Day One at the Festival
     Perhaps it would be best to call it Day Zero and One. Unlike other years, the Festival included an entire day for the trade and the press, namely Thursday. We weren't sure whether to take that seriously, and we wondered whether anyone else would -- Montreal isn't Vegas, after all. In fact there was some traffic, and a number of rooms (though by no means all) were open. And so we covered that day, plus the first day open to the public.
     Did we leave you with the impression, in our coverage of CES in Las Vegas in January, that the iPod had triumped nearly everywhere? Well, take a look at this new version of the Jadis Orchestra DIP integrated tube amplifier. Aside from the fact that it's bright red note the bright white iPod tucked into the slot just waiting for it. That, by the way, is UHF's own iPod. The next day there was a black one with a bright red click wheel, the famous U2 iPod. By the way, guess what the "DIP" in the name stands for...
     At least two of the rooms were also showing the Fatman iTube, a small and cute little tube amplifier, with a lot for... It gets awfull close to impulse-buy territory. And Shanling had a combined CD player/integrated amplifier, styled as only Shanling can style, with a slot for... (To be fair, this is the only "iPod" slot we saw that could theoretically accommodate a player not made by Apple. We've heard rumors there are such things.
     KEF, the large British speaker manufacturer that seemed to be in the doldrums recently, was back in a big way, with two of the models in its renewed Reference series. These are big speakers, and speakers this size are sometimes too big for their own good. Not this time. The 207-2, shown at left, was in the Audioville room, backed by some solid upstream gear: a CEC belt-driven CD transport, a converter and monoblocks from Chord, and a tube preamp from Conrad-Johnson. Despite the room dimensions, the sound was both intimate and sweet, with lots of detail but no passages that made us wish we were even further back. The price? Around C$24K.
     If that's too much, we should add that KEF's own room was showing the (somewhat) smaller 206-2, with a small fortune in Chord gear driving it. Well, you'd think any speaker could sound good with the right source and amplification, but that unfortunately isn't true. We can confirm that this slightly smaller KEF is a goody as well. When we visited they were filling a very large hall with the voices of the South African a capella choral group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo. That was an experience.
     Oh, speaking of the CEC transport, it's the TL0X, a new incarnation of a famous model. That's it at right.
     Aurum Acoustics was back, with a slightly upodated version of the complete system that was on the cover of UHF No. 78. Not too surprisingly, it had some of the most satisfying sounds of the show. The system sounded better than it had at the Venetian in Vegas, where fighting the room seemed to be a lost battle. Three large acoustic panels were present, and that probably did a lot of good.
     Totem once again had a room built around the Native theme suggested by its name. For the first time in years, however, it was showing its flagship, the Mani-2. For the purpose of driving these often difficult (but magnificent!) speakers, it had brought in a Halcro amplifier. If a Halcro can't drive it, you need a chauffeur. The result was superb.
    At left, Totem founder and designer Vince Bruzzese holds a custom-designed woofer from his newest speaker, the Tribe 3. The Tribe speakers are long and slim, and can be mounted alongside and underneath a video screen. And here's the daring part: he was demonstrating it, in mono, in the same room as the Mani-2's!
     A new VTL amplifier was premiered at the show: the 450 monoblock. It's a smaller (but still potent!) version of the Siegried monoblock. It has a lot of tubes, a lot of power, and onboard circuits to rebias the tubes between tracks, and let you know if anything has gone wrong. They were driving the latest version of the Wilson Watt/Puppies. Associated equipment included a Brinkmann turntable. With the best recordings, the system was gripping to listen to.
     Who gets the nod for the most transparent speaker at the show? It's a company called Ferguson Hill. See for yourself how transparent it is.
     What, you can't make it out? The woofer is in the little pod around the middle of the picture (and yes, you can see right through it). In front of it, but of course transparent, is the tweeter. There's a subwoofer too, though it is, alas, opaque. And that is an iPod at extreme left, which reveals the intended use. But never mind, it's a nice little tabletop system, and we enjoyed it.
     French speaker manufacturer BC Acoustique was back with the C$7200 A3 three-way speaker, accompanied by Orelle amplifiers and player. There was a pleasntly natural tone to the speakers, though we thought a larger room would have allowed them space to deploy a plausible image. Did we mention that the rooms at the Centre Sheraton are on the small size?
     Over the last two to three years Gershman Acoustics has been going to shows with its huge (and impressive) Black Swan speakers. They were here again, though they too suffered from the close quarters. there was a new Gershman speaker, the Sonogram, shown at left. Yes, we are also used to Gershman speakers being both large and expensive. This one is not precisely small, but it is priced at C$2500, well below other Gershmans. It's a three-way speaker, with a custom-built woofer, a Morel dome midrange and a dual-chamber Vifa tweeter. It sounded clean and musical.
     We got to listen to more electronics from Audio Space, whose little integrated amplifier we had so praised in issue No. 78. This time we heard a pair of monoblocks, the Nova M34's, paired with a preamp and a phono stage from the same company, and all using tubes. The JAS speakers, of two way design, with a ceramic woofer and a ribbon tweeter, sounded smooth and musical. We saw lots of stuff we would love to review.
     The most colorful speakers at the show? They were from Teo, and these are two of them. The bright orange ones were the speakers we heard. They sounded promising, but these are prototypes. The final version may possible be colored more conventionally.
     Good news: Sugden is back in North America after an absence of some years. We saw two new versions of the A-21 class A integrated amplifier that was on the cover of UHF No. 28. We heard it driving a nice little pair of Era speakers (the Design Satellite 5's, $1099 a pair). The sources alternated between the Creek EVO CD player (reviewed in issue No. 79) and a Funk turntable, with Rega RB300 arm and an Audio-Technica cartridge. Nice, actually.
     A number of companies over the years have made amplifiers that were battery-powered. The advantage is obvious: no line noise, and nearly infinite current surges. The one at left (a monoblock, by the way) is an Omega Signature. The lead-acid cell is inside, and when it's running the charger is disconntected. The designer was hoping there would be a power outage, so that he could be the only one still playing music.
     We finally got to see and hear the Reference 3a Grand Veena, which you can see at right. It's much larger than the speakers that made the company famous, though it is not as large as the Reference 3a Supremas that are in our Omega reference system. For the most part it is a three-way system. The two carbon fibre woofers are direct-coupled, which is the way the ciompany does things. The midrange, also with a carbon fibre cone, is in a separate sealed enclosure. There is the usual soft-dome tweeter, plus, from 20 kHz up, a muRata super-tweeter. The Grand Veenas cost C$8800.
     The sound? Promising, though the single-ended tube amplifiers used didn't seem to have the strength to control them perfectly. We plan to hear them again with a little more power behind them.
     And that's it for Days Zero and One. Back tomorrow.
     As things stand, we can't judge how the crowds are. The registration desk was hidden way down on a lower level where we couldn't see it. There did seem to be good traffic through the hotel, and exhibitors we talked to seemed happy. At least for the moment.
     But Saturday is the big test. Most years it's too crowded. We shall see.

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