All
prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
Montreal
2000 Post-Show Report
by Marc Mickelson
Part 1
Attending an audio show in a city like Montreal
presents a great challenge for me. I've never been to Montreal, so there is a pull to get
out and see the city; but there is also the task at hand, covering the show, which has its
own allure. Luckily, even though I spent only a little over two days in Montreal, I was
able to see some of the sites -- courtesy of our proofreader,  He Jung Kim -- and do my job of telling you about some of
the most interesting audio and video equipment at the Festival.
I was glad to see a number of people I knew and
meet a few people I didn't know -- as happens at every audio show. John Rocke of Audio
Odyssey (above right) poses next to the new Pathos e·motion
loudspeaker (around $2000 per pair when available). Of course, Pathos is known for its
gorgeous-looking electronics, and these speakers weren't any slouch either. Australian  Greg Osborn (left) had his speakers on display in
two adjacent rooms and driven by the unique-looking Redgum electronics.
He and his wife were in Montreal from their home in Victoria, Australia. Finally, cable
newcomers Analysis Plus (below right) had products in various rooms and
were making a family trip of it in Montreal. Mark Markel, Analysis Plus company president,
is on the far right holding a batch of the company's cables. Mark marveled at the size and
scope of the show and said he quickly ran out of all the cables he brought due to the fact
that so many companies used them in their rooms. Next year he promises to be back with
even more!
A bit on the Festival itself. Unlike the CES,
which is a trade show, the Festival is for consumers, and this, along with
something I have yet to put my finger on (the inherent friendliness of those who exhibit
and attend?) makes the Festival a most accessible show.  The rooms are inviting, the music unstuffy (at least the
bulk of it I heard) and the attendees energetic. The Festival took up nine floors at the
Delta and five more at the Sheraton Four Points, which are across the street from each
other. This makes it easy to explore one venue, then the other. The elevators were often
packed (or, at the Delta, out of order), but no matter -- you have to expect a little
inconvenience if you attend a hi-fi show.
What I saw and heard -- and liked
Two of my favorite rooms used expensive monoblock
tube amps, and I visited both of them more than once.  The Globe Audio Marketing room had a system centered
around Audio Aero's Prestige monoblocks (shown left, around $21k per
pair), which helped produce wonderful sound with JMlab Mezzo Utopia
speakers, even though the speakers were seated very near the back wall. In the Standout Matisse, Verity,
Dodson, Theta room put together by Vancouver retailer
Signature Audio, the colorful Matisse monoblocks caught my eye -- they're supposed to do
this -- but their naturally detailed sound, at least as part of the system in which they
were used, kept me coming back. These amps almost suffer from their good looks, but
they appear to deliver the sonic goodies too. This system would be my choice for the best
sound at the entire Festival, and the room was of moderate size, so there's more than a
chance that you will be able to reproduce the stellar sound in your room. Verity's
Parsifal Encore speakers, bigger brothers to the Fidelios used with the Matisse
electronics, were elsewhere at the Festival and driven by Nagra tube
electronics.
 On equal footing in terms of excitement were the
products from Antique Sound Lab, whose prices were so low given what was
being offered that they were truly hard to believe. I found myself asking Tash Goka, the
Canadian distributor of the line, more than once, "That's per pair of
monoblocks? That's US pricing, right?" With the ASL amps, you can also have your pick
of technologies -- single-ended, push-pull, mono or stereo -- and power output. I
naturally gravitated toward the SET offerings like the 22-watt KMP-22-FOX amp, which uses
the 6C33C output tubes I recognize immediately from their use in the Lamm tube amps. These
amps in particular had me doing double and even triple takes. They really do cost only
$1600 per pair. Really. I asked Tash more than once. Yes, we have a review pair coming,
but not soon enough for me. I was also impressed by the ASL AQ-2002 tube-regulated preamp
with phono, another seeming overachiever at $1200. But what may have stolen the show was
the Antique Sound Lab MG SI 15 integrated amp, which made fine music with a pair of $2250 Reference
3A De Capo speakers (shown above). The price? An estimated $550! This system
would let you put the most money into your speakers but not feel gypped at paying so
little for your electronics. We want one of the integrated amps for review -- and the
speakers, too, for that matter.
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