Yes, crowds expected again


     We've already used this photo once or twice., but then again it never changes much. On opening day there's a long, long lineup at the Delta Hotel
     The show's formal name is Le Festival du Son et de l'Image. It's the 18th version, if you count the one back in 1984 (the only one at which UHF didn't exhibit, by the way). It is arguably the largest North American audio/video show open to the public.
     Not used this year is the Four Points hotel, which you needed to cross busy Sherbrooke Street to get to. Instead, there will be overflow exhibits at the Holiday Inn just nest door to the Delta.
     We are here again this year: room 317 at the Delta (the main venue). Note that we are running slightly shorter hours than the show itself, opening at 3 pm Friday, and 1:30 Saturday and Sunday.

The venues
     The downtown Delta hotel (the one on President Kennedy Avenue, not the one south on University) has long been the main site for the festival. It is ideal, too. The building was originally intended to be a condominium complex, though the original developer went bankrupt. this means the walls aren't the usual cardboard and Masonite blend (we're barely exaggerating). Even more interesting is the fact that most rooms don't have parallel walls. The shape discourages the formation of standing waves, which are the acoustical bane of exhibitors trying to make their products sound presentable.
     The downside? Exhibitors mostly unload in the parking garage, which has one elevator. A change of elevator is needed to get to the majority of the exhibit floors (about 12 of them in all).
     Large as the Delta is, the Festival long ago outgrew it. That's why there are rooms in the Holiday Inn next door, with a good supply of large rooms, which some exhibitors require. And the exhibitor rates are lower, since it is assumed that visitors will do the Delta first. And perhaps never quite making it across the street.
     The two hotels are right downtown, where they are easily accessible by the Métro, or--if you're staying downtown--on foot.
     If you didn't feel like joining that lineup at the Delta, as in the photo above, you used to be able to register across the way. Not this year.

Our show system
     Since music is so much a part of our existence, we have lots of it in our room. Want a look at the system we brought last year? Sounded nice.

     We never bring exactly the same system twice, however. This time around we will be using much larger floorstanding speakers, the ASW Genius 400 (expect a review in issue No. 73), and a Van den Hul stereo power amp (we used the monoblock version last year). The Van den Hul stuff is for sale by our Audiophile Boutique division, by the way, for about half its original cost.
     We will have two sources: the definitely upscale Harmonix CD player, which has been praised in some quarters as the best ever built, and our own Linn Unidisk 1.1 CD/SACD/DVD-A player. Cables will be from Atlas, Pierre Gabriel and Actinote, and the AC filtering (badly needed in a downtown hotel) will be an Inouye SPLC.
     Drop by and have a listen.

So here we go...
     We do expect our own room to be rather busy, but there are three of us at the show (Reine, Albert and Gerard), and we will take a bit of time to get a look around. Our digital camera will capture some pictures, and an iBook will be used to create the daily reports and upload them to our site.
     Right here on the UHF site, you'll be able to visit the Festival without leaving home. You'll find the links at upper left And right through April 30th, the show pages will include specials from The Audiophile Store. One more reason to drop by.

[BACK TO UHF HOME]