The 2007 Montreal Home Entertainment
and Electronics Show
Anthony Kershaw
The majority of the show photographs are available at Audiophilia's dedicated Montreal Show 2007 Flickr account. Enjoy!
All prices in US funds.
The Montreal Home Entertainment and Electronics Show, or as it is correctly known, Festival Son et Image, is the annual high end audio show in La Belle Province. I usually alternate years between CES and the Montreal Show, and after the mega CES, am always surprised how comprehensive the smaller Montreal Show is. It also doesn't take much prodding to get me to visit my hometown, home of smoked meat, Les Canadiens, and good drivers (live in Toronto for even the shortest time, and you'll understand).
The
show was a little later this year -- good news, as winter lasts a long
time in Montreal. No matter, we didn't dodge the early Spring snowstorm
that hit the Eastern Seaboard! Oh well, one year! The drive down was fun.
Rick Nickel (Yorgi on the forum) is a master driver, track instructor,
and shares my passion for BMWs, so I was happy that he offered to take
us in his 330CI. The 4.5 hour drive was the quickest I had experienced
along the boring stretch of Highway 401. It was also exhilarating and
felt very safe. There are drivers and then there are DRIVERS. Rick is
top-o-the-heap of the latter. His many students will tell you the same.
The show is under new ownership and has switched hotels. This year, it was held in the Sheraton, a slick high rise located downtown. I'm sure the exhibitors enjoyed the location. Rooms were quite spacious, walls not too spongy, elevators fast, and the location adjacent to some of Montreal's finest establishments!
There were well over 100 exhibitors showing off loads of superb high end gear. Sound in the rooms was, in general, quite fine. For the most part, exhibitors had taken the time to tune their rooms and not overload the walls with too much volume. Sure, there was some equipment that should not star under the moniker of high fidelity, but I was surprised at just how many rooms sounded quite superb. The first day, Rick, Matt and I managed to visit every room, under the umbrella of 'industry only'. It gave us a chance to interview some notables, and for Rick and Matt to take some excellent shots without the ubiquitous hand or bald head creeping into the shot. This was a good thing, as the next day was packed with the general public. Very impressive. And even though the 'Image' part of the show title may have drawn many, 'Son' was definitely the majority shareholder. Many high end fans were there with handfuls of CDs and vinyl to kick the tires and negotiate a deal or three.
KEF Canada made a big impact on the show this year. KEF's room was slick -- very large and cool. I felt like I was in a trendy condo, but without the lifestyle speakers. KEF has been absent or has felt absent from the high end scene for a few years. They are back in a big way with their Reference Line. The sound, powered by Chord monoblocks, was very refined. The workmanship on the speakers and the amps is nothing less than astonishing. The $60,000 monos would not look out of place at NYC's MOMA.
The Avid room yielded a pleasant surprise. Conrad Mas, designer of some of the planets best analog gear was showing his Acutus Reference ($19,000.00) and Volvere ($5000.00) turntables. Audiophilia reviewed the Avid Volvere Sequel some time ago and Marty Appel, Audiophilia writer, has just purchased one for his system. Mas was very pleasant -- we spent time discussing the business, vinyl and his manufacturing facilty in England. My next visit to England will include a factory tour.
The
Reference 3A Grand Veena loudspeaker ($7999.00) in the Divergent Technologies
room was splendid. I like the standard Veena ($3000.00) as much. The smaller
room had the Veena playing a Rameau cut from the Marie Antoinette soundtrack.
Just gorgeous. Musical, with a very balanced sound.
On the ground floor, Justice Audio [Audiophilia advertiser - Ed] was holding court. Lots for sale, hardware and software. And big crowds. It's a settling feeling that all the money we have spent on CDs and vinyl has not gone the way of the Dodo. Seems the two formats will be around for some time to come. SACD is almost gone and Ipods still suck, especially with the download speeds available to us legally (EMI's new agreement with Apple may begin to change all that). It was also interesting to note the number of turntables spinning vinyl. Some fantastic sounds, too.
Adjacent to the Justice Audio room, was the Sonneteer and ASW loudspeaker room. The German ASWs are terrific speakers with a finish to die for. I reviewed the 400s recently. Real powerhouses. What intrigued me in this room, though, was the Rug Rat. The Bard/Sonneteer website explains the little beauty thus: '...the Bardthree Rug Rat is a digital hi-fi amplifier, universal power supply and Bard digital receiver all in one. Simply plug in your loudspeakers into the unit select one of eight channels and receive high quality uncompressed audio from your CD player, radio tuner, computer or mp3 player that's plugged into your Bardone or BardUSB transmitter. The ultimate in simplicity and wire free high end audio, the Bardthree Rug Rat solves all your wiring problems and sounds as good as your high end separates.' I shall be receiving some Bard and Sonneteer gear to report back to you. A glimpse of the future?
The
Musical Life O turntable was being shown in the Tricell room [Audiophilia
advertiser - Ed]. It sounded splendid playing Reiner's great Scheherazade
through Acoustic Zen Adagio loudspeakers ($4000.00). The Red Dragon amplifiers
were efficient, but I'd prefer not to judge them under these conditions.
The Musical Life turntable was sold while in Montreal (lucky fella!),
so Tricell has another on order for me to review. Check out the show images
on Flickr. The arm has some secrets in store!
The GamuT room was chock-a-block with their gorgeous electronics. The precision laser work on the cases is beautiful and the sounds were clean and detailed, too. Speakers were the L7s. Stunning design, also. $14,900.00 a pair. The room was nice and large and had enough volume for the music to impress and linger.
Wilson Audio was there in force courtesy of its Montreal retailer. The room was filled every time I passed by. Lots of nodders and fans. The Watt Puppy 8 speakers ($27,900.00) sounded like the many of the previous Wilson incarnations. Lots of power via the requisite recording of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.
Matt wanted to spend more time in the Naim room. He liked the sound of the equipment and the passion exhibited by the Naim reps. Naim Frames bulged with Supernaits and Naim's line of CD players and the SL2 speakers were placed directly against the wall! Still, the sound was excellent, with no specific colour or additives. Just clean sound no matter what genre was playing.
Our last and longest stop was in the Verity Audio room. Rick has a hankering to review the Sarastro loudspeaker. Longtime Audiophilia readers will know of my predilection for this company's fantastic speakers. We parted company somewhat when speakers got much larger and tweeters changed, but the new, very large Lohengrin II ($67,995.00) had the Verity musical stamp -- clear, powerful with gorgeous (and accurate) instrumental timbre. Nice to see Bruno Bouchard's passion for the company ten years on still very much intact.
We made sure to attend every room twice, and asked for some requests at some of our favourite rooms. We found many manufacturers had spent great deals of money to convince the show goers (and other manufacturers!) that their gear was top notch; looks and sounds good. Value? Well, not much around as the best gear was $$$. Some Chinese imports were quite inexpensive but much of the time, the sound was commensurate with price.
The
three of us had fun discussing (arguing) what we should include in the
'Audiophilia Best' section. We all agreed that the sound, for show conditions,
was terrific. The kinks were worked out before the industry day. Many
shows find the room inhabitants still feverishly trying to fix this and
that, tweaking and tuning. None of that nonsense, here. All the homework
was done for the opening deadline. Congratulations to all exhibitors.
So, for 'the best'. Actually, more like what we enjoyed the most out of many enjoyable rooms. I know many of you like the finality of the 'best rooms', others eschew the reviewer arrogance. Personally, I like those lists you find in most mainstream magazines. As such, if you're inclined, enjoy, but please take with a pinch of salt.
Anthony Kershaw
Best Sound of the Show: MBL Nova 121 compact loudspeakers ($12,990 in rosewood) with the 1531 Noble CD Player ($8736.00), 5011 Noble preamp ($8720.00) and powered by the 9007 Noble power amplifier ($13,830.00). Even in a small room, these small monitors ate up the first class electronics. The best I've heard an mbl speaker at a show. Simply stunning!
Runner up: KEF/Chord. KEF is back, baby, with their new Reference 207/2 Loudspeakers powered by 60Gs worth of Chord SPM 14000 monoblocks. The room looked as good as the electronics sounded. A great experience.
Honourable Mention: Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Baby Grand Loudspeakers ($4395.00) with Primare electronics, DVD 30 ($4995.00), Pre 30 preamp ($2495.00) and A32 Amplifier ($5595.00). The Sumiko guys had their room sounding so musical. The speaker placement was perfect within the small room, with a Rel R 505 sub ($2495.00) helping the recording ambiance with just a little energy below 25Hz.
Matt Kershaw
Best Sound of Show: MBL Nova 121 compact loudspeakers ($12,990 in rosewood) with the 1531 Noble CD Player ($8736.00), 5011 Noble preamp ($8720.00) and powered by the 9007 Noble power amplifier ($13,830.00).
Runner Up: Naim CD5 CD Player ($3250.00), Supernait integrated amplifier ($4750.00) and the SL2 Loudspeaker ($12,150.00).
Honourable Mention: KEF/Chord. KEF Reference 207/2 Loudspeakers powered by Chord SPM 14000 monoblocks.
Richard Nickel
Best Sound of the Show: Verity Audio Lohengrin II with Artemis SP-1 and Nagra CD player.
Runner up: MBL Nova 121 compact loudspeakers ($12,990 in rosewood) with the 1531 Noble CD Player ($8736.00), 5011 Noble preamp ($8720.00) and powered by the 9007 Noble power amplifier ($13,830.00).
Honourable Mention: Acoustic Zen Adagio with Musical Life Basic 80, ModWright phono stage and Red Dragon Class D amps.
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