If an exhibit room sounds good it is. But if it sounds bad you don’t know why. Is it the setup. Is it brand new gear that needs breaking in? I could go on. If you don’t know why then negative comments hurt the equipment and you really don’t know what equipment. Is it the software. Is it apiece of electronics. Is it the speakers? Did something fail when you heard the system? And the reviewer’s bad comments can hurt a manufacturer when the equipment could be very good on a longer, real test. And if the manufacturer of the equipment is on shaky ground he could fail undeservedly. Bad reviews should ONLY come from long term use in a known environment. That’s a reason I hate to read Jonathon Valens show reviews especially
There’s a flip side to any coin. How good is his customer base, the average audiophile’s room? Pretty horrid, I would say. It is usually some living room with glass everywhere, etc, all kinds of suboptimal conditions. The hotel room is usually no worse than the avg audiophile’s room (audiophile of 40 years n all!). All he does is buy expensive gear, plop it down in a room and if it sounds like crap, he’ll somehow fix everything with a magic cable. That’s the avg customer base. What does the same audiophile really know about gear matching, synergy, etc? It is not a whole lot at all, in comparison to the manufacturer who designed/voiced the equipment.
If you are a manufacturer (an expert, so to speak) and can’t set up/make it work acoustically in a room with suboptimal conditions (typical of what your customer base lives with) and do proper gear matching (work out all the kinks), there’s something wrong with your competence level. Just don’t show up to shows and showcase your incompetence, I suppose. Don’t give me the cop out, don’t cry me a river that it was all the hotel room’s fault. You should have taken the right kind of treatment with you since you are already the expert of gear synergy for the gear you supposedly designed.
I'll tell you about the manufacturer who wouldn’t know anything about room acoustics, his "own" gear or how to set anything up. He’ll usually contract it out to mainland China. It is designed/made in China and looks like a creme deluxe piece in the end. It gets the high end low aptitude manufacturer’s name plate and the high end markup eventually. He may even give it a Italian sounding name to make it feel more cultured, lol. Would that guy know diddly about how "his" equipment works, how to set it up, what to match it up with, etc? No, he wouldn’t, the Chinese designer in mainland China would.. It would be the hotel room’s fault all day long for this type of guy.... and he better start paying the YTers and forum incognito promo boys for poetic praise pronto.