We’re leaving for CES in a few hours…

When thinking about how best to cover this particular show, and not *appear* to be so mean about it [Who knew people really do like adverbs in their reviews. So now we know. And I was never mean - just factual - but that means so very little to people who Do Not Want To Hear It (and the rest who use their minds to hear what they think they should be hearing based on their limited, spotty, sparse, farcical and unbalanced knowledge of the technology being used. And I’m ignoring those to whom things sound best when $$$ advertising budgets and fine scotch malt whiskey are in play. Yes, let’s ignore them as much as possible.) OK. Got it out of my system. Ahhhh…. feel better now. Thanks.],

so, uh, I think about requesting if exhibitors could…

… give me a very short quote to put up on their room photos. You know like “our quadruple bypass triode architecture allows us to achieve hallucinogenic effects in 90% of our listeners in under 2.2 seconds” [who cares about the price, I want one of *these* ]

… put their room number on their literature so I can match them up later after visiting 200 rooms [with a lot of walking in between - this is really a marathon but in slooooow-mo] in 4 days

… let me know what they want featured most of all

Because each room gets it own ‘article’ in the show report. That is, between 1 and, say 20 pages of full-impact-page photos. With large text that will highlight the main features of the system - and small text that describes the experience and overall system flavor.

And we have [multiple] technologies that will now both make the text readable but not obscure the photos in any meaningful way.

Anybody else have any ideas?

How abut you Exhibitors?

And you Audiophiles?

Lurkers? Naw, you just like to lurk. That’s fine but these other folks….

High-grade Home Audio Porn addicts? I know you are out there, and I, of course, have been public with my addiction for lo these many years….

Enjoy!
-Mike

As some of you have seen, we have put out one of two special issues we are doing for CES 2009 and T.H.E. Show.

The first one, CES 2009 Preview and Dailies is already up and we have more than a dozen press releases up so far [not bad for a 2-week old publication - and we’ll do a lot better once all the bugs are obliterated out of the software… where is my bazooka?].

We will publish photos each day, if things go as planned, as large as we can make them.

Sponsors, Advertisements and Press Releases and Juicy Photos are welcome.

A few hints for using the magazine… resize the window to the size you want the page to be [sounds obvious, but some people are so used to scrolling around in little itty bitty windows ] .

Click on the ‘Page x’ of ‘Page x of 28′ in the top bar and you get a handy-dandy page navigator that helps you figure out where in the heck you are and where in the heck you want to be…

OK, time to start packing? Maybe so…

No?

Good.

Neither are we.

Neli is out with a bad cold.

And me, I am trying to avoid her like the plague …

:-)

Anyway we ARE going to exhibit at CES - a smaller Audio Note system than last year [who else is tired of exorbitant shipping rates?] with the Ongaku, AN/E SEC Signature speakers, and level 4 digital CDT-Three transport and DAC 4.1x Balanced.

No. No analog. Only 3 HRS platforms… no rack.

We will be closer to the front of the hotel this year in room… uh…. Neli knows, but I think it is room. 1808 here:

I hope it is 80 degrees the whole week….

CES is almost upon us. I finally registered and found out that they are now charging $100 for attendees registering after Halloween. Neli of course registered months ago. Maybe this $100 charge will reduce the number down from 140,000 to, oh I don’t know, zero? Maybe not, though.

This year I am again going as a member of that sneaky [you bet] subversive [I wish] group… the ‘press’… who seem to get in free. Who knew?

Will the economy keep people away? I have no idea. We are going - but I am not sure if we are going to show anything this year.

Our show report will be different this year. Well, it is different just about every year - but here is how it will be different THIS year.

The Magazine

Most of the photos will be in the magazine, in a format that is very modern in its use of web technology. At this point, we are going to have one page per room, with all their photos and with one photo super-sized to fill the window. So you people with giant 24 and 30 inch monitors, or who surf the web on your front projection system - you will get the real, sun-glasses ARE required, sensory overload impact. But you people with smaller screens won’t miss a thing either - because everything will scale down as well as up.

And hopefully we will have an intuitive zoom mode - so that we will ALL now see how to operate the buttons on the front panels of all the gear at the show

The commentary will be thought-provoking, and analytical - but not detailed and critical. That part of the show report will still be on Audio Federation’s website.

Why not put the critiques of each room in the magazine’s show report?

Well, for one, yes, we want to have advertisers put ads on, and link to, their room’s page [and our ads are permanent - like real magazines - they get paid for once and they stay there - they won’t just disappear next month if the advertiser stops paying their monthly fee].

Another reason is that most people in this hobby - hate to say it - do not care all that much about the sound at shows. They have been ‘told’ that the sound at shows “can’t” be any good. Blah Blah Blah. So, a $10K system that sounds slow and dull? It is the shows’ fault. A $500K system sounds slow and dull? It’s the shows’ fault. [someday we’ll have to write something on how audiophiles have been programmed to think certain things - and by who.. or is that whom?]

The Audio Federation Show Report

…Will have one photo per room and a critique of the sound in the room - when it is worth commenting on.

As far as I know, we are the only ones, in this whole blamed world, who actually write something that gives some idea of what rooms actually sounded like [though there is Larry Borden, a little bit, sometimes, and Trelja, though mostly reaction instead of analysis]. It might actually be fun if more rooms sounded interesting….