Montreal Audio Fest 2023

"Are you sure there are no tubes in the chain?" I asked On a Higher Note's Philip O'Hanlon, North American distributor of the BBC-inspired Graham Audio speaker line, in Montreal retailer Art et Son's room. Philip was sitting with me listening to an LP of Belgian singer Mélanie De Biasio.

Although it may seem like it sometimes, not all the exhibitors at an audio show play the same typical audiophile fare, which sounds great but rarely challenges the power and dynamic reserves of their systems. Mark Jones, of Ontario-based retailer Audio by Mark Jones, is one of those exceptions to the rule. The first track he played for me was Led Zeppelin's chord-crunching, drum-whacking "Moby Dick," at high volume.

Beautiful strains of music lured me into the Audiophile Experts room, where the song "Göttingen," written in 1964 by French chanteuse Barbara (real name Monique Andrée Serf) as an ode to the German city by the same name, was playing. As well as having become a hit in her native country, the song has been credited as having helped improve relations between France and Germany in the years following the Second World War. Barbara called the song "a hymn to Franco-German reconciliation".

Bryston launched two new products at this year's show that will hit the market in a week or two, according to Bryston CEO James Tanner, who was sitting in the chair next to me in the Bryston room. If what I heard in that room are any indication, Bryston is on to something big.

As soon as I entered the room hosted by distributor / reseller Distribution Phonographe's room, I thought, "where's all the gear?" There wasn't much around, and of the few items that were around, one was so small as to be nearly imperceptible at first glance.

As is typical of their show setups, Focal Naim occupied a large, banquet-style room divvied up into different exhibits and active setups. How can you realistically gauge the sound of a demo while other demoes are playing in the background? The trick Focal Naim used, which worked like a charm, was to move our group among alternating demoes so that only one played at a time.

What did the Hearken and Art et Son rooms have in common? The Graham Audio LS8.1 speakers ($13,300), so it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that I heard a similarly, though not identically, engaging intimacy in both systems' presentations, the kind that made me just want to relax in my seat and listen through whole albums.