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Thoughts from THE Show, is $29k the new $10k?

Had another enjoyabe brief one day visit to THE Show, Newport Beach last weekend. Great to see so many fellow hobbiests, and great gear. Went in search of speakers; here is a brief and disjointed summary of my impressions:
Many vendors were focusing on the $25-32k range; with most for sale around $29k as an entry point to 'quality'.
Rockport showed their new entry, $29k speaker in the Atrium. Had great balance; was warm, detailed, and engaging. First show presence for dealer; nice guy. My first experience with Rockport; was very impressed.
Eficion: at the Hilton; wow; for $16k I think it gives Wilson a run for its money with the Sophia; its AMT ribbon tweeter had great crystal highs, and its large woofer filled the room with satisfying bass, I enjoyed it.
BMC: nice gear; their $32k speakers had dipole arrangement; with both front and rear firing speakers; very engaging, huge sound stage, and great low end response. Paired up nicely with their amp/dac
YG: brought my own CD; so I was familiar with what was possible; initialy liked their sound;but in the end found it a bit 'dry', and brittle; and not totally enjoyable, this was at at least three different rooms showing their speakers.
Wilson Shasha's in the Brooks-Barden room; always a treat; enjoyed their room treatments, and professionalism, nice analog set up. Warm, detailed, lovely, and engaging.
Ventures: wow, very expensive; and very large...but totally engaging; great integration, warm, detailed, expansive sound stage, great bass, huge open subtle nuance on female voices...
Ayon: liked their Lumen White's better last year, than their own speaker line this year, but great amps and dac.
Found the KEF blades a bit disappointing, surprised at how large they are in person.
Enjoyed the TAD speakers again this year, well balanced, integrated very well.
There was a 'curved' line array speaker; I forget its name that also was quite good, interesting design, but filled the room with great sound; no glare.
The Veloce gear, with its battery source was extremely 'quiet' and detailed, and enjoyable.
Surprised how many room utilized the Synergistic Research ART treatments...hard to tell how it improved things; but can't argue with the results.
Too much to see and listen to in one brief day. Curious to hear from other members their take....I know you don't need to spend so much to get quality sound, but so many vendors showing off their $29k speakers made me want to chuckle; and take out a home loan...also thought the digital and computer audio was getting very close now to the analog rigs.
Love having this showcase in our backyard on the west coast; and will contiue to support and attend. Kudos to Bob Levi; and his team at LA/OC audio society; another great job; and Tierney Sutton singing on Friday night was an extra special treat.
mribob
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
Suteetat, I must not have been clear enough or you misunderstood my post. I agree with you that I have rarely heard a system sound really good at a show. And coming home is a treat for me also. Nevertheless, it is fun to see/hear the latest stuff at shows and meet some of the people involved in the hobby.

"Equipment is not broken in yet", "the room is lousy", "didn't have enough time to properly set up the system" are all excuses that I have heard from vendors or read in the show reports from reviewers for why some special system did not sound great at a particular show. Or "it sounded much better on the third day or during that private listening session with my own music that only we insiders were lucky enough to hear, etc, etc."

One would think that at these prices and assuming that the vendor wants to impress a captive audience, that he would do whatever is required to get the most out of a system at a show. The other problem is that too often people talk during the demonstrations. That's usually when I leave.
suteetat
435 posts
 
Peterayer, I understand your comment but I supposed I was not really trying to explain why the sound is bad at show. Just general observation that the sound is bad. Even equipments that I am familiar with and know what they are capable of, having heard them either at home or elsewhere usually sound worse at show.

I am not sure what the main culprit is. Rooms may not be ideal but again, I heard a lot of systems that are not in dedicated listening room, my system included, that sound better than at show. Wall construction of usual hotel room is probably not ideal for stereo equipment either. Lots of demanding equipments sucking all the powers from multiple rooms at the same time probably does not help.

Generally I just feel that a show can only give me a glimpse of what the system is truly capable of. If they sound acceptable at show, they are likely to impress me a lot in another environment. Even system that sounds downright bad usually sound better elsewhere.

It is fun visit a show but it is not the place I would make my final judgement on the quality of the equipment for sure. I have not attend shows in the US for a long time so I have no idea how the rooms that get voted best sound at show etc really sound like or if they are much better than what is heard over here. However, for what's its worth, a friend who attends CES every year told me that at CES, the sound is not any better than what we hear at a local show here.
suteetat
435 posts
 
PS when I first become interested in hifi gear in late 1980's,
a great super amp costed around $5000-8000, may be only Jadis had something in excess of $10,000 that I could recalled.
Only a few speakers were over $10,000 like Infinity IRS beta and something like Martin Logan Statement/ IRS V seemed like something that I could only dream of.

Now, certainly I can afford the price range of those super equipments (inflation not included) but they are now nowhere near the uppermost brackets.Personally, that does not bother me at all. I am interested in getting the best that I can afford without financial strain. Presence of out of reach items is a common occurence in just about all things. The market will weed out the unworthy product. I don't need to be price police or get upset over those pricing myself and I am sure I don't need to be the chaperone for audiophile.
ricred1
2,084 posts
 
Martin Logan Statements with big Krells is one of the best systems I've ever heard.
david12
1,454 posts
 
As far as show sound is concerned, I helped out at a show last year, by lending my speakers for the duration of a show. They were built in the US, the show was in England, so it was much easier and cheaper to use mine. I watched the set up, which was scrupulous and detailed, for hours and the sound next day was pretty good. The room was an insoluble problem though, The ceiling in particular, had loose foam tiles sitting in multiple square metal brackets. You could see them jumping about with low frequency sound, nothing you can do about that.

The basic problem many manufacturers seem to make, is to bring their top of the range, full range speakers, to use in a small hotel room. It just is'nt going to work. Why don't they bring smaller floorstanders or monitors? I am sure that is why cheaper systems often sound better at shows, than the megabucks ones
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