Day Two at the Salon
     That was Saturday, by far the busiest day of the Salon. Too busy in fact. It's always been that way of course. We remember the unmanageable influx of crowds in the UHF room when we were exhibiting ourselves (which we no longer do -- we want all our time available to tour and to report). It was much the same this time, especially in the first part of the afternoon. Though the hotel room entrances are wider than they were at the Sheraton (the last four years), it was difficult even to push one's way in to a room.
     Yes, it's a turntable you see at right, though you'll have already spotted that it's not a modern one. It is in fact a Victor phonograph, entirely acoustic. It was at the Salon courtesy of the Emile Berliner museum. Berliner was the man who competed with Edison's cylinders by introducing the familiar round record. And he got his start in Montreal.
     There were plenty of other turntables, however, and we're preparing a smorgasbord of them for the show report in the magazine. As at Vegas, analog was everywhere. There were still more CD players than in Vegas, but even so the computer was omnipresent as a source. Indeed, Linn was demonstrating the sonic differences among its three digital streaming products, the Majik, the Akurate and the Klimax. For good measure, it showed off the latest full-blown version of the LP12 turntable, which now has a price tag of some $30,000. CD players? Linn doesn't make them anymore.
     Now let's get a look at some speakers.
     The most unusual one has to be the Coherent Model 15 Coaxial, shown at left. Coherent is a Winnipeg company, which last year was showing speakers veneered with 19th century wood recovered from under water. This one has a more conventional veneer, but that's about the only way it's conventional. The "15" in the name refers to the 15-inch (38 cm) diameter of the cone, and as you can see it's wider than the actual baffle. The unusual driver is custom-built for Coherent, and has a metallic horn at the centre. The very complex cabinet is a bass reflex type, and is not a rear-loaded horn, but even so efficiency is a very high 97 dB.
     The sound? Very good in most ways. We asked to listen to vibraphonist Lars Erstrand's Sweet Georgia Brown (on Opus 3). The vibe work was outstanding, with the piano a little less than natural. Was it the acoustics? The rooms at the Bonaventure take a little extra work to tame.
     Over at Liberty Trading, successor company to Justice Audio, the huge room included a pair of the massive Audes Orpheus speakers that we reviewed in UHF No. 88. Though we got our sample speakers from the US, Liberty picked up the line immeediately after. A number of visitors mentioned to us how good they were sounding. And that was despite a venue that could have served as a basketball court.
     We checked back on the Audio Physic room, where the Tempo 25, which had been running without benefit of break-in time, were now sounding even better. And that's saying something. We'll try to catch them on the final day, when they've had even more time. A visitor told us he had just begun his tour of the Salon, but he doubted he was going to hear anything better than he was hearing right then.
     By the way, the model name refers to the company's 25th anniversary. Question: were their speakers this good a quarter of the century ago?
     There were, by our count, three new speakers from local companies.
     The one you see at right is from Gemme Audio, the Tonic. The way you see it here, with a ribbon tweeter, it's $1300 a pair. Don't like ribbons? Order them with a cone tweeter, Gemme won't argue. We can't recall any other companies offering that sort of choice.
     Another new speaker is the Lafleur MX1, a somewhat simplified (but still mechanically complex) version of the Model One originally launched at this show some three years ago. This $6000 speaker handles itself well. Along with a Clearaudio turntable and Moon electronics, it sounded tight and yet light (in the good sense), with surprisingly solid acoustic bass work.
     The third, totally new speaker, is the Klaro Summus, a $2850 tower that looks not unlike the Tonic at right. We weren't sure about the sound, which had a slight edginess that might be originating from the Jeff Rowland class D amp, which wouldn't have been our choice for this show.
     Seen for the first time in Montreal (but a recent fixture in Vegas) is a large speaker from YG Acoustics. It is billed as the world's finest speaker, bar none. True? Well, in Vegas it was handicapped by a room with the most dreadful acoustics imaginable. The handicap this time was the Veloce electronics, which seem interesting enough, with their battery-powered innards. They didn't seem ready for prime time last year, and they didn't this year either. On a Ray Charles recording (accompanied by Count Basie), the sound was way forward. By the way, the Veloce amp is class D, just like the Jeff Rowland. Is that a coincidence?
     The most surprising speaker at the show was the very tiny Leema speaker, shown at left. Before we get to the speaker itself, we should explain the very visible damage to the front and top right edge. The box was late in arriving, and it had been dropped, with the results you see here (we decided not to Photoshop them out). But at least it arrived. The accompanying electronics didn't show up at all, and replaement electronics had to be couriered in. Thanks, UPS.
     We should add that we heard similar unsolicited stories from a number of exhibitors who had shipped their products via UPS (pronounced "oops," as more than a one frustrated exhibitor told us. We think the company should do a little fence-mending.
     But back to the Leema speaker itself. It's as tiny as you can imagine looking at the picture, but it sounds like a speaker many times larger. And larger than its price too, which is just $1400. On a solo bass version of the Beatles' Come Together, the sound had us looking for the hidden subwoofer. We couldn't find one.
     This huge speaker from Legacy, at right, had us split (and to be fair Albert and Gerard heard them separately). Yes, that's a Heil tweeter in the middle, and the highs had the natural sweetness that we associate with the design. Driven by Ayon tube electronics from Austria, they were smooth and anything but irritating. Albert, who owns speakers with Heil tweeters, gave them good marks.
     Gerard agreed, but wished they had more life and drive. Perhaps another listen is called for.
     We end with one more speaker, much smaller than the Legacy. The Amphion Argon 3 ($2800 in basic finish) is from Finland. Note the gigantic tweeter, with a gently-flared curve to minimize diffration, a cause of poor imaging and rough off-axis frequency response. Driven by the inexpensive Audio Analogue Crescendo player and integrated amp (just $1095 each) they sounded warm and pleasant, rendering acoustic guitar in an entirely natural fashion, letting us hear the texture of the nylon strings.
     It seems evident that either the Amphion or the even smaller Leema could find a place in an inexpensive system that could do justice to music.
     At this point we've seen it all, or nearly so. We'll wind up our tour Sunday, with the final report expected on line late Monday morning.

[ON TO DAY THREE]