Robert Schryer

Toronto Audiofest 2022

The Anthem/Paradigm room

Robert Schryer
The Anthem/Paradigm system may have been simply assembled, but don't let that fool you into thinking it wasn't sophisticated technologically or sound-wise. The Anthem STR integrated ($6000) outputs 200Wpc, comes with a hi-rez DAC, a USB audio input that supports up to 32/384 PCM, a pair of MM/MC phono inputs, and offers room correction. The speakers being fed by the Anthem were the fancy-looking five-driver, 95dB-sensitive, class-D bass-amplified Paradigm Founder 120H speakers ($11,000/pair; review to appear in the December issue of Stereophile).
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Toronto Audiofest 2022

Focal, Naim, IsoAcoustics, Kimber Kable in the Kennedy Hi-Fi Room

Robert Schryer
The speakers on display in the Kennedy room included two pairs of Focal 926s, one of which, standing higher than the other, were threaded with IsoAcoustics Gaia ll feet, the other with the stock feet. Electronics included a Naim ND5 SS2 streamer ($5540 US), which comes with four 24/192 digital inputs, and a 70Wpc Naim Nait SX 3 integrated amp ($5540 US), while cabling consisted of Kimber Kable's Carbon series.
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Toronto Audiofest 2022

The BSC Research/Apple Tree Room

Robert Schryer
The Apple Tree owner and distributor of BSC Research speakers must have done some research on what it would take to put this hard-nosed reporter on his good side because the first he did when I walked into his room was offer me a microbrewery beer. So sneaky. I took a rain check on the beer, but I wouldn't have needed a beer to enjoy the sound I heard in this room.
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Toronto Audiofest 2022

Tri-Art in Toronto

Robert Schryer
The Tri-Art room, the first I visited, started me off on a good foot. It consisted of a presentation given by owner Steve Ginsberg and his colleague Jim Leveille, and it was fascinating. Tri-Art, if you recall from previous show reports, is the audio company that makes a series of electronics and open-baffle speakers whose enclosures, plus "jelly bean" acoustic treatments, are made out of solid bamboo. Steve loves bamboo as a material for its tonal qualities and also because bamboo is so rigid and impervious to splintering, you can mill it like you would metal, with a CNC machine. I also think bamboo has a wholesome, organic, warm aesthetic that's mother-earth sculpture-like.
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Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Triangle Antal 40th Anniversary Edition loudspeaker

Robert Schryer
Has it ever crossed your mind that the reason you like your system more than your friend's or the store's is not because yours is better, even if you think it is, but because you're used to the sound of yours and not of theirs? Welcome to product habituation.

Some people, including some audiophiles, believe that product habituation is what's really behind what some people refer to as product break-in. It's not a mechanical or electronic phenomenon, they contend, but a mental one. Assuming the sound of the new gear is of adequate quality, it's the listener that breaks in to the product, as the product's sound, which was initially strange, grows more familiar and, so, right.

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Montreal Audio Fest 2022

The Asona – Innuos Room

Robert Schryer

When I first saw the big black banner on the wall in importer/distributor Asona's room, which was, despite the chronological order of my postings, actually one of the first rooms I'd visited at the show, inscribed in big bold letters with Innuos across it, I thought: "Hey, Innuos, isn't that the company that makes streaming products?

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