PS - I don't claim my gear or room is all that great, but better than just about every hotel room I've ever listened in. :) So, low bar.
Hotel Room Confessions - Best Sound at a Show?
I’m curious to know if line arrays and/or tuneable subs make speakers able to sound great in terrible conditions. Or can horns be the ideal hotel room rondevouz? A lot of people come up with a list of best sound, despite clearly terrible sounding rooms. They try to hear past what is assumed to be room problems.
I want to ask, if you have ever heard really amazing sound in a hotel room. Like, nothing needed to be made better, you’d be happy listening there forever. If so, what were the speakers you heard?
I've heard RELATIVELY stellar performances but I've never heard a hotel room sound even as good as my current, pitiful setup.
Have you? Did a line array, ESL or horn show how it could utterly tame the room and take you to heaven in a seedy hotel room with ugly carpets?
I want to ask, if you have ever heard really amazing sound in a hotel room. Like, nothing needed to be made better, you’d be happy listening there forever. If so, what were the speakers you heard?
I've heard RELATIVELY stellar performances but I've never heard a hotel room sound even as good as my current, pitiful setup.
Have you? Did a line array, ESL or horn show how it could utterly tame the room and take you to heaven in a seedy hotel room with ugly carpets?
17 responses Add your response
A few years ago, I heard a system that was put together by Randy Cooley, owner of Optimal Enchantment in Santa Monica, California. It consisted of the most expensive Vandersteen speakers, big mono amps from ARC and all of ARC’s reference goodies. Randy knows his music and has impeccable taste in music. The sound in that room was the closest to live that I’ve ever heard in the show environment. I’ve attended many shows over the years, and even worked rooms for a high-end dealer at several CES’s over the years. Other than that, I totally agree with erik_squires. Very few rooms (maybe a couple) at the shows I’ve attended have me feeling that I’m missing anything at all when I get home and turn the system on. After hearing Randy Cooley's system, it became my benchmark. I made it my goal to get as close as possible to the sound of that system. With all of the tweaks I've done over the past few years, the system is right there, even surpassing what I heard in Randy's room in certain areas. Frank |
I posted a review of the Toronto show in this thread: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/audio-show Honestly, I can't say that line arrays were noticeably better, and certainly I did not make any notes on them. Not many rooms running subs, so difficult to come to a conclusion, but though bass was no doubt impacted, I don't think that was the primary fault in most rooms. |
We’ve won ’best room at the (given) show’ many a time. But then again, the other half of Teo Audio is a specialist in room taming (Taras K) and has done the acoustics for about 60 major film and series/etc productions. Given the tools that Taras may bring with him.... he can generally step blind into a space and generally tame it to the point that it is at studio quality. To do that with a hotel room. Not a big deal. Go ahead, record in the given corrected space. No problemo. We're still talking abut the hotel room, BTW. Film work is a magnitude harder, in many cases. |
Randy Cooley DOES get good sound at shows, as did Brooks Berdan (who won "Best Sound At The Show" at the first or second Stereophile Show in the 90's). The Sanders Model 10 ESL's sounded great at the last show I attended, Irvine 2014 I believe it was. They were placed diagonally in the room, with a single line of listening chairs running diagonally. |
Randy is a zen master and gets great sound adjacent to a yoga studio at his store in Santa Monica. I am a happy customer of his, and a select few other dealers w similar hearing, setup skills, and the attention to detail required to get that last 1% out of the system in the room. Glad to hear a few of us chase and try to better the sound he achieves. I attend shows, have helped demo gear at CES when it was at The Drake and do a bit of setup optimization around the USA, yes Eric 11 bands of bass EQ matter big time in a hotel room or better..., |
@tomic601, I too am a customer of Randy’s (I bought an ARC LS-1 from him, which I still have. It has a mode switch!). His shop is a half-block off Pacific Coast Highway, overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean. I accompanied Brooks Berdan to the Vegas CES in the 90’s-early 2000’s (my gawd did that man snore ;-), getting a glimpse into the High End business. Like all businesses, I suppose; some cool guys, some not so cool. Bill Johnson was an old-world gentleman, Richard Vandersteen and George Cardas hardcore audiophiles, Harvey Rosenberg, Max Townshend, and Tim deParacivini eccentrically brilliant. I witnessed Brooks being squeezed by the sales manager of a certain loudspeaker company, forcing him to choose between selling that company’s models, or the similarly-priced (and imo superior) models of a competitor. I also witnessed Brooks’ wealthy customers buying "bragging rights" electronics instead of the more modestly-priced Music Reference products (which Brooks considered better designed, built, and sounding). Money talks! |
Hotel Room Confessions Alright! I confess. I haven't been to no audio shows in years. OK!, I aint got no alibi. Yeah, I was there at the New York HiFi Show. Mid-90s. No, I can't recall WHAT year. The Big One in '96? Maybe, it could have been earlier by a year or so. Like I told you. You aint gonna get it outa me! I really don't remember... Anyhow, outa all da highfalutin' rooms, Threshold, Krell, ARC, CJ, Vandersteen... The room I do remember is the Shahainian Room. Sir Richard was spinning, classical of course. His speakers powered by Bedini. Maybe it was his omnidirectional design. Or, Mr. Shahainian's gentlemanly demeanor. But yeah, you got me. I remember. He was guilty of having the least ostentatious and one of the best sounding rooms there. Agoners aren't really surprised that hotel rooms packed with chairs in a row, people milling about, noisily in and out, don't sound great. |
I have not attended many audio shows but I do remember a NY Audio show room that I thought was better than any other that day: Sonner Audio. Gunny (the owner) a really nice guy, had I think the Allegro stand speaker, demonstrated with files from his PC, through an IFI USB Micro Power conditioner into an AMR 777 DAC. A relatively simple set-up that beat (in my opinion) all other much more expensive rooms that day. IMHO their speakers are wonderful. |
I have run Running several systems at shows , for one many displays incredibly don’t even fully runin their systems before hand, which makes No sence, also bringing room panels for reflections- absorption, and many people feel that have to blast it at 95-100 dB to make their point and in fact because of all the other factors actually sounds far worse. MBL for Example ,these Great 101 speakers with all reference gear in a room not big enough, can sound congested, in a proper Large room Magical. Many rooms many either don’t know ,or willing to take the time to setup properly.take the Cardas setup method for example you can see on their website pretty reliable in most cases. Erik is correct most respectable audio systems at home sound more coherent and musical ,for you took whatever time necessary to Taylor your system to your room . Maybe a few exhibitors will heed the comments and advise. |
Austin Acoustic Speakers Horn Speakers , I heard them at Axpona at Westin here in Chicago,the systems and the speakers did perform live like, I have never heard a system like the AA set up, the room is a bit small, and so so Acoustic was used...but that’s a 750 k set up.if I win the lottery, my first purchase after buying a big house and building a room for them like Mike Lavigne did only bigger...Folks only a dream... |
Best speaker I ever heard in a hotel room was a JBL Hartsfield (monaural) sound from Vinal record played on a Rek-O-kut turntable thru a MacIntosh Amp. Everyone in the room were mesmerized. And, amazingly, the room was not touting the playing equipment, rather the record: Audiofidelity! I’ll never forget it. |