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SHOW REPORT: MONTREAL FESTIVAL SON & IMAGE
2006:
Crème De La Crème
April, 2006
Making my way through the serpentine
cobblestone streets of Old Montreal, past
fragrant French patisseries, Tunisian
restaurants serving couscous, and Chinatown’s
bustling lotto stores, one senses that the
beat of this city moves with an eclectic and
quickened urban heart. Into this cornucopia
lands the 19th Edition of the Festival Son &
Image, (“FSI”) held at the Sheraton Hotel in
the heart of Montreal’s business district back
on March 24-26. Let’s enter the Sheraton and
commence a tour of this relatively small and
convivial hi-end audio show. Here you will be
able to linger longer in each room, have a
têtê à têtê with exhibitors and mingle with
couples and families out for a discerning
listen to what is new in hi-end audio. You
witness members of the Montreal Audiophile
Society clasping warm handshakes while at the
next table, a line of Sennheiser 650 headsets
offer a listen to wonderful acoustic
recordings of a P.I. Tchaikovsky piano trio
recorded at the Glenn Gould studio in Toronto.
The Montreal–based Fidelio Recording Label is
here as well, exhibiting their prized
audiophile recordings along with a special
show sampler disc for $10, with proceeds to a
local charity. Fidelio’s youthful recording
engineer extraordinaire, Rene LaFlamme
welcomes you like a friend to his exhibit and
hushes you politely so you can hear the
meltingly wonderful guitar strings on his
latest analog recording. The theme of East
meets West extends to the listening rooms.
Here, venerable transports from C.E.C. in
Japan are mated with sleek electronics from
the French company, Mimetism, to create a
delicate sonic smorgasbord. Visitors sit
transfixed to hear every nuance, exhibitors
are glad to play your selections, and everyone
has an understanding that because these hotel
rooms are not made for music, system synergy
is the ultimate goal, as opposed to a true
test of each individual component (which can
only truly be determined in one’s own system
listening at home).
So, grab a croissant and a morsel of
Montreal’s famed steamed meat, and join me in
my impressions of this wonderful, eclectic and
friendly show. PLEASE NOTE: I listened to
selections from the following reference discs
to evaluate each room at FSI:
Sir Granville Bantock, Celtic Symphony,
[Hyperion 66450]
Odetta, Blues Everywhere I Go [MC
Records 0038]
Doug Macleod, Whose Truth, Whose Lies [Audioquest
1054]
Leonard Hochman, Manhattan Morning [Jazzheads
9495]
(Also Note: all available prices in USD
unless otherwise indicated)
Let us start our tour with some of the
highlights of the relatively affordable gear
that were shown at FSI. I was glad to see a
lot of new reasonably priced audio equipment
at FSI from companies around the globe,
recognizing that these are tough economic
times for audiophiles from Montreal to
Manhattan. I first spent some pleasurable time
listening to French Atoll Electronique and
Highland Audio. I was not familiar with
Highland, but their Oran 4305 Tower speakers
($1650) (although non-descript in appearance),
really had some nice rhythm and pacing on the
blues selections I played. They were driven by
an all Atoll lineup, including their sleek AM
200 amp ($1850); PR3 preamp ($1900) and a
Lecteur CD player, the CD 100 ($1500). Atoll
is certainly a company to check out for its
very clean and involving sonic presentation at
a reasonable price point.
Here are photos of the newest amps and preamps
from Rogue Audio, their Metis preamp ($995)
and Atlas amp ($1,395), shown in the Eggleston
room. They drove a pair of Eggleston Works
Fontaine II speakers ($5500) with a stunning
clarity that really pulled one into the music.
A fantastic pair of electronics that deserves
more of a listen at this price point.
I
also fell in love with the music emanating
from the more costly Vienna Acoustics
Beethoven Baby Grand speaker ($4395 photo
above) driven by Primare electronics (preamp 30
$2495; A32 amp $5595; CD 31 $2895) in the
Sumiko Room. Here is a photo of this beautiful
speaker that bested many in terms of its
neutrality and delicacy of detail on short
listen. I think Vienna Acoustics is on to
something special at this price point.
Another
reasonably priced speaker company I had not
heard of before FSI was Nucore from Oregon.
Here is a photo of their “Cathedral Sound” two
coupler transmission line speakers, the larger
LR45 ($3000) and LR 42 ($2500). The sound in
this room was very enticing, with a roundness
in the mid and bass region which made Odetta’s
voice full and voluptuous. The speakers were
an easy load, driven nicely by a single ended
18 watt amp.
 Finally,
the king of price point quality, Usher Audio,
had several rooms on display at FSI and each
offered a captivating glimpse into both
Usher’s line, as well as some new affordable
electronics. In one room, these Usher X719
($1000) monitors with stands ($500) were
driven by the latest Nuforce Reference 9.02
amps ($2500) with Nuforce P-8 preamp ($1200)
and Usher CD 1 player ($800). The music simply
invaded this small space, with great pace,
detail and drive, but with surprisingly little
bass boom or reverb. In another room, Usher
mini series monitors (S-520 $400) were driven
by an Exemplar DAC ($1695
photo right) (John Tucker’s new
tube D to A design that he claims modifies the
input receiver to ignore jitter). Here is a
photo of this new DAC with its wood face. This
room also saw the introduction of the Belles
Soloist 3 preamp ($795) and the Belles Soloist
5 amp ($900). Again, great rhythm and pacing
from this reasonably priced system, combining
Usher and Belles to great synergistic effect.
Taking a quick
break for a café au laut, I wandered from
these affordable, very listenable rooms to the
McIntosh Room, where their reference speaker,
the XRT2KW
 (with
its 40 tweeters, 64 midrange and 6 woofers) ($80,000-mon dieu!) held
court, being powered by the dry chassis
monoblock MC2KW with two power modules and one
output module (2000 watts into 8, 4 or 2
ohms $70,000). I love the mid bass warmth,
detail and power of my own pair of MC 501
monoblocks at home, but the bombastic attack
in this shallow room had me heading for the
doors quickly. I did spy this gleaming MC 275
on a side table, wondering whether things
might have been better served with this
classic driving more intimate (and affordable)
speakers.
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