Who is going to the Capital Audiofest?

I will be there. The show usually has the right amount of visitors to each room that one can always find a seat and one can usually get the exhibitor to play a favorite selection. What was remarkable about the past two shows I attended is how much better the rooms with analogue setups sounded than the all digital rooms (I personally listen primarily to digital sources).

Unfortunately, because the show date has been moved so that it now conflicts with another show, a lot of the headphone exhibitors will not be there. That is unfortunate because the big headphone room was the most pleasant part of the show--everyone is friendly and helpful and they even allow people to take phones to another booth to hear them on a different amp or in comparison to something else.

Would like to but cannot.

Interesting you mention the headphone contingent, Larryi.

I noticed they had the most energetic and youthful crowd at CAF last year, by leaps and bounds. As I said, the high-end audio component of the show took a major leap forward with the change in venue. But the headphone room truly sat on a different level from the rest of the show. Say what you will, it's encouraging to see the young crowd show up with such numbers and passion. Makes you realize how far off our hobby has gone.

Trelja,

Not only did last year's show have the big headphone room, there was another smaller conference room that had a bunch of DIY people, most of whom were young guys showing off their own headphone amps and sharing their projects with each other. That was a lot of fun too. While this protends that the future of the industry is headed in the direction of headphones, I will bet that a sizeable portion of that crowd will cross over toward speakers in the future. Headphones are a great way to start out in the hobby because costs are more reasonable.

What about NY audio show so far crappy vendors.