gettin’ ready for the one-hour drive, new location this year (still Tampa)
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25 hour drive for me but would be a blast. I grew up there.
My wife and I spent 5 hrs. there yesterday. Just some random observations here. The new location for the show is better in some respects, not so great in other respects. It’s better in that the facility is nicer and larger. It’s worse in that the parking situation is abysmal, there’s little to no choices for non-hotel food close by, and the rooms seemed less acoustically inert in some cases than the previous location. We circled the parking area for twenty minutes with no luck and eventually parked in another corporate location and hoped we wouldn’t get towed. We didn’t thankfully.
Friday’s crowd was older folks for sure. Not too many younger listeners to be seen and those that did come seem to head for the new headphone area. As to the traditional 2 channel audio rooms, I have to echo Jason Serinus’ sentiments: audio show music stinks! They seem to be fixated on songs that function more as “gee whiz” sound effects than music.
Some rooms played music far too loud, especially Gershman Acoustic’s. I couldn’t get past the door before their volume drove us away. I noticed a couple rooms with loud sympathetic structural room vibrations on bass heavy tracks.
I’m not sure I relate much to these million dollar systems in huge ballrooms. The acoustic spaces seem to have no relationship to real domestic spaces unless you live in something like Saddam Hussein’s old palace.
Basic manners seem to deteriorate every year. We walked out of numerous room because of rude people who wouldn’t shut up and talked incessantly at a thespian’s unamplified theater levels. I especially liked the long haired dude who had to “mansplain” every thing he was hearing to his wife. One show exhibitor’s room who will go unnamed stunk so badly of body odor and bad breath it ruined the experience of excellent equipment and sound.
Generally, little stood out this year to me. Not that the usual suspects were poor, it’s just that we know what to expect after years of hearing their products. The only room with something new to us that stood out was O Acoustics from Norway. Their $13,900 Frigg 02 was an exceptional loudspeaker for the price. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they said their price was double the ask. I’m sure the top flight Boulder electronics helped elevate their performance. I thought their presenters were the best as well. They turned the music off when they talked about their speakers and waited for the chatter to stop before resuming music. Most civilized. https://www.oaudio.no/frigg02
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A very excellent review. Thank you.
Pics?
Sorry, no pics from me. I was so busy listening I never thought about photos. I’m sure they’ll soon be lots of press coverage of the show. The venue was well populated with press and bloggers. I saw quite a few well known members of the audio press there. I wish I had gotten a photo of one exhibitor’s room that was a real throwback to the early days of audio when DIY was a big part of the audio business. VK Music in Canada had one of the smallest rooms in the show
and everything was on static display when I was there. Which was a shame because the room was packed to the gills with people curious about the Elekit and Sun tube amp kits and esoteric, oddball brands like Sparkler Audio from Japan. It would have been nice to have heard some of this reasonably priced kit. https://www.vkmusic.ca/
It was rather remarkable in retrospect how little effort is given to showing anything that that music lovers with average size rooms could accommodate. Spendor, Mission, Chesky, Monitor, ATC, and PCM were among the few speakers shown that weren’t large room dominators.
Speaking of Chesky speakers, that young man really had a first speaker project to be proud of. They are tiny little things less than a cubic foot in volume made from cast resin with a room filling sound that belies their cost and size. A firm recommendation for someone starting out in audio needing good sound in a small package. https://www.cheskyaudio.com/?srsltid=AfmBOooUV1UCS5AyUch6xszFFjVfmkrPfIbSNWHDf4tNj7xSxmr5P8sD
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Can someone ask the guy from Walker sound if the Estelon Extremes came from Palatine, IL? I’m willing to bet they did!
What are the odds of second identical pair in the country with Vitus and Crystal cable?
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they sounded luscious
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I know. Myself and several other forum members have some experience with them.
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Trapped in the Orchard Audio room for 3 days and had a lot of fun in the evening. Once in while, I’d venture out and go to the 4th floor Onerios Room next door, Soundfield Audio who is great partner every year for Leo, Chesky Audio, & Cambridge Audio whose presence was everywhere.
Again, big thank you @scottm & Frank Doris for hanging out with us on Saturday. @tony22 for stopping by the Orchard Room as well.
I’m sure I’ve missed people from the PSA who attended and stopped by our. Thank you as well.
JoeyG
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Agreed. I was there all three days. O Acoustics was the stand out surprise for (relatively) affordable high end sound, never having been heard of before. The guys know their stuff, too. No magic potions or quantum theory to explain why their speakers sound the way they do. Of course young Luca (sp?) Chesky was the standout star in best value under $1000 for nearfield speakers. A sharp kid. He played a track that was recorded last week of a very nice female singer - who is his sister! 
Apparently that whole family has some talent making music happen.
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Thanks @rajugsw for your awesome exhibition. So fun to see you guys and great setup! Thanks for playing all kinds of different and unique music. I’ll definitely be back next year. And I’ll try to bring the crew as proper exhibitors too. Cheers and hope you had safe travels home!
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Scott, I thought I saw you at the show! At the time you were talking with someone at the outer part of the big Acora room.
Hi Scott,
Got home no problem last night. Thank you. Yeah…for sure if the gang come through just to check things out. @jamesh definitely as well.
Thanks to Roon “history”. I have your request on my playlist now.
Cheers,
Joe
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