Day one at the Festival
     Yes, we know (though not everyone did), UHF had no room at the show. (We had our virtual room, see above, but it's on the Web, not the show). And it was a good thing. The rooms at the Centre Sheraton are far, far smaller than we could have used.
     Which, however, left Albert and Gerard free to your the show. It began with a press conference. The Festival has a "silent auction" (think eBay without computers) and the sale of a show CD, with proceeds to research on childhood diseases. At the launch was the cause's spokesman, actor Rémy Girard. (International audiences will recognize him as the dying man in the Oscar-winning film, The Barbarian Invasions.) He is shown at right, alongside show organizer Marie-Christine Prin.
     As already noted, the show has a somewhat different orientation, seeking to add a broad range of consumer electronics products to the usual mix of high end audio and home theatre. An early vow was to attract such exhibitors as Apple Computer. We laughed...but Apple was there!
     And not just with the iPod either, though certainly the iPod was there in all its incarnations. So was the "iPod Hi-Fi," not Steve Jobs's finest moment. So were the newest Macs, the Intel versions of the Mac mini and the MacBook Pro. And there was a demo of Garage Band, Apple's software for creating music. Okay, Marie-Christine, you were right.
     On the other hand, we looked for Nikon, one of whose expensive cameras is prominently shown on the Festival program. No, Nikon wasn't there. Nor Pentax, nor Canon. There were, however, cameras from Sony, including the one we have our eye on for pictures in the magazine.
     We looked for a hint of the high definition video format war. It was somewhat one-sided, with Toshiba showing off HD DVD (but not, alas, the SED screen it will co-market with Canon). Sony was there in force, as noted, but there wasn't much about Blu-Ray.
     We have often noted with sadness that Totem never, ever demonstrates what is arguably its best loudspeaker, the Mani-2. No different this time, but we were happy to see that one of its dealers, Audioville, was running a pair of Mani-2 speakers (that's it at right). Not all amplifiers can drive this amazing speaker without serious fireworks, but it seems that Conrad-Johnson tube amps can. By luck, Audioville handles C-J too. (By the way, a review of the Mani-2 Signature is in the works for our next issue.) The silvery rack att the right of the picture is from Chord, and contains the CD player and preamplifier. Nice sound...not that we expected differently.
     So what was Totem itself showing? For one thing, the new Totem Tribe home theatre speakers, shown below. The Tribe speakers are long and slim and can fit alongside or underneath a projection screen. If you're thinking this smacks of home theatre in a box...guess again.
     Now to the higher-fi stuff!
     We knew that Aurum Acoustics was coming back, since Derek Moss had told us in Vegas that he was about to enter full production with his expensive but wonderful triamplified speaker system. That description is perhaps inadequate, since this is not so much a speaker system as a complete system. We listened to one of our own recordings, the one of songs composed in the 19th Century by Pauline Viardot-Garcia (people in the room asked for the record number). It was notable for what was not there...the usual hi-fi artifacts we hear all too often. We're leaning toward an actual review of the Aurum (speakers, amplifiers, plus optional CD player-preamp and accessories). For one thing, we would enjoy doing it.
     Also rather esoteric is the Wavac single-ended triode monoblock, shown at right. These single-ended monoblocks from Japan look unusual enough, but what's really unusual is their power output. Single-ended triode amps usually have power between 10 watts and, say, 18 watts. So how does 150 watts sound? And nice watts, too!
     We got a second chance to listen to the Focus Audio 2.5, a half version of the model 5...what else? It was demonstrated with gigantic class A monoblocks from VA (a Scandinavian company that seems to know what it's doing). The cabling was also from VA.
     Among new products spotted: the A3 floorstanding speakers from France's BC Acoustique, sounding clean and clear with a huge image on a familiar Patricia Barber CD. And Gamut, which had vanished from the scene for a while was back with a complete system: CD, electronics and speakers. Sounded very pleasant.
     The room that brought about the greatest number of double takes was that of RL Acoustique: those are the initials of Robert Lamarre, who builds upscale single-driver horn speakers. Last year he showed a model with a cone made from hemp (for music of the 60's?). This year Robert got the prize for a magic trick: his speakers appears to be driven telepathically by the Teno monoblock: there's no cable! How was it done. There was in fact a wire: 22 gauge, pure silver, and nearly invisible. It's perhaps best if you don't own any pets!
     The audiophile label Fidelio was showing off some of its recent recordings, including the master tape of a new percussion SACD. The tape, by the way, was analog, playing from a Nagra recorder.
     The Vegas show was notable for the sheer number of turntables to be found in its rooms, and there was a good number in Montreal too. You'll see more of them in our next issue, but perhaps we can include a couple here, farther down the page.
     The Red Point (at left) is anything but red, made from glistening stainless steel (well, we assume). Then there's the Thorens TD124, a table from about 1960 (at right). "I remember that one," said Gerard, "it would never go at the right speed." But this TD124 had been heavily modified. "It was definitely going at the right speed," said Albert.
     And so ends the first day. How are the crowds? It's too soon to know, though everyone noted that there weren't the usual long lineups to buy tickets (when we arrived, the press lineup was longer than the public lineup). It may not mean anything.
     In any case we're back on Saturday for more, lots more. And we'll tell you all about it.
  

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