René Laflamme

Founder of the Canadian labels Fidelio Audio and Fidelio (4) / Fidelio Music Inc. As a lifelong music lover LaFlamme had gradually found himself drawn into the intricacies of the recording process, listening to output from labels such as Sweden’s Opus Three and beginning to discern what distinguishes truly great sound. At the outset of this journey, frustrated by the lack of opportunities in his home town to explore the cutting edge of sound technology, he found himself travelling to Columbus, Ohio, to study. And it was there that he encountered his inspirational teacher, Richard Leblond. With his help LaFlamme took it upon himself to build a microphone. “It was the first big step for me and it really ignited my passion for both the science and the art of recording and playback.” In high end audio Fidelio has carved out a reputation that recently caused Art Dudley from Stereophile magazine to resort to swearing. At a demonstration of Fidelio’s first LP (a remastering of Melanie Barney’s and the Buzz Brass Ensemble’s recording of Holst’s The Planets) LaFlamme played the disc on his demonstration system featuring an eye-catching new turntable called a Kronos. The resulting sound? On Stereophile’s website Dudley wrote that it was... “you’ll pardon the expression, fucking amazing: How LaFlamme manages to achieve a combination of both openness and sheer flesh-and-blood solidity in his recordings is utterly beyond me.”