Audio Show Rooms

Hi-FiGuy said:

Acoustics aside, is it me or does the United States need to up their game in a big way on the visual aspect of their rooms.
Unfortunately at shows visual trumps audio in the first 5 seconds or so. How many rooms have you walked by and looked in the door and just kept walking due to what you saw and the energy, or lack of, coming out of the room.
If one was to bring a significant other in hopes of acceptance, its ALL visual and energy.

The pictures I see of Munich and Asian shows quickly remind me of poorly the United States sets up rooms, visually speaking.

If you don't get my butt in the chair you have no chance of selling me anything.

To all the members that continue to bring these shows to my screen, I thank you very much!

P.S. The Axpona pictures this year were the best United States rooms I have seen in a long time, but to me don't hold a candle.

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I couldn't agree more. I mean how much international demand is there to recreate Darth Vader's listening room again and again?
Sharp edges and corners, boxy brutalist designs and black, black and more black
The same process that saw US car design and quality fall off a cliff in the 80's is repeating itself....mediocre designs propped up by demands to buy domestically as a patriotic duty.
Kit by the likes of Macintosh, Lamm, Audio Research, Nola, Magico and Wilson just looks horribly dated by Japanese and European standards, and out of touch with younger buyers. There is a limit to what big marketing budgets snd product placements can achieve, when your 'heirloom grade' designs are more likely destined for landfill

By contrast the likes of Tripoint, Artisan Fidelity, Tenor and Evolution Acoustics show what can be done when North American designers put their mind to it. I even appreciate the Boulder 2000 and 3000 series power amps, apparently brutalist designs which actually accord to good Feng Shui principles

Regarding rooms IT might be true not sure , productstyling wise i dont agree
But most dealers distributors overhere run like puppies after magazines like the absolute sound to complement their productportfolio.
What the absolute sound speaks highly off is business , i reckon they think

Yeah okay understandable , that's because you have knowledge.
But in case of the absolute sound its not the most knowledgable one from the mags out there.
More on the highly opinionated/hocus pocus side of things imo

Hi-FiGuy said:

There are excellent looking rooms in the states, VS, Dart EA combo and MBL being a couple that immediately come to mind. But when you walk by a room that is between listening sessions and it just looks dark,dank, unorganized and uninviting, its a turn off for those that don't covet dark listening conditions.

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How much of your complaint is due to US shows generally being held in hotel rooms vs international shows (Munch, Tokyo) being held in event spaces?

Of course hotel rooms are dark. Their primary purpose is to provide a place to sleep.

Hi-FiGuy said:

LOL, thanks for pointing out the obvious, this made me smile!

Having never been to an audio show outside of a hotel environment I cant honestly answer that, but that makes sense. However I have seen/heard some fantastic rooms in these hotels but by and large most of them are not very inviting/warm/energetic feeling.
When you are walking the halls the visual gets stimulated well before the auditory does and with me split second decisions get made determine should I stay or should I go.
So many rooms, to me, project a lonely dude sitting there by himself in the dark listening to music and that is not helping the industry.

It is all about presentation in all of the senses. Messy rooms with tangled up looms are a big turn off for me and I know the ladies don't like it if you are trying to bring them on board!

I intend on AXPONA next year and would love to do Munich and Hong Kong.

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It really boils down to finding spaces to hold such events. You have diametrically opposed priorities of wanting a quiet space suitable for listening, but you want an open and clean space. It's possible to set up visually appealing systems on a trade show floor, but you will always have significant noise issues and not be able to do much serious listening, and without real walls it isn't much like a home anyway. The meeting rooms and large suites are spaces which can be transformed into very nice demo spaces, but those are always limited in number, and don't make for a large enough show in and of themselves. The trick really is finding a venue with enough larger rooms and furnished in a way that most of the furniture can be practically removed to make for a blank slate.

Munich has become quite the high end showcase with many serious buyers attending combined with some very visually appealing displays. The most talked about displays spur others to do similar, as any such setup has to at least to come close to repaying the investment in the near term, and it usually takes a few showing how things can be stepped up for others to soon follow suit. In hotel room displays it's largely a lighting issue, where it's almost impossible to realize how much lighting is needed to suitably brighten up such a space. In the past enough light would have made the rooms even more of a sauna, but fortunately LED's have made more significant lighting efforts more practical in terms of both power and waste heat.