Opening day
     Actually this report cover two days, because Thursday was reserved for the trade. And for the press, of course. There have to be perks connected with being ink electron-stained wretches.
     Was the show smaller than last year? Of course it was. What did we expect? World leaders are at a G20 summit trying to decide how to put out the fire -- or stoke up the ashes, depending on your analogy -- and you expect a technological show, even one with a long and honorable tradition, to be booming?
     So yes, the show had shrunk, just as the Vegas show had shrunk. Did the visitors stay away? Not a bit of it. Day Zero was thin, which is its reason for being, but Day One was busy, even excessively crowded at times. The exhibitors we talked to were pleased, not to say surprised.
     Oh...the speaker at right?
     It's a Focal Grand Utopia EM. It's unusual for more than its size. The "EM" stands for "electromagnetic," which means its main woofer does not contain a permanent magnet, like all modern loudspeakers, but a magnetic coil, which is energized by a strong DC current. Notice what look like stacked modules. They are angled so as to point toward the listener, and their angles are adjusted with a crank, which is contained in a little case at the rear.
     Its sound? It was almost startlingly lifelike on voice, sounding not at all like the huge speaker it is. In soft passages from Dvorak's New World Symphony, it was also smooth and realistic. Loud string passages were less controlled, which is possibly not the fault of the speakers. Need we add that they are designed for large rooms? And large budgets? The damages come to $180,000.
     But perhaps you want to spend a little less.
     Meet the JohnBlue JB3 loudspeaker, at left. It's a small single-driver reflex speaker, with a price tag of... Let's just say that you can add a KingRex TriPath-class amplifier, and not put more than a $1000 dent in your bank account. It was a nice little system, despite some obvious artifacts from the source: an extremely inexpensive Sony DVD player. Its cost was included in the $1000 if memory serves.
     There were other economy products too, which is perhaps a sign of the times. MassFidelity's cute monoblock, shown at right, is called the Lil Doosey, and was pumping out music (though not in an acoustical setting suited to evaluation) through a pair of Reference 3a De Capo speakers. The Lil Doosey is class AB, not class D or T, and it's built in Canada. We were excited about the price, $399, and it held our interest even once we discovered that was the price for each one.
     We saw the two-piece PS Audio player that had wowed us in Vegas playing Keith O. Johnson's awesome HRx master discs...at least until it ran out of buffer and it went zork (did we mention it was a prototype?). The firware of the player in Montreal didn't allow for HRx, but it's something to keep an ear out for.
     .We were tempted to end Thursday on a high note with Vienna Acoustics' large speakers, appropriately dubbed "The Music." We had heard them before, but they sound so soothing for all the right reasons that we didn't much feel like moving on. Yet we did, sampling some delicious 24/96 action from Fidelio's master recordings. That wasn't a bad way to end the day either.
     There was a lot of talk about vinyl, and the surprising way it is bounding back from what was assumed to be its total eclipse. There were albums being sold, and there were new turntables as well. The one at left is the Clearaudio Innovation, fitted with an equally new arm called the Universal. The table looked (and sounded!) impressive, and so did the arm. They cost respectively $10,000 and $5000. The cartridge was an EMT. Very large Pathos preamplifier and monoblocks were driving Wilson MAXX speakers, sounding anything but pathetic. We listened to an Ella Fitzgerald LP, and enjoyed every second of it.
     Verity Audio had its usual large room, but had not brought any of its usual large speakers. The Verity Parsifal Monitor, shown at right, was the featured product. It is of course the top part of the Parsifal full-range speaker, mounted on a stand of adjustable height. The Monitors are $10,000, not including either the stands or the Rocco subwoofer.
     (The Rocco's name does not refer to rock music, by the way. Rocco is a character in Beethoven's opera Fidelio, and is sung by a bass.)
     One of the very good rooms was that of Lafleur Audio, a local maker of very high performance compact loudspeakers. The two-driver X1 (the larger three-driver X2 was featured in our Vegas report in UHF No. 86) was running with Moon equipment, and that may have helped. We listened to the Eagles, and admired the easy naturalness and the communicative rhythm.
     Reference 3a was back with its Episode floorstanding speakers, one size down from the very large Grand Veenas. Coupled with ASL tube gear and an emmLabs CD player, they sounded warm and musical. Divergent Technolgies was also showing the device at left: a puck with opposing magnets that can float an amplifier or other component above the table. We're not sure we understand how it works, but we'd love to play with a set.
     Another good room: that of Spendor. A pair of new A6 floorstanding speakers was providing bass of surprising intensity, and lively rhythm that was captivating. The speakers were driven by middle-of-the-road Exposure components: an integrated amp and a CD player.
     And speaking of Exposure, we were surprised to see prototypes of decidedly upscale models: a CD player (with digital inputs!) and a preamplifier, shown at left. No word on what the pair will cost, but they look as though they have to be ambitiously priced.
     And so to bed, to sleep, perchance to dream. Tomorrow, Saturday, is bound to be even busier than today. That has always been true. And with somewhat fewer rooms than in most years, the crowds get more concentrated.
     We're back with another report tomorrow, and of course we'll be wrapping up Sunday...or possibly Monday morning.

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