Volume and Bass levels at LA HE Show

MBL loves to crank their gear, and it usually sounds incredible at those ear splitting volumes.... At last years HE show, I had to leave the show and go have a beer to let my ears rest after being in that room!

When I walked in, MBL had some electric blues playing at ear splitting levels. The speakers were clearly overloading the room on the bottom end. That said, it rocked. Alas, I ,too, am no longer a headbanger.

BTW, of all the stupidly loud, bass heavy demos, this was the only one that impressed me to any meaningful degree.

First off, I think 80% of the rooms far too small for the systems being demo'd. Second, they were msotly bare except the few who had sufficient room treatments - Brooks Berdan, Acoustic Image, etc.

Also, exhibitors have to compete with hallway noise/talk and music/bass from rooms on all sides. Each time one of them turns it up a little, all others down the hall recipricate. Then, people in the hallways have to talk louder to be heard and the cycle starts over again.

It would be extremely foolish to form any opinion about any component unless you live in a hotel. Home environments have almost nothing in common.

Remember, most exhibitors have never even set foot in the rooms prior to the show and then only have a few hours to try and create "magic". I think shows are more for seeing the actual product in person and gauging it's fit & finish, than judging it's potential capabilities. It's also great to meet the people behind the designs, most are really great to talk to.

One thing at HE2006, regarding bass: Every room had the same "bass note." Maybe I should say node. The dreaded hotel room sound was in abundance but particularly, bass sound was uniformly compromised in the same way, and loading any of those rooms with high SPL disproportionately made the bass problems more acute.

There wasn't a single system at the show that could be considered heard optimally. But some vendors were careful to find the best possible placements in their rooms and overall I think this was the best sounding *in-hotel* exposition in a long time. Particularly good were the Verity/Nagra/Audion, and Verity/Audion/Sonic Euphoria systems in that multi-vendor room, and Zu's Definitions system, especially Sunday after further refinement of their setup mitigated a room node.

Another thing driving SPLs is that vendors are starting to use real music again, instead of audiophile dross/gloss. Rock is inching its way back in to demos. Johnny Cash was on in multiple rooms. Blues, 'Trane, John Lee Hooker, Bill Frisell, Miles, the Chets, Wilco, etc. When people are having fun, SPL tends to go up. More feeling, less analysis. How much can you analyze in a hotel room acoustic environment anyway?

Phil

See these vendors miss the point. Do we really want a system that can play loud? Of course not. So why do they try to tempt us with alot of loud noise? Makes no sense to me. Just put the volume at 1/4 and let the sytem sell itself. I image they try to overwhelm our hearing to numb it, and so we really think we are getting a great speaker/system. Makes no sense to me. I have a gigantic room and a 20 watt tube amp and only play it at 1/4 volume, maybe a tad more. Never at 12 oclock. I've never understood the theory or concept of loud music. At a show its a frickin turnoff and one should run past those rooms that do so.