The 36th edition of Montreal Audiofest held at Hotel Bonaventure in downtown Montreal, continues through this weekend. This year marks plenty of firsts, not just Canadian debuts but in some cases, the first time in North America that audio products are being shown.
Some of the highlights include the global launch of the Klipsch Klipschorn AK7, a 3-way cross-over, fully horn-loaded loudspeaker, with brand new 3” compression drivers and vented 15” woofers. For fans of the Klipsch Horn series, there’s an opportunity to meet and speak with Roy Delgado, the designer of these $28,000 CDN speakers who worked closely with Paul Klipsch. An interesting story shared by Delgado on how the new AK7 speakers came about, is that the tooling for the original Klipsch Horn’s had simply worn out, so came an opportunity to reimagine a new take on a historical design. Klipsch is distributed in Canada by Gentec International who are on the show floor for the first time in six years. Also on display, and distributed by Gentec, are new streamers by WiiM Audio including the all-new Vibelink amp, new amplifiers by Teac and an array of turntables by Project.
What was a Canadian-inspired execution, Gentec is showing the “Project Configurator”, a website portal that allows a customer an opportunity to customize a Project Extension 9 turntable where they can build and fully customize a turntable by choosing options in colour, tone arm, power supply, cabling, cartridge and phono preamps. Project states there are 17,280 different combinations that can be created. Gentec’s Vice President, Dick Tuerlings, took inspiration from the bespoke high-end car industry, where customers pick their options on say a Ferrari, to make it their own. Tuerlings noted there was also a pragmatic goal with the Configurator concept noting it’s virtually impossible to stock so many optional accessories. This way, the customer builds their dream turntable online with the retailer, and the turntable arrives at their door with a certificate of authenticity inside 30 days. Access to the Project Configurator is only available through an authorized retailer.
Parent company Masimo, who’s brands include Marantz, Denon and B&W loudspeakers introduced a fully reimagined booth experience at the show, uniting all the brands under one large, spacious booth. The new flow of the room with one entry and exit created a cohesive vision for how the brands differ, but also complement each other. Keeping with our theme of firsts, visitors to the Marantz booth will experience the North American debut of the Marantz Model 10 series that includes the Reference $20,000 250 watt 2-channel integrated amp along with a $16,000 10N SACD player. While Marantz has always been a name lusted after in the vintage after-market, the new 10 series all but guarantees that Marantz will continue to be sought-after for decade to come. The listening room combines two Model 10 amps with the 10N SACD player in a gorgeous champagne hue, paired with Bowers and Wilkins 801D4 Signature speakers in a California Burl finish for a total package of $128,000. What a set up!
Another re-debut after the soft launch last fall is the Marantz $7,500 Grand Horizon and $4,500 Horizon all-in-one powered speakers. Canadian Paul Bélanger, Director of Product Development for Masimo spent close to three years of his life going from idea to finished product with the Horizon series with the result being a spectacular lifestyle powered speaker more akin to art than player. If Devaliet Phantom created the market for high-end powered speakers, Marantz has fine-tuned it with the launch of the Horizon.
Lenbrook, the parent company of global brands including NAD, psb and Bluesound are using the Montreal Audio show to debut the DALI EPIKORE series of loudspeakers. The Epikore 9, 7 and 3 series are being shown for the first time in North America and are the latest evolution of the DALI EPICON series and a slight step, down-stream in price from the six figure KORE series.
On demo are the 4-way EPIKORE 9 in a gorgeous gloss walnut, hand built in Denmark. Jason Zidle, Lenbrook’s Product Manager responsible for DALI in North America shared that DALI ended up buying a high-end furniture manufacture in Denmark to accomplish the complicated and intricate wood detailing needed to perfect the cabinetry work with the EPIKORE series. The bookself EPIKORE 3 retail for $20,000 with optional $4,000 stands. I found myself gravitated to the gold-plated speaker posts and how effortlessly they unscrewed. DALI is indeed a brand where nothing is spared and the price is the price.
Vancouver-based audio manufacturer Kanto had two debuts to share; the UKI near-field desk top speaker that for the first time moves away from a rectangular shape typical of past Kanto models to softer edges. These tiny speakers will be available for $289 by early summer and typical to all Kanto releases, their volume and tone defy their size. Kanto is also introducing a new corporate logo and branding strategy incorporating the tag line “bringing people and sound together.” The new logo is a first in over a decade for the brand and freshens up the Kanto badge for a more contemporary future.
Brantford-based speciality audio distributor The Watershed Group are attending Audiofest for the very first time and arrived to impress with a $262,000 demo set-up built around high-end Italian component manufacturer Audiaflight along with Scandinavian loudspeaker manufacturer Marten, with a Clearaudio Innovation turntable. Arguably the best sounding demo experience at the show.
Another impressive demo experience came from a brand-new Canadian company called Fosi Audio who have been in business for barely a month! The young team behind Fosi Audio have some seriously experienced mentors by way of Lily Lau, previous owner of Motet and Allan Sung, who along with Lily founded Ultralink and XLO cables back in the day. What made Fosi Audio’s demo so impressive is that it began with a live cello performance by Canadian virtuoso Noémie Raymond who beautifully performed excerpts of Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata in G Minor. Fosi Audio then played the same music using Fosi amps and DACS where the whole set-up retails for less than $1,000 (speakers included). The Rachmaninoff replication was detailed and warm and will surely be causing much head-scratching during the show, that a system so inexpensive can be so detailed.
As you’d expect, Canadian patriotism was fully on display. Bryston haphazardly had taped a Canadian flag against the wall of their demo room. They planned to iron the flag and present it better for the Saturday show opening!! Totem debuted a beautiful new backdrop for the new Bison branded speakers that also included a made-in-Canada reminder. Speaking of Totem, the company created a hip DJ booth at the show using the brand’s flagship Element Metal speakers to inject a much-needed dose of youth to the show. When the Totem DJ was on break, Canadian jazz guitarist Mike Bruzzese performed jazz standards adding another great live music experience for show attendees with both the DJ and live music, making Totem one of the best attended booths of the show.
The show continues through Sunday with lots to see and hear. We will be posting additional show reports in the coming days.