Canuck Audio Mart

I have a TTWeights 600gm copper one here: It is 343mm in diameter, 349 with the alignment disc. If you take a tape measure and set the 172mm mark over the spindle you can check if it clears the tonearm. On mine it just misses the antiskate lever by a couple of mm. It's enough!

Hi: I have heard from a couple of friends in the biz, that the cost of these shows is high & they are hard pressed to make their money back in terms of the business generated.

I can guess as to the reasons for this, but they would be guesses, not anything based on research or experience.

I tried the 600 gram one and not the 290 because he didn't have the setting tool for the size of the Orbe. It didn't work out. Sometimes it was good sometimes not.

This is not a fault of the product because I like it. It's just that it was too heavy for my Michell Orbe. I needed the 290 one.

I think for suspended turntable, we have to watch out how much weight we use. Toou much...kills dynamics, too light..might not work??

I will email Larry this week and possibly work with him to do a custom one for my Orbe.

Ren

There wasn't that many good ones at the show. Coupe Foude and Filtronique are good but doesn't interest me that much. I am already their customer but I am looking at products that offer great value.

1) Grant Fidelity. Amazing for the price. I was interested in their small 10 watt integrated and was skeptical when Ian told me they would sound good.

Not only where they good but they where able to handle a Rogers LS3/A knock off. Tiny speaker that are 84db efficient. They rock!!

2) Tube Magic Canada. Amazing 20 SE monoblock AMP and preamp based on 2A3. Spent a lot of time on Sunday listening to this!! Thinking of matching them with my Lamhorn!!

3) Lafleur speakers. Amazing sound but c'mon!! $14000 for a speaker that is not well established yet?

4) Adam speakers with Manley gear. The small one impressed the heck out of me. I tried all their speakers. Love them...

Hey Chris, thanks for the 2 manley shirts (Long Sleeve one in medium. and short sleeve on in Large). Appreciate them. Gonna wear them to work dude!!!

5) Totem look-alike killer!! Discovered them last year and yes I was the one who mentioned them last year...Can you guess which room I am talking about? They where downstairs in the same room with Rossner & Sohn. Easily better than a Model 1 (Hold on...I didn't say "The One").

Get em...nice cabinet, nice sound and they are 91db efficiency. Hey Joe, if your reading this...you gotta spread the word about this friggin speaker!!

6) Of course, Rossner & Sohn..What can I say Lawrence. Set-up was better than last year. I wanna Canofer!!!

7) Hi-Fi+ with kick as big Ass Ushers (The Bad boys...). You might have missed em, they had no signs telling them where they where until Sunday morning.

Love these speakers. Price is freakin reasonable for the size but ****, I would have to buy a freakin bigger house to get these babies!!

Hey Nick, can you bring back the other Usher floorstanders in the same room but with a Turntable!!!!

Ren

I'm right there with you on that one dude.....one of my favorites of the day, couldn't believe how good those Kef sounded.

The electronics powering the Devore was Leben

I blew through the show on Saturday. I was disapointed to see the lack of rooms using quality turntables as a source, heck I would have been happy to see a mediocre table being used. I could probably count on one hand, how many turntables I saw spinning.

Some rooms sounded quite nice. I found myself going back to the large Verity/Nagara room twice....very nice!

I also thought the Coherent room sounded quite good.

Oh yeah, that's right - had never heard of them before - great sounding gear!

Have to agree with a lot of the other posters in that this year's exhibition was quite disappointing compared to years past. I've gone for the last 6 years running and this year was clearly the weakest. However, given that a good portion of the planet's wealth has disappeared in the past 12 months that's hardly surprising. It was still worth the drive down from Ottawa, though, and I'm glad I went.

High point: The room that really blew me away was the Xindak/Teo Audio (i.e. these new "liquid cables") room. Worldwide Wholesales was the name of the company carrying the gear. They used a pair of Lafleur X1 speakers with a Xindak tube transport/DAC plus a 160W integerated. The speakers and liquid cables cost four times as much as entire front end but the sound was absolutely stunning and seamless. The old audiophile conceit about "lifting veils from the music and feeling like the musicians were in the room" was in full force here. I was able to slip in the MOFI SACD of Surfer Rosa by the Pixies and I literally felt like I was in the recording studio. Given the fact that the room was empty when I came in but absolutely full to capacity by the time "Where is my Mind" finished was testament to the drawing power of the sound of this setup. If I had a spare $14K lying around I would have bought those speakers on the spot!

Low Point: The Nordost demo room. I know Bruno from Konnectson and his demo clearly showed the differences between cables. I've said it before and I'll say it again: anybody that doesn't believe cables can make a difference to the sound of their system needs to sit in on one of these Nordost cable demos. The difference in sound from one level to another is not subtle. However, my beef with the room was the equipment he was using. I'm not sure how much can be put down to the gear (SimAudio) and how much to the speakers (the big-ass Thiels that were reviewed in Stereophile not long ago) but the sound was almost unbearably bright. It wasn't until he put the Valhalla cabling in the system that you were getting enough organic acoustic information from the source to make you actually want to listen for any length of time. I know they can do this better because two years ago I sat in on the same demo using Arcam sources and System Audio speakers (a line Bruno carries) and loved it so much I bought the speakers!

Coolest point: Picked up the MOFI 2LP set of "Angel Dust" by Faith No More (sorry Gunnar, couldn't wait...). Got it home and slapped it on the table, cranked my pre higher than it's even been and let 'er rip....I'm still trying to get my brain cells unscrambled as we speak. The difference between this album and my CD copy is the biggest I've ever heard. The CD sounds absolutely squeezed, compressed, and tinny by comparison. Scary good!

Canphan

Bryston's BP-26,BCD-1,BDA-1 and 28B-SSTs driving the Martin Logan CLX's,
possibly one of the most perfect souding rooms,
quoted by Eric Sadler of Son Ideal.

and..do you believe him?

Hi guys first of all i want to thank Ian & Rachel from Grant Fidelity i spent a couple of hours in the three days that i was there you can tell when somebody likes what they are doing and they do it was a pleasure to meet them now for what i was most impressed with # 1 = SURPRISE dollar for dollar best system Herald ALL MADE IN CHINA $ 18,000.00 US people could not beleive the prices for that kind of sound # 2 yep another MADE IN CHINA & QUEBEC Xindak & Lafleur # 3 all three rooms from Coup De Foudre Audio for me it was the first time that i heard Wilson Audio sound good in a show the Maxx & Pathos combination was realy realy good saturday afternoon but in the morning it was like very bad.

PS: The chinese bashing will have to stop they are NOT getting good they are already very good REMEMBER not to long ago the saying made in japan no good HONDA - Toyota - Mazda - i think that they are doing pretty well no.

To me, this room with those 30 year old Kef 105's had the best sound I heard at the show!

He did not play the music loud and it sounded very natural - I could live with the system he had in that room and never worry about tweaks or upgrades.

Of note, this room did not have the those garden hose thick speaker/mains cables that were prevalent in so many other lesser sounding systems - instead, the (humble) guy who set up the room focused on treating the acoustics and not wasting money where it doesn't make a difference.

Yep,as I've auditioned the 26 in my modest room,
I find it superb.I liked it so much I ordered one.
As I've been playing music professionally most of my life,
I find to my ears,Bryston gets out of the way and lets you hear how an
instrument sounds in it's enviroment,live,studio ect.
I'm also sure she mates we'll with my 28s.
Everybody's listening is different,some are content with Solidstate,Tubes ,AM,FM,MP-3,boom boxes,so called subs in vehicles.One person's honey is
another's poison.Personally if I like the music I don't care what source is playing it as long as the MUSIC is to my liking and that's what sh'e all about,
The MUSIC

I found it seriously lacked punch and the balance of bass was off, those big flapping panels just can't make convincing bass IMO.