HEGEL Canada

In the HEGEL room I found their new Röst Integrated ($3,500), named after Norway’s beautiful islands.  The svelte 75wpc integrated, paired with a HEGEL Mohican CDP ($5,500) and Triangle Delta Loudspeakers ($10,000) professed a warm, organic and romantic sound that called for a relaxed listening session.

Plurison

Just outside Plurison’s exhibit room, flanking the doorway, was an active display of Astell & Kern’s luxurious personal audio products with Focal headphones, along with a line-up of Rega turntables.  Making my way inside, the room, I was just about overwhelmed with a treasure trove of fine brands jam-packed into this rather small room.  Many of the products were brand new, being shown for the first time.

If orange is your colour, this system might tickle you fancy.  It paired a set of Focal Sopra No.2 loudspeakers ($16,500) with the all-new Micromega M-one an all-in-one 100 wpc MARS integrated with DAC.  The M-one starts at $5,500 in standard black aluminum but can be custom painted with an automotive grade enamel finish in your choice of colour for $6,800.

The Cocktail Audio X50 ($3,999), is a new digital music server / player with a 3/384 DSD/DXD capable DAC and is much more than the monitor stand it might look to be in my photo.  It incorporates a dual core ARM Cortex A9 1.0GHz processor, 1GB main memory and an 8 GB Nand Flash Memory, with RAID storage for up to 12TB expansion.

Plurision was showing Cambridge Audio’s newest YOYO series of Bluetooth portable audio speakers, which combine advanced multi-driver amplification with a stylish 100% worsted wool covering design.  Three models are available, simply called S, M & L.

Also in the compact, lifestyle category was the Naim MUSO QB $1,899 and smaller MUSO MUSO $1,299.

Just to the left of a sexy Focal Sopra No. 3 loudspeaker was a stack of a SPL components from their Pro-Fi series.  SPL was recently picked up by Plurison and though not a currently well-known brand in the consumer market has a lengthy and proven history in the pro-market.  Models shown, included: Phonitor E headphone amp ($2,299), Director DAC/Preamp ($4,999), PhonoS phonostage ($2,999) PhonitorX ($3,499) and Performer S800 power amp ($4,999).

A couple of all-new products from Naim were also on display.  These products seem extremely well built, which is expected, as they are a direct trickle-down technology of Naim’s Statement Series of products.  Shown were the Naim Atom ($3,795) a 40 wps all-in-one system with a colour display and a superb smooth operating volume control with remote, and the Naim Core ($3,795), a Network server, CD ripper with optional user installed / replaceable hard drive.

The latest in Devialet’s Phantom high-end active speakers was also there to see – the Devialet Gold Phantom, which sports a re-designed Titanium tweeter and is 8 times more powerful than the Phantom, having 4,500 watts and capable of 108 dB SPL, with bass that reaches down – way down to 14 Hz.

The new Clearaudio Innovation Basic ($4,000) with TT5 linear tonearm ($3,500) had its first Canadian debut showing at TAVES, in the Plurison room.

Sponsored by Plurison, sitting outside their room, and offering to sign her latest album was the enchanting Anne Bisson.  I’ve already given listen to her Conversations album, and its wonderful but Blue Mind is still the one I’d call “classic Anne Bisson”.  What a nice treat to get her autograph on her latest vinyl pressings.

Summit HiFi

Summit HiFi, one of the local dealers, had three rooms at the show.  The first room was an interesting combination of Dynaudio Excite X38 loudspeakers ($5,499/pair) with an Emotiva XPA-2 Gen-3 amplifier ($1,299) and XSP-1 Gen-2 preamp ($1,499) using a NuPrime PCM 384K / DSD256 DAC-10 ($1,999).  The sound had very nice depth, with a smooth and almost silky midrange, and ripe bass.

The next room by Summit HiFi sported a number of speakers on rotation, a couple of which were the Dynaudio Emit M20 bookshelf ($1,349) as well as the Emotiva T1 ($1,025/pr) and ELAC B1 ($400/pr).  Electronics were by Emotiva, including the BasX A-300 amp ($599), BasX PT-100 preamp/DAC ($449) and ERC-3 CDP/transport ($749).

The third room by Summit HiFi was a partnership with FoldBack Sound, a home-based high-end audio dealer.  This room featured a pair of NOLA Boxer S1 bookshelf speakers on demo ($1,900/pair or $2,900/pair with crossover upgrade), though no longer in production, there is a NOLA S2 model with similar pricing that is now available.  The alternative speaker system was the NOLA Brio Trio ($3,500) that I didn’t get a chance to hear.  A NuPrima IDA-16 Integrated amplifier ($3,200) delivering 200 wpc was in play with a Audio Analog CDP / DAC ($10,000) as the source.  I found the setup produced very enjoyable sound at an affordable price, apart from the source.

NOVO Magazine – the new CANADA HiFI !

Another big new item at this year’s TAVES was the rebranding of our publication…to NOVO.  Embracing broader content, broader distribution and keeping with the current times, NOVO brings something new and carries over all the good from its predecessor CANADA HiFi magazine.  Suave and I are very excited to begin this new journey with NOVO and I hope you will join us.

And, seeing these lovely ladies in their NOVO shirts was a sight not to be missed!

With that I bid adieu to the TAVES Consumer Electronics Show for another year.  Please be sure to look out for more coverage of TAVES by our contributors Douglas Brown and Jeremy Phan.

A few more rooms that were definitely not to be missed at TAVES CES 2016:

DVL Audio, showing Magico S7, wth CH Precision and Viola Audio

Wynn Audio, showing Tidal Audio and Goldmund

Audio by Mark Jones, showing Magico S7 with CH Precision and KRONOS.

Muraudio, featuring the Muaudio OMNI PX2, with MOON by Simaudio and Shunyata Research.

About the Author: George de Sa

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