A few systems heard at the Rocky Mntn. audiofest

Hi Lugnut,

I'm glad to hear you were well enough to make it to the RMAF, and I hope you enjoyed it.

My experience is that there are very few rooms at CES events where I have not been able to go in and ask them to play a CD that I had.

You said that you were not "given the opportunity to choose the software", which is ambiguous. Does that mean you asked and were refused, or that no one offered you the opportunity, which is an entirely different thing. One has to speak-up if they want to play something.

The only time that this is difficult is when the room is being exhibited "presentation style", like the way Jeff Joseph does it. But even he will let people throw a disc n the player between "shows". I know there are exceptions to the rule, but most rooms will let you play a CD.

I have seen more intolerance in room visitors at shows, the guys that peek inside, shake their head and walk away like they are some kind of expert or something. (What were you looking-for anyway?) Or the goofs walking down the hall bitching about the type of music playing in a room after not even hanging around for more tha a minute to see how things really sound. Or the narrow-minded twits who think Classical music is the ONLY type of music, and absolutely refuse to stay in a room that plays anything else, and are rude enough to say-so and everybody around hears it.

These shows are great - our chance to hear almost everything in one place. If someone is REALLY interested in hearing things that they have not heard before, and compare them to other components, this is their opportunity. How many times do we read threads on Audiogon, where people are offering their "opinions" and advice, informed or not, about the difference between different components? Here is a chance to actually take some time and listen.

So why avoid a room just because you don't like the music playing? It'll only take a couple of minutes to wait it out, and then try something yourself!

Mr. Behr, I want to thank you for your response to our demo. It was a joy to have you in our room. I love to see people get emotionally engaged with the music. You seemed to truly enjoy it.

Golden ears,

Thanks for the support for my visit to FMAF. As perhaps you can guess I was not in a position to assert myself. Not even in this thread. My post honestly said it all.

Having spent a lifetime earning my living in retail sales I know how to behave if I want to peddle something. I also have a profound understanding of sales behavior when one is less than confident in their product or themselves as salespeople.

For myself the over-riding factor in not being assertive (beyond my physical limits) was there were plenty of other rooms to visit where my needs were satisfied. Perhaps at a different time I would have worked harder to get them involved in my interests.

I'm not upset with anyone there showing gear. These were just my honest observations. I did not shake my head nor bitch about the music being played within earshot of anyone and I certainly don't consider myself any kind of audio expert. I got as much out of this event as I wanted. Nothing more, nothing less.

One point where even my critics will support me is that Lugnut is never ambiguous. If I take the time waiting to sit in the sweet spot, with my wife no less, and no interest is shown in me as a potential buyer then I guess I'm guilty of being less than physchic in answering questions that are not asked of me. If one is in sales it behooves them to understand, meet, greet, qualify, demonstrate and close unless the customer is supposed to be responsible for everything.

There is nothing more ambiguous than standing there having nothing to say to a customer. But then, perhaps I'm a dinosaur.

Golden, I wasn't there to hear every system in every room. I was there to see and re-meet a couple manufacturers who have turned into friends over the years, to attend several seminars that looked (and were) worth my time, and to hear some systems that seemed worth my time. I also think I was looking for a little validation of my goals in reproduced music. For instance, does my system really sound as good as I think it does? Have my tastes tilted the frequency balance* significantly? I had no responsibility to listen to all or even most systems there--I'm no reporter trying to cover everything and perhaps discover a jewel among the stones. I was there to enjoy myself, and 'enjoy' didn't include entering rooms with obnoxious music playing at too-high levels. We didn't walk the halls bitching about anything, we just went down the hall to the next rooms.

I found the people in the rooms I got into to be friendly and accommodating.

* My biamped system is HIGHLY adjustable in frequency balance, and I love to tweak, so 'adjustable' can be as much for the worst as the better.
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I think this thread is very useful and potentially even more so if we can get past the personal issues. I'd appreciate other people sharing their listening strategies.

I find that I'm unable to assess an audio setup when the recorded music is amplified, synthesized or highly processed in its origin, since in that case it is much harder to know what the original performance (if any) would have sounded like. Therefore, I'm also one of those people that won't stick around unless the audition software is classical or acoustic music of some kind, played at a natural volume. How many people feel the same way about evaluating equipment, even though their listening tastes might embrace a much wider selection of recorded music?

Even in the case of classical and other acoustic music, modern mixing practices often result in a sound picture that is significantly different from the live performance. Especially in the categories of "soundstage" and "balance", what you hear is partly the recording engineer's re-interpretation or manipulation of the sound. I sometimes have trouble knowing what the playback equipment is doing or not doing in those areas, even when listening to what I consider to be an optimal source for evaluation, such as chamber music or a jazz ensemble.

Feedback welcome from anyone who has worked through any of these issues.