Bernard
Well-known member
I went to the Montreal Hi-Fi show yesterday with a friend of mine. There was not really much to take pictures of (nothing new or outrageous) and it was busy. It was hard getting demos without having people unclear on the concept standing between you (seated) and a speaker; happened to me at least twice.
Some general observations:
In the first room we walked into, my friend really liked the track "Yulunga" from a Dead Can Dance CD; I thought it was pleasant, but I wouldn't buy it.
We walked into a demo of some horn speakers, where they willingly played a couple of tracks from CDs I took. Made me realize I was missing the bass foundation in my SL3s, but the bass was so overpowering that it was messing up the stuff up the line. Given a choice, I would stick with my MLs.
Then we walked into the MBL room, where they were demoing the 101E, and, just as at last year's show, they very obligingly played my CDs. My friend was mightily impressed by how natural they sounded. I was startled by the beginning of one of the tracks; I have listened to it tons of times, but heard new stuff, and the clarity was amazing. If I had the shekels I would almost be tempted to join Gordon on the dark side!
When I was leaving, the MBL guy told me that he remembered me from last year, and asked me to come back later as he liked my music, and that hopefully I would get a better seat (they had a truly crappy room). So we went back, this time to the 120 speakers. They were impressive as well. I truly forgot about the speakers and the show, and enjoyed the music (my music). I took some female vocals and solo piano.
Then I walked into a room where there were no speakers in sight, and they started a presentation soon after. This is a Montreal company that was demoing a 3-channel system they are developing; a processor synthesizes the centre channel from the left and right. I was interested in it as I was recently reading an interview with Harry Weisfeld in an old TAS, where he was advocating the use of a centre channel. In this case the speakers were behind a curtain, and we were given laser pens to point to where we heard the sounds from; I didn't bother with the pen, but in retrospect I should have. One thing that struck me immediately was that the image heights were wrong; in particular, the drums were close to the ceiling. A lot of people pointed to the left side of the curtain. At the end the guy indicated that there were speakers on either side (at the exact location pointed to), with the centre channel close to the ceiling. When I told him that his image heights were wrong, he asked if anyone else heard the drums near the ceiling; no one else did, apart from my friend, who did not speak up as he does not speak French and the presenter did not speak English. The presenter was dismissive of my comments. I left unimpressed. Note: the presenter did not reveal what speakers they were using. I wonder how it would sound with Joe's CLXs, but then Joe has one too many (or one too few?).
As much as I think that Chord equipment looks gorgeous in silver, it looks like crap in black.
There was some ARC Ref stuff on static display. Gorgeous in silver (as it should be); I don't like dark ARC.
I thought that some Castle speakers sounded very nice, but that may have been because they were playing Marta Gomez. I was beginning to think that I liked Brit sound, but I was unimpressed with some Spendors. Sorry Justin!
There were a lot of turntables, a lot on static display. One impressive-looking one was made by Haas. Most sources were CD, iPad, or servers.
In one room a woman was playing music from her iPhone and comparing cables between it and the USB input on an amp. You could clearly hear differences between the cables, and no, it was not double-blind.
In the software area I saw two CDs that caught my attention, so I bought them. They were "Lullabies from the Axis of Evil" and "Cantus Sororum" (Medieval Brigittine Songs From Naantali Convent) on the Proprius label. The first one is lullabies from places like Iran, Iraq, and Syria. I listened to a couple of tracks when I got home; lovely women's voices doing soothing lullabies. Recommended. The second CD I was sure to like as I love to listen to nuns' voices in chant; I was not disappointed. No Todd, I said "Medieval" not "Baroque".
DAMN! Martin Logan was not there!
Listening to my system at home after, I could not help but think I do not have to apologize to anyone for it.
Some general observations:
In the first room we walked into, my friend really liked the track "Yulunga" from a Dead Can Dance CD; I thought it was pleasant, but I wouldn't buy it.
We walked into a demo of some horn speakers, where they willingly played a couple of tracks from CDs I took. Made me realize I was missing the bass foundation in my SL3s, but the bass was so overpowering that it was messing up the stuff up the line. Given a choice, I would stick with my MLs.
Then we walked into the MBL room, where they were demoing the 101E, and, just as at last year's show, they very obligingly played my CDs. My friend was mightily impressed by how natural they sounded. I was startled by the beginning of one of the tracks; I have listened to it tons of times, but heard new stuff, and the clarity was amazing. If I had the shekels I would almost be tempted to join Gordon on the dark side!
When I was leaving, the MBL guy told me that he remembered me from last year, and asked me to come back later as he liked my music, and that hopefully I would get a better seat (they had a truly crappy room). So we went back, this time to the 120 speakers. They were impressive as well. I truly forgot about the speakers and the show, and enjoyed the music (my music). I took some female vocals and solo piano.
Then I walked into a room where there were no speakers in sight, and they started a presentation soon after. This is a Montreal company that was demoing a 3-channel system they are developing; a processor synthesizes the centre channel from the left and right. I was interested in it as I was recently reading an interview with Harry Weisfeld in an old TAS, where he was advocating the use of a centre channel. In this case the speakers were behind a curtain, and we were given laser pens to point to where we heard the sounds from; I didn't bother with the pen, but in retrospect I should have. One thing that struck me immediately was that the image heights were wrong; in particular, the drums were close to the ceiling. A lot of people pointed to the left side of the curtain. At the end the guy indicated that there were speakers on either side (at the exact location pointed to), with the centre channel close to the ceiling. When I told him that his image heights were wrong, he asked if anyone else heard the drums near the ceiling; no one else did, apart from my friend, who did not speak up as he does not speak French and the presenter did not speak English. The presenter was dismissive of my comments. I left unimpressed. Note: the presenter did not reveal what speakers they were using. I wonder how it would sound with Joe's CLXs, but then Joe has one too many (or one too few?).
As much as I think that Chord equipment looks gorgeous in silver, it looks like crap in black.
There was some ARC Ref stuff on static display. Gorgeous in silver (as it should be); I don't like dark ARC.
I thought that some Castle speakers sounded very nice, but that may have been because they were playing Marta Gomez. I was beginning to think that I liked Brit sound, but I was unimpressed with some Spendors. Sorry Justin!
There were a lot of turntables, a lot on static display. One impressive-looking one was made by Haas. Most sources were CD, iPad, or servers.
In one room a woman was playing music from her iPhone and comparing cables between it and the USB input on an amp. You could clearly hear differences between the cables, and no, it was not double-blind.
In the software area I saw two CDs that caught my attention, so I bought them. They were "Lullabies from the Axis of Evil" and "Cantus Sororum" (Medieval Brigittine Songs From Naantali Convent) on the Proprius label. The first one is lullabies from places like Iran, Iraq, and Syria. I listened to a couple of tracks when I got home; lovely women's voices doing soothing lullabies. Recommended. The second CD I was sure to like as I love to listen to nuns' voices in chant; I was not disappointed. No Todd, I said "Medieval" not "Baroque".
DAMN! Martin Logan was not there!
Listening to my system at home after, I could not help but think I do not have to apologize to anyone for it.
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