Montreal Audiofest 2024

All prices listed in Canadian dollars.

"I could live with a system like this," I thought, as I sat beguiled by what I was hearing and seeing in the room co-hosted by Luna Cables, Thöress, AudioNec, The Wand, and Wattson Audio. At that moment I wasn’t thinking only of the system’s sound quality but also of the artisanal, passionate, old-values aesthetic these companies represent. Certainly those components—those values—were making beautiful music together, music with touch, tactility, air, pure tone, expressive delicacy, vocal purity, solid bass, transparency, and informational fullness.

The system consisted of the small-footprint Wattson Audio Emerson Analog network bridge/DAC/streamer ($2095); Thöress’s tubed, minimalist, 30Wpc, single-ended EHT Mkll integrated amplifier ($13,995) and maximally-named MM/MC Parametric Phono Equalizer Mklll phono stage ($15,995); the singular Wand 14-4 Master turntable and tonearm ($13,995; see Spin Doctor Michael Trei's review of the standard Wand 14-4), fitted with the venerable Denon 103 MC phono cartridge ($479); a pair of upgradable AudioNec EVO 1 speakers, equipped with DuoPole 31 drivers; and the neo-vintage, environment-friendly Luna Cables. Wattson, I gathered from listening to a few of the company’s products throughout the show, makes digital sound human.

I enjoyed this room very much.