1) above and also used the Muratta Super tweeter and a huge FAB subwoofer which allowed their system to go from 10Hz - 100KHz !! The sound was very adictive and lifelike. In fact, the FAB/Korato and WLM/Audio Aero rooms were the only two that sounded life like with the band being 'there.' Coincidentally, both the FAB and WLM speakers were 2-way designs and very high efficiency (97/98dB) - could there be a correlation here?
(3) Raido out of Denmark had two rooms showing their Eben X-Baby, X-Centric and X3 speakers and their less expensive Emile S2 speaker driven by Cary electronics in one room and Chapter electronics+Electrcompaniet CD player in another room. With a ribbon tweeter going to 50KHz and special Audio Technology drivers they sounded very pure, clean and fast with no listener fatigue.

Honourable mentions go to the Kharma room (no surprise there), Avalon with VTL, and Verity Audio.

Now let's hear your thoughts please.
kevinzoe
goldorak's avatar
goldorak
89 posts
 
I agree with Kevinzoe, but the Aurum Acoustics active setup simply dissapeared and had full range bass. High mentions for the Sonus Faber Stradivari driven by Ayre electronics and the 2 rooms with Verity Audio speakers, one with the new Parsifal Ovations driven with the pyramid shaped Nagra amps and DCS source and the other featuring the Sarastro biamped with 2 Nagra VPA pairs. A lot of fellows liked the room with the Von Schweikert VR-4 with BAT electronics.

Serge
kevinzoe OP
167 posts
 
Thanks for your thoughts Audiogabby, Tubegroover and Goldorak. You all make good points related to very good sounding rooms - Verity Audio with its assorted amps/electronics and Aurum which is a $30K holistic and complete system in which Aurum builds/provides the CD source, integrated amp and active speakers. The Von Schweikert VR-4jr were quite good too.

Did anyone notice if Vandersteen had gear anywhere? They were listed to have been in room 206 of the Delta hotel but that room didn't have any vandie stuff . . .? I was hoping to have heard the new Quattro speaker with active subwoofers.
davedimes
4 posts
 
My ears and Kevinzoe's must be linked. I really liked the FAB Audio stuff, a really dynamic high-efficiency sound with great authority. I even stuck around to hear the Brat and thought it was a great semi-monitor (since the base is actually part of the speaker cavity).

The Raido speakers were interesting. At first I was quite taken back by the sound, not in a good or bad way, just different. Very lively. I would have to spend time with those speakers to see if they were so good it was different, or they could possibly be very fatiguing.

Other rooms that I liked: The Reference 3A Dulcet speakers really played above their means. The Monitor Audio Gold speakers with Musical Fidelity gear sounded nice. Dynaudio C4 was nise, and the Wilson demo was fun.

Disappointments: McIntosh room was too big, and made even their big speakers sound thin. Also, I didnt like the Paradigm home theater demo.. it was really quite bright.

Anyone remember the one room that had a show special with tube amp, cd player, and speakers for like $5k? I didnt know the brands, but thought it sounded pretty good.
cleopatra52's avatar
cleopatra52
98 posts
 
I liked the Aurum Acoustics system the best. This system had everything: dynamics, huge soundstage, great bass etc. All the Verity Audio rooms were good, as usual, but I think the Parsifal Ovations were the best.
I agree that the Kharma 3.2s were excellent but a little dynamically challenged.
I was not that crazy about the FAB room but this may be because a friend owns these speakers and they sound significantly better in his home.
I'm kicking myself for not paying more attention to the Weiner speakers as several have commented that they were "best at show".
No sign of Vandersteen, unfortunately.
golden_ears
224 posts
 
The Verity Audio are nice speakers, also with the Berning amps. They used an Audio Aero Capitole CD player too,and there were other Capitoles around the show, as I recall.
The WLMs were excellent, very open sound with controlled deep bass and a neat tweeter.
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