SHOW REPORT: MONTREAL FESTIVAL SON & IMAGE 2006:
                                             Crème De La Crème

Part 2
                                  

Adjacent to the booming McIntosh room was one of the few rooms designed for home theater at FSI, a notably 2 channel affair. I had a listen to a selection from Peter Gabriel’s impeccable DVD, Secret World Live, [Interscope] in a system designed by Energy. Energy’s brand new Reference Connoisseur RC 70 Towers, ($2000 per pair) anchored this very spacious and open surround system. Here they are shown in cherry. Rounding out this speaker array were the RC-10 bookshelf speakers as rears ($550 pair) and a dedicated rear channel, the RC-R Dipole/Bipole/Direct Radiating Speaker that has a rear switch for controlling dispersion characteristics. The other interesting item of note here was the Connoisseur center channel, (RC LCR-$600 each), which as the photo above shows, has double 2 inch midrange drivers on the diagonal, (with the same dispersion characteristics mounted either horizontal or vertical), making it quite versatile for custom wall units. There was nice detail, spaciousness and good balance in this well designed surround speaker system from Energy, and very good value.

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.

                                              


I then turned to hear one of the most astonishing monitor systems I found at FIS. This was the Ars Aures speaker line from Italy, driven by the velvet glove and fist of Art Audio tube electronics. The build quality and finish on the F1 bookshelf monitor ($2800 pair) was immaculate and their tone, extension and detail was superb. The Art Audio Carissa Signature (16 wpc) ($6500) drove the F1 beautifully, with the Gill Audio Design Alana preamp ($4500) and Gill Audio Design vacuum tube DAC ($6000) also in the mix. Here is a photo of New Jersey based Lee Landes, importer of the Ars Aures speaker line, wrapped in the innovative cabling for this system from K-Works, a new cable that utilizes polypropylene rope and has no shielding in the audio path. Man, this system just rocked, with a superb presence, even in such cramped surroundings.

                                            

Another highlight monitor based speaker system on display was in the Chord and Neat Acoustics Room, exhibited by their importer, Jay Rein of Bluebird Music. This system consisted of the Neat Acoustics Ultimatum MFI speakers, (16,000 Canadian) with isobaric bass loading and Focal inverted titanium dome tweeter. The speakers were driven by Chord CPM integrated amplifier and Chord One CD player, (all nestled on a Quadraspire rack) and all Chord cabling. Complete system was $37,000 Canadian.

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