You should have went to the Overture Audio room and listen to the first world wide public debut of the new B&W 801D4s paired with McIntosh MC901 amps. That was a great listen and the MC allowed some of us to pick digital tunes from the Aurender streamer. Showing up to an audio show with your own listening media will many times run up against what’s already been put into a listening queue, either for vinyl or CDs.
Usually, when the crowd is very small, I have seen some vendors allow a very limited amount of people to play their music on the vendors system at audio shows. Yes, have had enough of Diana Krell and would appreciate some Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven or Santana Black Magic Women or Oye Coma Va on the next to play list. When I visit in store vendors, I usually can play my own music, which for me, is mostly records.
Sometimes the vendors choose music to showcase their system strengths as Douglas Schroeder alluded to. Taking a chance with a poorly mastered CD or an obscure recording that is flat sounding does not help their desire to present a good sounding system.
I ended up buying from the record vendors and had to make numerous trips to the car to carry off all the records I bought. I saw plenty of things to buy besides music. The McIntosh and new B&Ws were one room I liked, but Dr. vinyl also had a vibrant sounding room and they played Santana and Buddy Guy through a DS audio optical system.
Now, I am facing a conundrum as to whether to purchase either the Soundsmith optical Strain Gauge or the DS Audio optical system. Both have been on my radar and at CAF, I listened to both. The Straingauge was at CAF last year. I knew which rooms I wanted to visit and agree that they are not easy to find. I was looking for a room and ran into Anne Bisson selling records with autographs next to another room with a Transrotor turntable.
Being a Transrotor turntable owner, I asked the guy in the room about the Transrotor but he seemed preoccupied with prettying up the speaker cables in the floor. Too bad, I seriously would have bought some Transrotor accessories. Transrotor was listed on the brochure for this room but I could not get garner a conversation with the dude and only 2 people sitting in the room kissing and hugging each other pretending to listen to music just to have a spot to make out, LOl.
So, went back to the Anne Bisson desk and bought one copy of every record she had on the table with autographs. That was the end of my day after 5 hours at the fest.
Usually, when the crowd is very small, I have seen some vendors allow a very limited amount of people to play their music on the vendors system at audio shows. Yes, have had enough of Diana Krell and would appreciate some Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven or Santana Black Magic Women or Oye Coma Va on the next to play list. When I visit in store vendors, I usually can play my own music, which for me, is mostly records.
Sometimes the vendors choose music to showcase their system strengths as Douglas Schroeder alluded to. Taking a chance with a poorly mastered CD or an obscure recording that is flat sounding does not help their desire to present a good sounding system.
I ended up buying from the record vendors and had to make numerous trips to the car to carry off all the records I bought. I saw plenty of things to buy besides music. The McIntosh and new B&Ws were one room I liked, but Dr. vinyl also had a vibrant sounding room and they played Santana and Buddy Guy through a DS audio optical system.
Now, I am facing a conundrum as to whether to purchase either the Soundsmith optical Strain Gauge or the DS Audio optical system. Both have been on my radar and at CAF, I listened to both. The Straingauge was at CAF last year. I knew which rooms I wanted to visit and agree that they are not easy to find. I was looking for a room and ran into Anne Bisson selling records with autographs next to another room with a Transrotor turntable.
Being a Transrotor turntable owner, I asked the guy in the room about the Transrotor but he seemed preoccupied with prettying up the speaker cables in the floor. Too bad, I seriously would have bought some Transrotor accessories. Transrotor was listed on the brochure for this room but I could not get garner a conversation with the dude and only 2 people sitting in the room kissing and hugging each other pretending to listen to music just to have a spot to make out, LOl.
So, went back to the Anne Bisson desk and bought one copy of every record she had on the table with autographs. That was the end of my day after 5 hours at the fest.