TAVES 2017 - Day 2

We saw EVERYTHING.

Concrete speakers. Eight-foot-tall driver stacks. Turntables that look like something from the lair of a Bond villain. A torrent of wonderful noise, issuing forth from the rooms of the Toronto Convention Centre. TAVES Day One was all about the headphones, and on day two, we made our mission to seek out as many amazing speakers, amps, preamps and turntables as humanly possible.

Our goal was to document everything we saw, but we just couldn't. There was too much. Instead, we picked out photos that show off the gear that really blew our minds – the stuff that we think you're going to want to pay attention to in the next year. Fair warning: a lot of this is very high-end, with pricetags in the five or six figure range. Either way: it's some serious audio porn. Enjoy.

Let's start off with a set of concrete speakers. Actual concrete. Headphone makers Master & Dynamic once did an April Fool's think about a concrete wireless speaker, but Danish company Audiovector aren't kidding around. This is their Raw Surface Limited Edition speaker, which has ultra hard concrete laid over MDF housing. We didn't get to hear it, as it wasn't plugged in, that was all right: the company had plenty of other incredible speakers available to test, including the splendid, rich SR6 Avante Garde.

What would an audio show be without the return of the Mac? McIntosh amplifiers popped up sporadically throughout the show, including this lovely MC302 power amp. Nothing is more reassuring than the blue glow of that output meter. It's like a security blanket for audiophiles.

This particular amplifier popped up in the Totem room. And speaking of Totem, they delivered one of the more impressive speakers on show...

That, folks, is the Totem Tribe Tower. It's tiny. It barely counts as a floorstanding speaker. And yet, we couldn't believe how good it sounded.

It uses the company's Torrent drivers to punch way above its weight class, delivering extraordinary, far-reaching sound in a very small package. We can't wait to review these.

One of the more impressive rooms at the show was courtesy of Wynn Audio. While it didn't quite reach the heights of their million-dollar system from last year's show, the exquisite acoustics and speakers from Tidal still delivered an absolutely outstanding audio experience. Sitting in this room was like having God sing to you.

One of the strangest things about a lot of audio shows is how few subwoofers are on display. Part of the reason for that, we think, is that manufacturers like to showcase the low end capabilities of their speakers, rather than relying on dedicated subs. Top bass response of the show, so far, goes to the nightmarish-looking PMC MB2SE. The speaker was absolutely terrific, delivering a low end that felt like it wrapped around the music, anchoring it with a solid foundation. It's an expensive system – the speakers run a little over US$30,000 – but holy hell, are they amazing.

How's this for cheeky? Bryston had a big presence at the show, but they didn't actually have any of their new BP-17 Cubed preamps on display. Another exhibitor, Audio One, had snagged them! it was being helped to run twin Bowers & Wilkins 705 S2 speakers, and it sounded splendid.

 And just because we can never resist that horn, here's a shot of the B&W 705 S2s.

So while we were hanging out in the Hegel room, hearing the new amplifiers (which were great, just for the record) a rumbling bass note started to come through the walls. As much as we love Hegel, that…kind of got our attention.

It was coming from next door, where an audio vendor was showing off the Goldenear Triton Reference speakers, with four utterly enormous woofers in their bases. Powered by a thunderous Pass Labs power amp, these monsters may not look all that special, but they literally come through the walls. It must be said that we do prefer the lower end of the PMCs, above, but they can't match the Triton for raw power.

Never thought we'd be giving out an award for the tallest speakers at the show. Those come from the indie company Ruel, who sell a modular speaker called the R7. It's a one-way beast (i.e. no crossover) with precisely angled drivers - seven per module -  that are designed to reflect off the floor and ceiling. They sound stunning, with incredible detail. Although we did struggle to get decent photos in this room, for some reason, we did score this shot of the R7 itself. They don't sell the modules individually (you have to buy them in bulk, depending on the height of your ceiling) we do love the idea of modular speakers.

And right after the tallest, how about the shortest?

These Xplorer speakers from Neat Acoustics don't look like much, but they totally slapped us round the face when we walked into the room. We couldn't believe the amount of punch and clarity they had, which comes not only from the driver design, but from the chambers inside the speaker which (and we may be misremembering things here, because our notes are a little garbled at this point) help control the resonances. Seriously: if you don't have space for big floorstanding speakers, these would make an excellent buy.

Naim didn't have a huge presence at the show, but we still caught their Mu-So and Qb wireless speakers in the main hall. For our money, these are some of the best looking wireless speakers around.

By now, the Devialet Phantom is an old standby: another wireless speaker that remains impressive thanks to its visibly moving bass drivers. Again, this was in the main hall, and although it was playing, it was difficult to bring you sound impressions. We are not even sure if this is the 750 watt version or 300 watt; the rep wasn't around when we swung by. Still: beautiful speaker.

Quite why French speaker maker Focal set up in the middle of the noisy main hall, with drones running around and VR displays taking place and robots fighting each other, is a mystery we just can't solve. But what we could hear of the new Kanta 2 speakers, we were impressed by. Focal: you make good stuff, and you presumably turn a profit. Perhaps you should spring for a room next year, yeah?

A cool turntable stand from...honestly, we're not sure. It just looked colorful, so we took a photo.

Honestly, we don't even know who made this. By now everything was starting to blur together. Why does it have a tentacle? Who knows. Probably something to do with resonances and harmonic cancellation, or somesuch nonsense. Looks cool though.

What is this thing? What is its purpose? Why is it here? Is there a reason that it looks like a tin can? We don't know. We don't have the answer. By now we can't feel our feet, or our ears, and our camera memory card has gone past full into the I-can't-go-on stage. We are going to get a beer.

We may or may not post more photos from the show tomorrow, depending on if we see anything new. All we can say is that if you ever have a chance to get to TAVES: do it. It's magnificent.