Toronto Audio Fest 2021 is happening

October 22-24, 950 Dixon Road at the huge Airport Westin.

Finally, something resembling normalcy! Vaccination mandatory, masks mandatory, social distancing mandatory, so maybe not totally normal no doubt. Still, it’s about time and the main reason is the high vaccination rate in this part of the world.

Accueil | Toronto AudioFest

 

Bump for visibility.

 

excellent news, thanks for posting.
i went to my first concert last week since covid ( al dimeola acoustic trio ) it was an incredible show and breath of life.
the venue was an old style downtown theater. masks to get in but removed once you got in. not sure what the point was.
enjoy the fest!

 

This is cool..I hope we get some record shows in the GTA this too

 

Audio Shows are one of the things I've missed during the pandemic. Glad to see some of them back, and this one's in my home town.

Pretty small list of exhibitors so far, though. Hopefully that expands significantly, though understandable if it's a modest show this year.

I admit I'm not sure if I'm ready to go. Sharing tiny hotel rooms, tiny hotel corridors, elevator rides etc.

 

Where's the list? I can't find it on their website.

 

Go to the menu. Tap/click “Visitors” then tap/click “Exhibitors List”

 

Show rules are prominently posted: Pre-registration is mandatory (so no walk-ins), full vaccination required with proof, masks required, social distancing required.

If you’re fully vaxxed, and if you’ve got a couple of spare masks to bring with you, and if you can generally estimate 6’6” (which is ~2 metres) for social distancing purposes (which rule will no doubt fall apart fairly quickly at the show, but we’ll all try anyway), you shouldn’t have any worries. As for hotel staff, restaurant staff, and so on locally, the province of Ontario is currently close to 86% single dose vaxxed, close to 81% fully vaxxed, and the percentages are creeping upward every week. Basically, all of us who are vaccinated and masked up are now protecting the gradually decreasing percentage of unvaxxed adults, and the still unvaxxed cohort of kids under 12 years of age (for whom vaccines will start to roll out in October).

Not too bad at all.

 

I'm really considering driving up from Chicago.

I know they opened the borders again. I just need to see it there's anything different I'd need to do to cross in besides show my proof of vaccination.

 

Signed up yesterday. Small crowds? No problem!

 

Glad to see Toronto, my place of birth, getting things up and running.

 

That’s audio segregation!

lol

messin.

as you were.

 

There was one this weekend in the parking lost of Estonian House, the location of the twice yearly Downtown Record show. It was good. Smaller than normal but the turnout was pretty good. Good atmosphere. Everyone was happy to be back buying records.

There was also one in Scarborough(I think) a week or so back as well .

I'm sure we'll be going back to indoor shows in 2022.

 

Damn..I missed those..
There is an indoor one scheduled for Oshawa in November..

 

As long as I don’t have to wear my mask over my ears…I’m in!

 

I read that my Audio Note K/SPe speakers were at this show instead of the bigger speakers. I am glad some folks liked them. One fellow felt it was the best sound at the show. Not bad considering other rooms at far more expensive speakers. These were Vincent Belanger's own pair apparently. And the Cobra amplifier with built-in DAC. An under $13k US system. I understand why some like the K model the best - being a sealed cabinet it is generally far easier to position quickly and get it mostly right. This is the only forum-based coverage I could find so far

Toronto Audio Fest - Impressions - General Audio Discussion • Canuck Audio Mart Hifi and Audio Forum

 

In the only room I noticed that featured Audio Note UK speakers, the sound reminded me of (and sounded a lot like) Boston Acoustics A50 speakers from back in the late ‘70s. High fidelity, no doubt, but the sound was receded - the room was too large and too noisy for any speakers of that size (and with that driver complement) to do particularly well.

To my ears, the best sound at the show was produced by a system consisting of the new Exasound S88 streaming DAC feeding a Krell 300i driving a pair of Gershman Acoustics Grand Studio II speakers. Beautifully balanced, dynamic, timbrally striking, remarkable bass clarity and sonority, a realistically drawn midrange that faithfully reproduced equally remarkable vocal nuance, accuracy and realism, and an extended treble that was detailed and exciting but never even slightly harsh. What a lovely system. The system that included the Audio Note speakers, by comparison, seemed merely mid-fi.

I’ll live to regret using the word “mid-fi”, but I did put it in the context of a comparison to a superior system. IMO, the Audio Note/Cobra system, at least as it was presented at the Toronto Audio Show, is not worth the money. IMO also, it certainly wasn’t anything close to the best sound at the show (neither for the money nor by comparison to several other assembled systems at various price points).

 

How was the show overall? I was trying to drive up from Chicago but just couldn't make it happen.

 

Always like Gershman Acoustics. Probably my favorite Canadian Speaker company. I thought you would have liked the K more given you like LS 3/5a speakers. I have heard several versions of the LS 3/5a and I would easily take the AN K over them.

 

The show was about twenty percent of its usual size. It was a big show prior to the pandemic, with 2019 being the largest ever and well worth a drive up from Chicago. Not this year, though.

There is still a lot of justifiable paranoia about COVID, so exhibitors and visitors alike were still hesitant despite the very high percentage of 12+ fully vaxxed. The pandemic effect.

It was worth a visit for local audiophiles, and attendance for the reduced show seemed respectable at a rate of about 50-60 new visitors per hour (that's my estimate based solely on a fifteen minute count).

As long as we continue to beat back the pandemic by using the means at hand to do so, next year will be back to normal, jammed with products and visitors, buzzing with new products and tons of vendors, and will be well worth the trip.

 

I didn't get a chance to go this year, will make sure I go next year.

 

You are comparing two very different designs, something that the engineers of each design have themselves never done (to the best of my knowledge). I like some LS3/5A designs, others not so much. I like a lot of different speaker designs. We're living at a time in which high quality speaker choices abound at a lot of different price points. That's good for audiophiles! Unfortunately, and despite their enthusiastic following, I like very few AN UK speaker designs and none I care enough about to share here. I personally find little about the AN-K appealing.

This thread is unfortunately only about as active as the Toronto Audio Fest 2021 was last weekend, which is to say nowhere near busy enough. Frankly, on that basis alone I'd rather kill this thread than feed your head by engaging in another one of your AN UK product debates.

 

Check their web site for information regarding the dealers and brands that will be exhibiting.

The entire show could be experienced in two hours. There were several large rooms that demo'd some of the more expensive systems with opinions of best at show having no consensus. The Gershman speakers did not shine as they should have during my visit when the bass seemed bloated but this may have been the recording. I am agreement that the AN-K speakers were not that impressive however the music selection, most likely selected to play off the strengths and limitations of those speakers may also have been a parameter.

An interesting demo happened when I was asked to place my eyeglasses into the tank of an ultra sonic record cleaner. It was amazing to see how the foreign matter was clouding the water/solution so quickly loosened by the cavitation. Quite an effective demonstration.

 

Thanks for the reports guys. I'm glad I ended up not being able to attend. It sounds like I didn't miss much.

Fingers crossed all goes well with AXPONA in April.