ANALOG vs DIGITAL - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

Gentle warning: This is mainly
Feedback
Features
More From
Montreal 2011
an account of impressions
and comments as expressed
by new visitors to this year’s
show and (occasionally) my reactions to
them. The idea is to let you discover the
show through their experiences. Please
bear in mind that their interest is in
music not in the latest gear. And if you’re
interested only in hi-fi lingo but still
want to know why I give importance to
music at an audio show, and how visitors
react to it, you might want to jump to the
end of this article.
I had my first shock in the Totem
room. My friends hadn’t arrived yet and
so I went ahead for a while. The room was
large, the ceiling so high it was almost
invisible, and yet two speakers filled the
large space with authority, depth and
fullness of sound. Klaus Gesing’s bass
clarinet had that deep “in-your-gut”
vibration, and Anouar Brahem’s oud was
mesmerizing, playing The Astounding
Eyes of Rita from CD. Hard to believe
20 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
that all that sound came out of those
two Earth speakers, part of the newly
designed Totem Element Series, played
here with Classé equipment.
I was eager to share that experience
with the couple I was expecting very
soon.
It was the first time that Marc and
Fatima had attended such an event, and
they seemed overwhelmed at first by the
abundance of equipment displayed and
the variety of music that came toward
them as they stepped into the different
rooms. They looked in awe at all those
experienced visitors who shared comments
in hallways, as they walked slowly
among them.
I must say they were taken aback
when we first stepped in the Totem
room. They were quite impressed with
what they heard — they own another
CD by those two musicians — I watched
their eyes open and their eyebrows rise
by Albert Simon
in a surprised look, but I couldn’t get
them to translate their expressions into
words. Overwhelmed, perhaps.
When we went in to listen to the
impressive Boulder Class A amplifiers
playing through the no less impressive
Sonus Faber Amati Futura speakers, I
understood something else about how
some of us react to sound. The room
was crowded, the volume high, and
John McGill was going at it full tilt on
his live recorded CD. We stayed on the
side for a while, then we moved toward
the middle of the room. People around
us were stunned by the impact, but there
was not a comment from my friends.
“Impressive,” said Marc as we stepped
out of the room but Fatima surprised us.
“I felt an impact as soon as we got in.” she
said hesitantly, “it was physical, I felt it in
my rib cage. And then it became easier
on me when we moved to the center.”
We stared at her.
Next was the room of Fidelio, well
known for its splendid recordings. Featured
here was music played with “no
moving parts,” the source being a Master
Flash card connected via USB to the
front of a Naim HDX Solid State Drive
(SSD). Vincent Bélanger’s cello blended
with a large orchestra, gliding smoothly
in an André Gagnon composition. Titled
Là, that recording had just been released.
The music flowed freely in the room, and
the stage opened wide. My friends were
mesmerized.
We stayed for bassist Michel Donato,
followed by Sébastien Dufour’s ukulele,
and then we switched to the Kronos
turntable, a creation of Louis Desjardins,
featuring an additional lower platter
revolving in the opposite direction. The
powerful sound of Holst’s The Planets
played on brass and organ was a delight.
“The music sounded as if it wrapped
around me,” said Marc who now found
more words and images to express himself,
“and the dynamic range of the LP
was incredible.” I had suggested to him
that he describe not just the sound he
heard in different rooms, but focus also
on how he felt listening to the music.
Fatima used hand gestures to convey her
impressions “There was this quality that
made us enter into the music,” she said,
at first, and then she added, “we were
not met by the sound as we stepped in, it