Montreal 2003...the wrapup
     A successful show, this 16th edition of the Festival du Son et de l'Image. The opinion was pretty much unanimous: this was a world class show, possibly the best ever. Note that UHF has no connection with its organization...but we figure its success is good for everyone.
     Including for ourselves. It's good for our morale, too. Once a year, the many readers who stream through our room confirm what we need to know: that what we do is read, is appreciated, and above all is useful. We talked to more than one distributor who told us that what first got them interested in high fidelity was UHF Magazine.
     And thanks to Ivy and George, from Ottawa, who showed up with a gift basket containing three bottles of château-bottled wine, one for each of us.
     If you didn't make it to Montreal, and to room 317 at the Delta, here's what our system looked like:
     If you have good eyes, you'll spot elements of our reference systems. Atop the Target table is our long-time CD player, consisting of a Parasound transport and a Counterpoint DA-10A converter. (By the way, Parasound president Richard Schram, coming to the Festival for the first time, dropped by and noted our choice with approval). On the table's bottom shelf is our new Copland CTA-305 tube preamplifier (which we purchased after reviewing it in the current issue). To the left of the table is our Moon W-5 power amplifier. Some visitors guessed that the two black boxes on the floor were monoblocks. Actually, they are outboard crossover networks for the (borrowed) Living Voice Avatar OBX-R speakers. Those speakers turned out to be unusually sensitive to placement. When we put them, on Thursday, where we normally put speakers at the show, we were shocked by their thin aggressive sound. Backing them up a little improved things a lot. Four moves later, they sounded absolutely glorious, and pretty well all visitors who sat down to listen found them outstanding. They will be reviewed in our next issue.
     Another word about those outboard crossovers: they don't come with their own cables. We had hoped to put together a very short pair of biwire cables to link them to the speakers, but ultimately we didn't get time, and we had to use a pair of Wireworld Eclipse cables that were 3 meters long! A little messy, but they worked well.
     Well...on to day three. The day began with a meeting with Jacques Riendeau, co-founder of Oracle, and once again its president. On one table, Jacques was showing the pieces that are familiar to many, namely the Delphi turntable, the two CD players, and the amplifier. Those components will now bear the brand name Delphi by Oracle. But Riendeau has taken on partners who know electronics (Riendeau himself is an industrial designer whose reputation is well established). The result is a new series, called Stello. Demonstrated at the Festival were the CDA200 player and its matching AI300 integrated amplifier (C$3950 and C$4750 respectively). You can see the amplifier in our picture, with a machined case typical of what Riendeau knows how to do. The sound (through a pair of very large prototype speakers using a ribbon tweeter turned sideways) was very good.
     There was a new product over at Simaudio too: the Moon W-6 monoblock. Looking exactly like the W-3 stereo amplifier, the new amp puts out a very imposing 425 watts. Playing through Dynaudio speakers in a room dramatically lit and lined with black drapes, they sounded outstanding. I also made a note of the recording, a new release by singer Edgar Bori.
     New universal players are popping up, capable of playing DVD, CD, DVD-Audio and SACD. We got an ear-opening demonstration from Linn, whose Unidisk 1.1 player (pencilled in for review in our next issue) was in yet another pre-production version. Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain was played from CD first, and then SACD. Not subtle! A DVD-Audio disc also sounded very good, though the demo illustrated one of DVD-A's problems: you have to turn on your TV to see the menus. Not Linn's fault, but that of the people who designed this format.
      Also playing at the show was the new universal player from Lexicon, the RT-10. That player isn't really cheap (there is as yet no evidence that high-definition formats can be played successfully from cheap gear), but at C$5000 it is within reach of people with good jobs. The Linn player, on the other hand, is for the caviar set, at an expected C$16,500.
     Perhaps the most unusual room was that of Aurum, a new company situated in Newfoundland. The system consisted of large three-way speakers (see our picture), plus a pair of triple monoblock amplifiers.
    That no doubt calls for explanation. The speakers are triamplified. Each monoblock therefore contains three amplifiers: a solid state amp for the woofer, and a pair of five watt single-ended tube amplifiers for the midrange and tweeter. That makes much more sense than you might think at first sight. Even in this early form, the Aurum setup projected the dynamics and the clarity we associate with multiamplification, or more correctly with the absence of the usual passive crossover. Development is not yet final, and there was a somewhat hard edge to the upper midrange that will require some tuning. However these people may be on to something. Expected price is expected to be between C$20K and C$30K, but that of course covers everything but the preamp and source.
     Shanling was there, with the deliciously beautiful tube CD player that is on the cover of our current issue. A new, more affordable (C$1899) Shanling player was also there, the SCD-S200. But we didn't hear it...everyone was having a good time listening to the CD-T100.
     We got to hear a new Cabasse speaker, the Kara. As you can see from the picture, it has the usual large "eye" with its coaxial drivers, and a nicely sculptured wood cabinet that makes it look a bit like an extraterrestrial monk. Fed from a Meridian CD player through large McIntosh tube electronics, it exhibited the explosive dynamics and the resonant presence we associate with Cabasse's best speakers.
     We've already mentioned that Richard Schram was in from Parasound's San Francisco headquarters, to show his company's new Halo video sound processors. We dropped by the large room to hear it in action, and it was indeed impressive. With a large number of JMLab speakers, and the C1 processor figuring out what to send to each, the sound field was exceptional despite the room size. The Madonna Drowned World Tour concert was especially impressive.
     One of the best rooms was, once again, the one with the Acapella Violin loudspeakers. We had also heard them in Vegas, and at the Festival last year, but we spent some time there anyway. The speaker is unusual looking, with its large blue horn midrange, and its virtually massless ionic tweeter, with a point of light showing at the back of its throat. It was being driven by Hovland electronics, including the Radia amplifier (150 watts per channel, solid state), being shown for the first time. Nice.
     But then we could say that about the whole show. Smoothly organized as usual, it drew a wide variety of quality exhibitors, and visitors from a broad area, including surrounding Provinces and the USA. Touring it was fun, and just being there was fun.
     There will of course be a more complete report, with even more pictures, in UHF No. 67. What we can tell you right off is that you can expect to see us there again next year.
     

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