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Montreal show

Posted by middleground on April 15, 2007 at 06:18:18

Went there yesterday. Was pretty pressed for time. Nothing very different from previous years. Good sound on a very cursory listen:

Best sound: Kharma small floor standers with Tenor amps, no idea what the source was but obviously well chosen and expensive.

Coup de Foudre's room, a local dealer, with Wilsons and VTL amps, have no idea what the source was, although the big Eidolons and larger VTLs from last year sounded better.

Another local dealer's room, Filtronique, had very nice sound with Verity Sarastros and Nagra amps and quite good sound with Sonus Fabers and ARC CD7, Ref 3 and Ayre power amps, I believe.

The large Reference 3A speakers, Grand Veena I think they are called, sounded good with EMM source (not sure) and Antique Sound Labs amps. However, I simply don't understand how you get from a two way with no x-over to these multi-way speakers and retain what made the smaller ones famous.

Another local dealer, Audioville, with the always friendly Steve, was there with large KEF speakers driven by, and I am probably wrong, Conrad Johnson amps. It sounded quite good in a big sort of way and not in the spooky kind of way 'philes are looking for these days, but boy are those KEF speakers fugly!

Naim sounded good with those "along the wall" speakers going agaisnt current wisdom of having the speakers way out in the room.

Spoke to a very nice gentlemen in the room with the new "Merrill" turntable and they had interesting single driver speakers (I think that's what they were) with tube amps,the Merrill tt with Triplanar arm and Ortofon Jubilee that sounded quite nice, but still not as dynamic as large multi-driver speakers driven with gobs of power. Different strokes, I guess...

The Dynaudio Evidence Temptations sounded good in the Moon (Sim Audio) room, but, for some reason, I think they had in the past the C4 or such that sounded nicer, probably because I preferred the music played then more than what I listened to yesterday. The level of fit and finish of the Moon stuff is impressive, even more so if you remember the stuff Sim Audio produced when first new.

Very nice sound, but so unfair since they played something I immediately recognized: "Stimella" by Hugh Masakela, the Usher speakers driven by NuForce amps. Newer technology, impressive amps, can't wait to hear the ARC VT 220...

Jadis and ginormous Pierre Etienne Leon speakers (I think that's what they are called) sounded good and nimnble for such huge boxes.

Aside from the Kharma/Tenor combo, no wow factor like I had with the Peak Consults the previous time.

Disappointment: the large Verity speakers in a large room with Nagra source and tube amps that I can't remember the name of but that I have never heard before replacing the Nagra of last year. Good sound but for the money are they nuts?

Worst sound: the two all Linn rooms, but why couldn't they have well chosen material to play there? I'm sure that the equipment could have done way better.

The one thing I am still amazed with:

how smaller, less expensive systems, can sound absolutely delightful and how much satisfaction can be gotten with let's say Arcam, Rega or Cambridge to name a few.

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