California Audio Show-why I hate audio conventions


I decided to check out the California Audio show today-
had one particular room i really wanted to listen toand was the main reason I drove to the show, as in past shows their rooms have always sounded great. I thought to myself, if their room sounded good again, I really have to consider buying a pair of their speakers.

I went into the room, and saw the owner whom I have met and bought from many years ago when he had a small retail shop. His room was empty, so I figured it was a great chance to play my own CD I brought. I asked if it was ok to play my CD, he said yes, and took out the Diana Krall CD and threw mine in-

My CD played for no more than 1 minute, and he came back into the room and put the Krall CD back in----The CD i wanted to play was a track of the Kate Bush Aeriel CD, not some gothic death metal -I guess as in my past experience, all too many exhibiters seem to want to demo their gear with music they prefer, not what the public may be interested in. While I understand, you want to play what may make your gear sound best, but in my specific case and I suppose others, I do not choose what I buy based on whether it sounds good playing Diana Krall tracks.

This gets me to my point, all too many shows I have been to, the manufacturers play the same CDs, the same genre of music over and over----It is like each show is Co-Sponsered by Diana Krall. ---While I own her entire catalog, there is more to music than hers---you would never get that from the shows I have been to.

The show itself in all seriousness was worth going if any of you are in the area--

Some standout rooms were the Music Lovers Audio of Berkeley room --the Wilson Watt/Spectral one in particular. They played both CDs/and LPs and they actually played a nice mix of music---while I was there, older Santana on LP, and Talking Heads on CD-

the Electrocompaniet room was also nice sounding.
128x128justlisten
How about a little Barber on the side with that Krall followed by a dash of Pidgeon & Cole. On the flip side I always get introduced to a ton of new music at the shows, the European vendors usually have some cool material.
Buconero, I have to agree with you. Lately, my wife suggested that I think about a career change and get into hi end audio. I explained that it ain't what what it used to be 40 years ago. Today, HT, so called hi-rez (yeah, sure) and PCs and Apples are it.

I am glad that there's enough of us out there to keep this niche hobby alive.

Best
If you play the right material you won't have people
Talking over your demo! Play something with compression
and magically some people who think such music can't
Be improved via high end systems disappear.
They're wrong on that point, but it's not worth arguing
Over it.

You can't blame dealers/mfgrs for wanting their
Demos to sound lovely; the old adage, you aatract
More flies with sugar than vinegar, is true.

OTOH, I find people are most impressed with
A rig when they hear their genre of music on it.
I hope readers look past the title of this post so they can see the positive views many of us have about this show. Perfect? Nope. But from talking with Constantine I can tell he wants this show to exist for all of us.

This is evident in that many people actually did play their own music. Many rooms were full of enthusiastic listeners. And, overall, I did not hear one word or message of gloom that haunts CES.

Good show, Dagago!