When showing your system to others, what do you do

Jlind325is, as others have mentioned, I simply ask what kind of music a guest likes and then try to play something they enjoy and are familiar with. If they like what they're hearing, we keep exploring other music they like, if I have it. I've found that it's the music my guest is most familar with that will suck them into becoming aware that they're hearing something special when they're over here. If they don't recognize that the sound quality is better than they're used to hearing, I don't keep trying to open that door for them, we just enjoy some music together.
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This is the best answer I can give. After 8 years of owning a high end shop, I can only remember about one convert per year and that was long before MP3, I Pod and other portable mediums.

For the most part high end or quality systems just do not appeal to the masses. Today I feel it is much tougher to open the door to the uninformed. When I Pod and MP3 offers the total ease of music reproduction,albeit the sonics are just dreadful to say the least. High end audio for all its prowess in the last 30 years has yet to expand beyond its core group of customers and that base is shrinking each year as this group ages.

While music remains important in peoples lives, its the delivery of the music that has dramatically changed and continues to influence the newbies. They cannot justify the expenditure, time and effort audiophiles put into systems, when they have other delivery methods, that appeal to them at far lower costs.

The only convert I have had of late occured about 4 years ago while I was in the Denver,area. A gentleman and his grandson visited my home as he wanted to purchase some vintage gear that I had. At the time had four systems up and running. As we were discussing, the college student was listening to his MP3 player through headphones. As I was demonstrating the systems, his eye caught hold of a turntable, thats when he got involved. He had only heard about these and never heard one. So I showed him how to use the turntable and the system and pretty much left him to his own devices. The system was a Classe DR8 power amp.,Classe DR5 preamp, Denon 1560 CD Player,Denon DP61F turntable pushing some original Quad 57 speakers.Showed him where the CD Discs were and the LPs. Told him knock hinself out. High end yes, but a little long in the tooth. Continued showing the other systems to his Grandfather, who ended up buying a good deal of equipment.

At the end of the day found out that the Grandson was a music major at U of C. He thanked me for letting him use the Classe system and that the sound was all he could ask for. He really enjoyed being able to use a turntable and all. So with that they left. I had some cash and Grandad had some very nice gear. Grandad did not buy what his Grandson listening to. He bought an Acoustat system.

About two weeks later the Grandson shows up at the front door and says remember me? I got some money and want to buy a few things from you. And with that the music major was getting into high end audio. And over the course of the following year he got into it in a big way. But his friends never did.

I believe that everyone has to find their own way into high end audio and I further believe if I had tried to sell or demo something to him, it would have turned him off. But by letting him find his way on his own, he found the pleasures of owning a high resolution system.

Perhaps this is not the precise response to this thread, but is offered as my last experience with a young newbie.

Ferrari,

I expect studios have very different electronic gear needs from home audio playback systems but what about the speakers?

Can you describe any of the speakers that the creme d'la creme use in these awesome systems you have heard?

Listed below are some of the creme d'la creme systems I have heard, over the past 48 years,

Michael Bishop, Telarc Records
Jack Renner, Telarc Records
Bob Woods,Telarc Records
CBS Listening Room, Century City,CA.
Telarc International Corp
Herb Alpert
Ricky Lee Jones
Arturo Sandoval

These systems and their speakers are not what one would call off the shelf brand name. In fact I do not remember seeing a brand name on any of the speaker drives and of course the cabinents were hand crafted one offs. But with that being said all of these speakers were quite large and built with very high quality drivers, that you could tell by just looking at them. All of these were in very large rooms, after all if your going to reproduce a standing 30Hz standing wave, the room has to be near 50 feet in length or more. This was in the day before subwoofers became somewhat common place. It has been some 20 years since I last heard one of those systems, but clearly the system at Telarc Sound Labs was nothing short ot total mesmerizing. Telarc produces some of the worlds finest Classical and Jazz recordings ever produced. So their system has to be able to reproduce the sonics they achieve in the recording medium. Telarc needs to be able to actually reproduce a full blown symphony orchestra at real time levels in order to judge the quality of the recording.

When one gets into this realm, literally nothing is off the shelf. Since 1986 was the last time I was at Telarc, I can only imagine what they have now!

I would say call Bob Woods at Telarc, if he is there, he will talk with you, one of the nice guys in the business. Might be able to find out what their using now. In fact think I will call him myself tomorrow, its been awhile and always a good to make contact once again. Not many good guys in the music business.

I wish there was a way to verbally transmit what these systems sound like and all the adjectives I have fall far short of the experience. You just have to be there.

But I can tell you I have never heard anything one can buy off the shelf, that comes close to the overall sonics of these systems. When one does not have to compromise the results are breath taking.

I've had two main reactions to my system over the last few years from non-audiophiles. One is complete disinterest, the other is that they're intimidated. Tube amps, big weird-shaped speakers and a dedicated room will do that to people. The disinterersted folks usually want to hear a particular piece of muisic, and couldn't give a flying fig what I play it on, so I just slap it on and let it play. The intimidated ones usually want to hear the system, so I'll ask what style of music they prefer and pick the best-recorded example I have. I rarely give any kind of commentary about audiophile virtues, I just let the music speak for itself.

I haven't made any converts, but I have opened a few peoples' ears as to why I spend insane amounts of money on this hobby. I've had a number of people say "Holy &#!%", and a few say they've never heard recorded music sound so real. One woman had all the hairs on her arms and neck stand up while listening to some Garnet Rogers through my Abbys. That is gratifying. The disinterested ones usually say, "Sounds really nice, thanks" and then we go have a glass of wine.