Just returning from the 2008 Montreal Hi-Fi Show.
Best sound in the show for me this year:
Leben Integrated with ProAc speaker. Best tube amp in the show.
The very nice CS300XS in particular, at 2500$ is a steal. I may be tempted one of this day. Source was Clearaudio table playing some nice vinyle.
TentLabs Diy CD Player with tube output. Best CD player in the show for me. Just wonderful sound, let the CEC player in the dust. Preamp and Amp were the stratospheric Lamm.
Reference 3A, great speaker as well driven by Antique Sound Lab tubes electronic. Great as well.
Totem Acoustic Mani-2 speakers, always great sounding little things. But still need a huge amp to drive them.
EAR Full range speaker in back compression enclosure sounds great.
Too bad the Zu Audio speakers were not at the show.
Audio Research stuff was use all over the place. Always sounding great. I saw their huge Reference 610T Amplifiers. Almost as big as dishwasher. Come on boys, this is just crazy. They were warming the all hotel
Lets not even thinking about replacing all these tubes, a nightmare
A lot of vinyle in the show as well. Long life to plastic guys.
I was a good boy. I just bought 10 CD's, no expensive stuff.
Great price on SACD, Reference Recordings label, etc.
And as always, great sound that sadly most of us Diyer could never afford:
Verity Audio speaker with Nagra sound system, including their new CD player.
Wilson Audio Watt/Puppy, excellent.
The flagship Kef Muon speakers were driven by Musical Fidelity sound system, including the huge 500K Supercharger amp (I guest these speakers are not easy load!). Huge, expensive (150K), limited production (only 100) dinosaurs. They sound nice, but I would go for the Leben and ProAc anytime. Even the Watt/Puppy was better (to me...) Don't even start with the look, huge (6.4Ft height), ugly and heavy (250lbs each) beast. The Musical Fidelity A1008 CD Player was nice, but the Kef saleman tried to convince us that an iPod using the new Wadia Pod dac was as good. Still iPod so-so sound, multiply by ten by the huge monster. The iPod (like a Cambridge basic CD Player for me) is still ok in my book for casual listening but no match for the real thing. Or maybe, it was the Wadia awful digital sound again.
And as always too, the dreadful small Chinese cie stuff, just putting together audio boutique parts doesn't make music, most of the time
Deaf or bored salesman playing awful music all around. Hi guys, a tip for you: Play nice music for a start
Waiting for your comments guys.
Montreal Hi-fi Expo / Fsi - 2008
