There are several Canadian product launches at 2016 Toronto Audio-Video Entertainment Show, which opened on Friday, October 28 at the Sheraton Parkway North and Best Western Hotels in Richmond Hill, ON, just north of Toronto. This is the second year for the TAVES Consumer Electronics Show in the suburban venue. It continues through Sunday, October 30.
New product launches include the Sky two-way monitor speaker from Montreal-based Totem Acoustic, a presenting sponsor of the show. Priced at $1,850 per pair, the Sky employs a Morel 5.25" long-throw mid-woofer with 3" voice coil and a 33mm dome tweeter, in a vented lock-mitred enclosure dampened with borosilicate. The simple first-order crossover creates a seamless, phase-coherent blend between the two drivers, Totem President Vince Bruzzese told me. In-room response is flat down to 48Hz and out to 30kHz, he added. And the Sky's constant 8Ω impedance makes it very easy to drive. The tiny speaker can handle 500W transients. The Sky will perform well on a shelf near the rear wall, Bruzzese said, which is how Totem demonstrated it at TAVES. In a system with a BSC-60s Class A amplifier and Naim Uniti front end, the Sky sounded warm and inviting, with a big spacious soundstage and surprisingly deep bass. The Sky will be available in mid-November, in black ash, satin white and mahogany finishes.
Kennedy Hi-Fi has two systems built around Paradigm's flagship Persona range. All Persona models have beryllium tweeters and midrange units. In one room, Kennedy Hi-Fi was playing a two-channel speaker with the top-of-the-line Persona 9F ($38,000 per pair), which has an active bass section consisting of four 8.5" woofers powered by Class D amps with 1,400 watts total output. Driving the speakers was the new Anthem STR integrated amp/DAC ($5,000). The Persona range is now starting to ship; the amp arrives early in 2017. The combination sounded superb
In an adjoining room, Kennedy Hi-Fi has a Dolby Atmos 7.2.4 theatre with Anthem processor and amplifiers, driving Persona speakers all around. An HDR clip from the 2014 sci-fi pot-boiler Lucy, played on a Samsung Ultra HD Player, was showing on a 133" Screen Innovations screen, from a JVC DLA-Z750RB projector ($7,500), calibrated for HDR and BT.2020 colour. It looked amazing.
Yet another Canadian brand, Bryston, is showing its new active speaker system, consisting of Model T floor-standers with the new BAX-1 external crossover. For the bass section, each channel had Bryston's 28B kilowatt monster. Power for midrange and high-frequency came from the two-channel 4B. The sound was incredibly fast and dynamic, and the blend between the drivers completely seamless. Also being shown are the new BCD-3 CD player and BLP-1 turntable.
Plurison has a whole slew of new offerings, including Naim Audio's revamped Uniti series, Focal's Sopra 3 No. 3 floor-standing speaker, and Micromega's M-One M100 amplifier/DAC. The company also announced its "Plurison Bucks" initiative. Plurison has printed fake $100 bills as an inducement for dealers to attend more shows. You have to visit Plurison's booth in person, where you will be given a wad of "cash" that can be applied at face value toward your invoice (up to 10%). So a dealer will receive a $500 off a $5,000 invoice by mailing in five of the fake C-notes with the payment.
Yamaha is intent on re-establishing itself as a serious player in two-channel hi-fi. At TAVES, the company is demonstrating its new flagship three-way speaker, powered by the A-S3000 integrated amp. The NS-5000's 12" woofer, 3.25"midrange and 1.25" tweeter all employ diaphragms made of Zylon, an extremely strong, extremely light synthetic fibre, coated with metal alloy vapour. Performance is comparable to beryllium, the company says, and the use of the same material for all drivers creates a seamless blend. Projected retail is in the $20,000 range.
Erikson Consumer is demonstrating three systems. At the high end is a JBL Synthesis system. In the middle are Revel's superb Performa3 F208 floor-standers powered by a Mark Levinsion No. 585 integrated amp. And for more modest budgets, Erikson is showing the new Revel Concerta2 F36 ($3,200) floor-stander and Arcam Solo Music.
Kevro International is demonstrating a $100,000 system built around Monitor Audio's Platinum II-series flagship floor-stander, the PL 500 II ($38,000 per pair). Employing a Micro-Pleated Diaphragm tweeter whose response extends to 100kHz, the PL II series made its debut at CES 2016, and has been garnering fantastic reviews. Completing the system are Pass Labs monoblocks, Simaudio Moon Evolution 740P preamp and 650D transport/DAC, Clarus cabling and Torus power conditioning.
In the truly aspirational category, it'd be hard to beat the KEF/VPI exhibit. The two companies are demonstrating a half-million-dollar system that included Muon Mk II speakers, VPI Titan turntable and Aurora phono stage, and Hegel monoblocks. The system has been sold to a customer in New Jersey for US$450,000. The Muon has been completely revamped, said KEF's Johan Coorg. It now uses the Uni-Q driver developed for the Blade, which Coorg says is "far superior" to the one in the original Muon. For US$15,000, KEF will send an engineer anywhere in the world to upgrade an original Muon system.
At shows like TAVES and SSI, I always enjoy spending time in Woo Audio's room, because it provides an opportunity to hear some of the latest and greatest headphones (and Woo Audio's great headphone amps, most of them tube-powered). At TAVES, I was able to hear Focal's new Elear and Utopia phones, plus Sony's new MDR-Z1R flagship. Powering the Utopia was a prototype high-powered fully balanced amp, which the company plans to release next year at a price between US$5,000 and $6,000.