MONTREAL FESTIVAL SON & IMAGE 2006

Crème De La Crème

Making my way through the serpentine cobblestone streets of Old Montreal, past fragrant French patisseries, Tunisian restaurants serving couscous, and Chinatown’s bustling lotto stores, one senses that the beat of this city moves with an eclectic and quickened urban heart. Into this cornucopia lands the 19th Edition of the Festival Son & Image, (“FSI”) held at the Sheraton Hotel in the heart of Montreal’s business district back on March 24-26. Let’s enter the Sheraton and commence a tour of this relatively small and convivial hi-end audio show. Here you will be able to linger longer in each room, have a têtê à têtê with exhibitors and mingle with couples and families out for a discerning listen to what is new in hi-end audio. You witness members of the Montreal Audiophile Society clasping warm handshakes while at the next table, a line of Sennheiser 650 headsets offer a listen to wonderful acoustic recordings of a P.I. Tchaikovsky piano trio recorded at the Glenn Gould studio in Toronto. The Montreal–based Fidelio Recording Label is here as well, exhibiting their prized audiophile recordings along with a special show sampler disc for $10, with proceeds to a local charity. Fidelio’s youthful recording engineer extraordinaire, Rene LaFlamme welcomes you like a friend to his exhibit and hushes you politely so you can hear the meltingly wonderful guitar strings on his latest analog recording. The theme of East meets West extends to the listening rooms. Here, venerable transports from C.E.C. in Japan are mated with sleek electronics from the French company, Mimetism, to create a delicate sonic smorgasbord. Visitors sit transfixed to hear every nuance, exhibitors are glad to play your selections, and everyone has an understanding that because these hotel rooms are not made for music, system synergy is the ultimate goal, as opposed to a true test of each individual component (which can only truly be determined in one’s own system listening at home). 

So, grab a croissant and a morsel of Montreal’s famed steamed meat, and join me in my impressions of this wonderful, eclectic and friendly show. PLEASE NOTE: I listened to selections from the following reference discs to evaluate each room at FSI: 

Sir Granville Bantock, Celtic Symphony, [Hyperion 66450]
Odetta, Blues Everywhere I Go [MC Records 0038]
Doug Macleod, Whose Truth, Whose Lies [Audioquest 1054]
Leonard Hochman, Manhattan Morning [Jazzheads 9495]

(Also Note: all available prices in USD unless otherwise indicated)

Let us start our tour with some of the highlights of the relatively affordable gear that were shown at FSI. I was glad to see a lot of new reasonably priced audio equipment at FSI from companies around the globe, recognizing that these are tough economic times for audiophiles from Montreal to Manhattan. I first spent some pleasurable time listening to French Atoll Electronique and Highland Audio. I was not familiar with Highland, but their Oran 4305 Tower speakers ($1650) (although non-descript in appearance), really had some nice rhythm and pacing on the blues selections I played. They were driven by an all Atoll lineup, including their sleek AM 200 amp ($1850); PR3 preamp ($1900) and a Lecteur CD player, the CD 100 ($1500). Atoll is certainly a company to check out for its very clean and involving sonic presentation at a reasonable price point.

Here are photos of the newest amps and preamps from Rogue Audio, their Metis preamp ($995) and Atlas amp ($1,395), shown in the Eggleston room. They drove a pair of Eggleston Works Fontaine II speakers ($5500) with a stunning clarity that really pulled one into the music. A fantastic pair of electronics that deserves more of a listen at this price point. 

I also fell in love with the music emanating from the more costly Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Baby Grand speaker ($4395 photo above) driven by Primare electronics (preamp 30 $2495; A32 amp $5595; CD 31 $2895) in the Sumiko Room. Here is a photo of this beautiful speaker that bested many in terms of its neutrality and delicacy of detail on short listen. I think Vienna Acoustics is on to something special at this price point. 

Another reasonably priced speaker company I had not heard of before FSI was Nucore from Oregon. Here is a photo of their “Cathedral Sound” two coupler transmission line speakers, the larger LR45 ($3000) and LR 42 ($2500). The sound in this room was very enticing, with a roundness in the mid and bass region which made Odetta’s voice full and voluptuous. The speakers were an easy load, driven nicely by a single ended 18 watt amp.
 

Finally, the king of price point quality, Usher Audio, had several rooms on display at FSI and each offered a captivating glimpse into both Usher’s line, as well as some new affordable electronics. In one room, these Usher X719 ($1000) monitors with stands ($500) were driven by the latest Nuforce Reference 9.02 amps ($2500) with Nuforce P-8 preamp ($1200) and Usher CD 1 player ($800). The music simply invaded this small space, with great pace, detail and drive, but with surprisingly little bass boom or reverb. In another room, Usher mini series monitors (S-520 $400) were driven by an Exemplar DAC ($1695photo right) (John Tucker’s new tube D to A design that he claims modifies the input receiver to ignore jitter). Here is a photo of this new DAC with its wood face. This room also saw the introduction of the Belles Soloist 3 preamp ($795) and the Belles Soloist 5 amp ($900). Again, great rhythm and pacing from this reasonably priced system, combining Usher and Belles to great synergistic effect. 

Taking a quick break for a café au laut, I wandered from these affordable, very listenable rooms to the McIntosh Room, where their reference speaker, the XRT2KW (with its 40 tweeters, 64 midrange and 6 woofers) ($80,000-mon dieu!) held court, being powered by the dry chassis monoblock MC2KW with two power modules and one output module (2000 watts into 8, 4 or 2 ohms $70,000). I love the mid bass warmth, detail and power of my own pair of MC 501 monoblocks at home, but the bombastic attack in this shallow room had me heading for the doors quickly. I did spy this gleaming MC 275 on a side table, wondering whether things might have been better served with this classic driving more intimate (and affordable) speakers. 

After grabbing a famous Montreal bagel, it was off to the Focus Audio/Vitus Audio rooms. Here, Focus Designer extraordinaire, Kam Leung, poses with his hand built Master 2.5 speaker ($17,300 pair) in the larger of two Focus rooms. This is the smaller stack version of the Master 2 speaker recently reviewed and adored by Greg Petan in these pages. The Master 2.5 immediately involves one in the music, with its deep sonorous bass and dynamic midrange. The swells of strings on Sir Bantock’s Celtic Symphony were gorgeously rendered even in such a difficult listening space. Crescendos and inner timbre and detail were conveyed viscerally by the supporting electronics, the massive true-balanced input to output Vitus Audio mono amps ($49,000 pair) and linestage preamp ($28,000). Right is a photo of the Vitus Audio monoblock amp. In a smaller room next door, Focus Audio’s beautiful wood burl floorstanders, the FS78SE ($3,450 pair) were companioned with Vitus Audio’s least expensive stereo amplifier, the SS-010 ($12,000) a unit with built in volume control and many of the same features as their flagship monoblock design. Front end in this room was a CD player by Aurum Acoustics, in substitution of a new CD player ($12,000) to be introduced soon by Vitus.

Left is a photo of Anders Grove, cofounder of Vitus, proudly displaying the product of his 13 years of research into his “immunity to noise” weave speaker cables, without any shielding technology involved. (Speaker cables 2.5 meter $5,865.00/ pair; interconnect RCA $2,470 1 meter pair; power cords $1,543 each for 1.5 meter). These two rooms demonstrated the superb synergy of these components, achieving an involvement in the music that was quite special. It is no wonder that Focus Audio and Vitus Audio now use the other company’s products to voice their own creations. 

Another room with engaging synergy between components was the Eben and Chapter electronics room. Here, the slender and graceful Eben X-4 from Denmark with ribbon planar tweeter was coherent beyond belief, driven by the stylish British company, Chapter Electronics’ Preface Plus Preamplifier ($5500) and Couplet Amp ($6500). The front end was the steady Electrocompaniet CD player ($4600) and Chapter cabling though out. The Ebens were a dynamic and visual treat in this setup, serving both Odetta’s voice and string tone with amazing clarity and presence.