I’ve found the best way to show my system off to others is to let them control the queue. While the listener may appreciate analyzing the music you play, they will likely not resonate emotionally with it because they don’t know it very well.
@blisshifi absolutely. +1.
Me too.
In fact it would be hypocritical of me to do otherwise after years of complaining about show demos where they stick to their well recorded 'background music'.
You just can't help but feel that someone is trying to hide something.
This happened recently where we heard the impressive Bayz Audio Courante speakers. These omnidirectional speakers presented a stunning out of the box sound but because the music was unfamiliar we had no idea just how good they were.
Music has to resonate with the listener or else what's the point?
Anymore, I'd probably just suggest that someone brought their own stuff over . . . and see how it compared. The last time I did that, my friend was blown away. He said something to the effect of: that he was depressed because we both had the same speakers (B&W 805s) and mine sounded so much better.
Sometimes it's even worse when someone has a reputedly worse system (acc to reviewers etc) that sounds better than yours!
It happened to me once when my brother's friend from work lent him a tape that was recorded on a music centre that blew away mine that was recorded on a middling NAD tape deck.
On my tape deck!
Such things shouldn't happen.