Returning after a few days in Munich … Disappointing exhibition … Too far between the snaps … Too much, mega expensive thing that just wasn’t good enough … Thin, hard, stressed and boring … Incredibly many bad Horn speakers … Get some good things … We were some pieces walking around together … And in our opinion the Devore room, the place with the most natural and musical sound … And a lot of good music was played, from opera to ZZTop … Otherwise FM Acoustic was really good, and the Harbeth room, Wilson Sasha Daw on Spectral equipment … … Otherwise just lots of expensive, bad “bling bling” equipment for the rich from the east … Sin for the customers, and sad for the industry…
Jazznut - Thanks so much for taking the time. Next trade show on May 25/26, Copenhagen
More love Denmark
Good that you ask, maybe I took the wrong word…what I mean with “stained” is discolored, so a deviation from the tonal structure an instrument should have when played back. Just like several horns have a hard time replicating the proper tonality of strings or piano. So with stained or discolored I mean that a speaker has such a slight to strong deviation from the natural tonal colors of an instrument within a certain frequency range or for a certain category of instruments. Would be interested if there’s a better english word for it.
Yes, there’s always more disappointing than good, but that seems normal unfortunately.
And yes I already mentioned I missed Wilson unfortunately due to their crowded and scheduled presentations…and I didn’t see FM Acoustics, damn…would have been interested to hear it.
I also agree there was much citchy bling that didn’t have anything to do with good sound. That’s what Paul always says…it’s not easy for newbies to recognize the good from the bad.
If I was a manufacturer/exhibitor I would put every possible effort in a really exceptional listening experience…or stay away…an average one is not sufficient to be able to separate oneself from others. It has to have the real “wow” effect…if then the equipment is affordable…bingo. In my opinion only the “magic section” had this effect…sad but true for me.
Agree that most vendors disappoint at shows, as their setups are horrible. And they all seem to be in a terrible hurry to slop something together at the last minute (PS Audio AN-3 as a classic example). Have they even heard the presented combination of gear before arriving at the show? Agree too that if I didn’t have time to properly prep I would just make a static display or not present at all.
And the icing on the cake is that the equipment might also be factory-fresh and not burned in. At several shows, I’ve asked the exhibitors in rooms that I thought should have sounded better (and who were showing equipment I was familiar with) and this was often the case.
I shared this observation with a dealer I know and the response was: “Well, the show must go on.”
True enough, I suppose. My take-away from participating in trade events back in my working days was a riff on the old advertising adage: Half the money I spend on trade shows is wasted, but I don’t know which half.
If I’m running an audio company and investing significant resources to present at a show like AXPONA or Munich High End, I’m going to put my best foot forward. It’s hard to understand why they wouldn’t burn in their equipment and pair it with the most complementary components (room treatments, musical selections, etc.). It’s a performance and the audience are reviewers and potential customers.
Seems like common sense. Yet, the few rooms that pull this together really stand out.
I suspect that in many cases the perceived business imperative to show - and generate interest - in your very latest (frequently barely finished) product trumps the desire to provide great sound.
Whether or not that is reasonable or ultimately counterproductive is an open question.
Reading various forums it seems that the prevailing tendency is to give poorly showing but pedigreed manufacturers a pass for bad sound at shows.
I know that in my own case consistently good sound at shows did have a role in my buying decisions.
“There is no traffic jam along the extra mile.” – Roger Staubach
Nor need for words, if I might add…
As a retailer who’s attended hundreds of Trade Shows, it’s the consistent year after year pursuit of excellence and implementation that gets a product “in the home”… to that end, there is no glory, only hard work. Kudos to @jazznut for great reviews, Living Voice two years in a row, that’s a statement considering the competition
I’ll also add that, in addition to showing gear that is not fully burned in, I’ve seen more than a few instances where the exhibit room was the work of a distributor or dealer, so the final result a show attendee encounters might not always be the handiwork of the manufacturer.
And, of course, a square-ish hotel room has to be one of worst - if not the worst - of spaces to get dialed in within a 24-36 hour set-up window.
Well these shows are just an exercise in showing you what’s out there. I think very few people use them as proper auditioning opps due to the terrible acoustic/electrical situation when you have that much equipment concentrated in a small space.
Hi Jazznut, Lot of wok such overview and certainly informative. Just a small comment, in the picture above I think I see Sonus Faber Aida speakers, which would make sense as Sonus Faber is part of the Group that owns Audio Research and McIntosh.
Did you add the wrong picture or did the Sonus Fabers sound really that good? Which to my subjective opinion is indeed the case. I heard Sonus Faber Amati speakers and there are not many set-ups that beats what I heard then. They are above my budget, however the person where I heard them bought them second hand for a very attractive price.
The effort you put into reporting the sound with the picture, really good, I liked it.
But:
You complain about not much news presented, but admit you have not bothered to look at new products.
May I ask, what is your intent here? Are you trying to justify to European customers why PS Audio did not bother to exhibit in Munich?
With your conclusion at the beginning of this thread I do not think that you do the effort of the organisation and the exhibitors much justice.
