UHF Magazine at Montréal 2003, Day Two

The Second Day
      It`s the big day...Saturday. Anybody coming to the Festival for just one day makes it Saturday. And anyone coming for two days will also come Saturday. Crowds. Big crowds.
     It began with press conferences. Richard Schram of Parasound began with a preview of the company's new video controllers. They feature what Schram calls "7.5 channel surround." Huh? Rather than locking you in to a set number of channels, the Parasound lets you pick the number of channels you need to cover your (presumably large) home theatre, and it then synthetizes the channels for each of them.
     Pierre Gabriel was there to show some new Jadis products, including the new JD1 MkII CD transport (at right). That this is not an economy product can pretty much be deduced from the construction, which includes a lot of stainless steel, brass and polished aluminum, plus a top of exotic wood. Say, what is that wood anyway? Well, in fact it isn’t. To ward off resonance, this molded top is made of what Jadis calls "loaded resin" (epoxy with particle filling, we’re guessing). And the woody look? Jadis hires an artist to paint the resin to look like grained wood. They are done individually, and so no two are alike. Our suggestion: the artists should be permitted to sign their work.
     The DA-30 integrated amplifier we reviewed in UHF No. 66 was there too, of course, but with a change. Instead of Russian Svetlana KT88 tubes (one of the options on the amp we had), Jadis now has KT88's bearing its own name, made to spec by JJ.
     Speaking of Pierre Gabriel, it is known for speakers and cableds as well as distribution of Jadis. It was showing its Model A speaker, tall but low in cost by comparison with the company's previous speakers, at C$2995. By the way, have a look at who was standing in front of the company's room, handing out cards. You did know that Gabriel is an archangel, didn't you?
     We very much enjoyed the tall and striking Meadowlark Blue Heron speakers. They were driven by a rather massive and dramatically-styled Rogue amplifier, the Zeus. Zeus, you'll recall, knew a thing or two about hurling thunderbolts. The amplifier has a full crate worth of output tubes, and can put out 225 watts per channel.
     Also very pleasant were the Tenor 15WE tube monoblocks. As usual, these amplifiers were long on physical presence, but shorter on power, with 15 watts each. on the other hand, the new full-range speakers they were driving don’t need more power than that, and the combination clicked.
    D-Box was showing a new speaker series, this time without the huge subwoofers it has become well known for (though both a sub and a centre speaker were present). The new speakers, designed by one time audio magazine writer Laurent Racicot, is called Iliad (D-Box favors names drawn from mythology and Biblical sources). Like previous D-Box speakers, the Iliads use Audax drivers, not the cheapest on the market by any means, but the low prices will probably turn heads. The prices of the units shown in our picture, range from $550 to about $1500. Yes, that's per pair.
     We also spent a bit of time with the smallest of the Focus Audio Signature series speakers, the FS-688's (shown below, with one of the larger Signatures peeking out over it). These small but not inexpensive speakers (C$3995, not counting the stands, which also have a four-figure price) were driven from an Ayres transport through a Weiss DAC (from Switzerland), and a gigantic PS Audio power amplifier. It seemed odd for such over-the-top electronics to be driving such diminutive speakers, but we very much liked the result.
     It’s nearly a cliché to say that not many women come to the Festival, unless they are tagging along (possibly reluctantly) behind a husband or boyfriend. We did meet one female audiophile who asked to register her criticism of the Festival. "I saw a lot of really nice gear," she said, ’but there were almost no rooms in which they surprised me with their music.. The place is fulll of elevator music. Isn’t music what we come here for?"
     We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. There was music she did like: "There was a song about a train, from an African artist." We recognized it from the description: Stimela from Hugh Masakela’s CD, Hope. We like it a lot too.
     Everyone else who showed up with "elevator music"...well, you’ve got till next year to shape up.
     See you tomorrow.



Le Festival du Son et de l'Image 2003 runs in Montreal from March 28-30th. Click to visit each of UHF's live reports. Each report will appear early the next day. Festival Preview Day 1 (March 28th) Day 2 (March 29th) Day 3 (March 30th)
		The Second Day It`s the big day...Saturday. Anybody coming to the Festival for just one day makes it Saturday. And anyone coming for two days will also come Saturday. Crowds. Big crowds. It began with press conferences. Richard Schram of Parasound began with a preview of the company's new video controllers. They feature what Schram calls "7.5 channel surround." Huh? Rather than locking you in to a set number of channels, the Parasound lets you pick the number of channels you need to cover your (presumably large) home theatre, and it then synthetizes the channels for each of them. Pierre Gabriel was there to show some new Jadis products, including the new JD1 MkII CD transport (at right). That this is not an economy product can pretty much be deduced from the construction, which includes a lot of stainless steel, brass and polished aluminum, plus a top of exotic wood. Say, what is that wood anyway? Well, in fact it isn’t. To ward off resonance, this molded top is made of what Jadis calls "loaded resin" (epoxy with particle filling, we’re guessing). And the woody look? Jadis hires an artist to paint the resin to look like grained wood. They are done individually, and so no two are alike. Our suggestion: the artists should be permitted to sign their work. The DA-30 integrated amplifier we reviewed in UHF No. 66 was there too, of course, but with a change. Instead of Russian Svetlana KT88 tubes (one of the options on the amp we had), Jadis now has KT88's bearing its own name, made to spec by JJ. Speaking of Pierre Gabriel, it is known for speakers and cableds as well as distribution of Jadis. It was showing its Model A speaker, tall but low in cost by comparison with the company's previous speakers, at C$2995. By the way, have a look at who was standing in front of the company's room, handing out cards. You did know that Gabriel is an archangel, didn't you? We very much enjoyed the tall and striking Meadowlark Blue Heron speakers. They were driven by a rather massive and dramatically-styled Rogue amplifier, the Zeus. Zeus, you'll recall, knew a thing or two about hurling thunderbolts. The amplifier has a full crate worth of output tubes, and can put out 225 watts per channel. Also very pleasant were the Tenor 15WE tube monoblocks. As usual, these amplifiers were long on physical presence, but shorter on power, with 15 watts each. on the other hand, the new full-range speakers they were driving don’t need more power than that, and the combination clicked. D-Box was showing a new speaker series, this time without the huge subwoofers it has become well known for (though both a sub and a centre speaker were present). The new speakers, designed by one time audio magazine writer Laurent Racicot, is called Iliad (D-Box favors names drawn from mythology and Biblical sources). Like previous D-Box speakers, the Iliads use Audax drivers, not the cheapest on the market by any means, but the low prices will probably turn heads. The prices of the units shown in our picture, range from $550 to about $1500. Yes, that's per pair. We also spent a bit of time with the smallest of the Focus Audio Signature series speakers, the FS-688's (shown below, with one of the larger Signatures peeking out over it). These small but not inexpensive speakers (C$3995, not counting the stands, which also have a four-figure price) were driven from an Ayres transport through a Weiss DAC (from Switzerland), and a gigantic PS Audio power amplifier. It seemed odd for such over-the-top electronics to be driving such diminutive speakers, but we very much liked the result. It’s nearly a cliché to say that not many women come to the Festival, unless they are tagging along (possibly reluctantly) behind a husband or boyfriend. We did meet one female audiophile who asked to register her criticism of the Festival. "I saw a lot of really nice gear," she said, ’but there were almost no rooms in which they surprised me with their music.. The place is fulll of elevator music. Isn’t music what we come here for?" We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. There was music she did like: "There was a song about a train, from an African artist." We recognized it from the description: Stimela from Hugh Masakela’s CD, Hope. We like it a lot too. Everyone else who showed up with "elevator music"...well, you’ve got till next year to shape up. See you tomorrow. [BACK TO UHF HOME]