While the walk from the Sheraton to the Hilton was short, it felt much like an arctic expedition with wind chills at minus ten degrees celcius. In 2009 it was rain, but at least it wasn’t this cold. The walk was a stark contrast to all the warm musical goodness that awaited us at the new Salon venue. Even in the first rooms, we could tell this years show would indeed sound superior. These new rooms gave exhibitors a real chance to showcase their wares. So lets get to the details!

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It’s that time again as the chill in the air clears and the sun shines oh so brightly. It’s time for the Montreal Hi-Fi expo or the Salon Son & Image as the new names says. I miss the shows that used to come to Toronto, but at least Montreal is easier and cheaper then trying to get to Vegas for the CES and T.H.E Shows. The bonus, as always with Montreal, is all the great food!

Located just across the street from the Central Train Station, the Montréal Hilton Bonaventure is a new venue for the show, and it promises much better rooms and easier access to the exhibits. Penthouse style guest suites are layed out all on the same level, so no elevators, or getting lost. This hotel should make for better sound and hopefully more chairs for listening sessions.

There will be photo’s and posts after the show! So come on back!

So I bought me an Audio Technical AT150MLX cartridge (in Tokyo) and installed it on my Systemdek IIX, and for the first time I could hear what everyone was talking about. Even though I kept reading that vinyl can/does sound the same/better then CD play back, I had heard no such thing from my own record player using the Ortofon OM5 cartridge. With the new cartridge, the difference/similarities to my digital front end is very obvious, and in some ways the vinyl wins! So here I am looking to add more upgrade to my Systemdek IIX and the cable was a good place to start.

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I believe the most important part of an audio system is the source. As they say, you can’t fix down stream what’s broken upstream. My Aragon D2A MKII is great, but I it is over 15 years old, and that’s why I went to compare it to the Bryston BDA-1.

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I am always reading about various isolation products. One can find cones made of metal or carbon. Their are hard metal/rubber/resin balls in cups. You can use solid heavy weight things like granite and marble, or softer materials like Sorbothane and other rubber like materials. I did hear of one isolation platform that uses ‘air’… well sort of uses air.

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I’ve been a PC/Windows user since 1989, way back when you needed two people to lift some of those old IBM desktops, and storage came in 5″ floppy form. Flash forward to 2009, it’s time to add a media server to my audio/video setup, and I decided to go the easy way… which brings me to the new Apple Mac Mini!

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When one talks of audio, and I intend to speak of ‘high-end’ audio, one must always bring to the discussion talk of cables and the necessity of cabling. Let me say now, that I am a convert of better cabling. That stuff that comes free is meant for the recycling bin, which brings me to a super fine upgrade, Wireworld Polaris 5 interconnect cable.

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So I got me a Konnekt 8 to use as a digital S/PDIF converter for my Mac Mini.  From the Mac Mini I use the Konnekt 8’s S/PDIF output to connect to my old Aragon D2A converter.

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