Munich High-End Show: other reports III
Munich High-End Show: other reports III
Munich was kind of Audiophiledom for the last 10 days….
Enjoy the Music has a few reports up about various exhibits at Munich High-End 2015
AudioStream has a few dozen posts about digital-ish stuff at Munich High-End 2015
HiFi+ also has a few reports. Sorry, they do not make a special link for Munich, so this link will be stale in a week or so
PartTimeAudiophile on how much more fun Munich is than U.S. Shows [he needs to go to T.H.E. Newport Show. At least it is a lot more fun than RMAF and CES, if not Munich. Of course, it is next week so better get over that jet lag quick everybody].
Next Week
And speaking of Newport 2015, Neli will be in the Acapella room (with Audio Note front end) and I will be taking lots and lots of photos. The heck with Instagram (which is where we put the photos last year), this year we will post the photos here on the blog and index them like we do our other show reports.
Hi Mike & Neli,
I read your comments relating to the part time audiophile’s article on the Munich high-end audio show. Scot Hull offered some excellent suggestions deserving of serious consideration by the North American audiophile community. Particularly his ideas directed at more collaboration and less competition promoting regional audio trade shows; utilizing (all) advertising and broadcasting assets towards promoting a specific trade show; considering locations within walking distance or a short commuter ride to a city’s downtown assets; providing more varied experiences at audio shows to attract and hold attendees interests over the duration; and encouraging local artists to integrate with the overall audio show experience.
Surely the audio industry needs to find ways to expose more people to high end audio. Streaming services such as Tidal are excellent ways of discovering new music, but don’t provide the intimate, emotional, audio experience of a well done home audio system, even a moderately priced one.
With your considerable articulation skills, experience, and contacts, I can imagine the audio trades providing a positive influence towards achieving audio trade show changes such as Scot writes about. I’m sure you have a strong interest in RMAF with your Colorado residency, and the Newport show because of your love of California. There must be ways the audiophile community can work collaboratively to achieve a better audio experience for more people.
Regards, Leonard
Hi Leonard 🙂
You summarized Scot’s [somewhat lengthy :-)] post quite nicely. Perhaps I will play devil’s advocate and talk about why things are the way they are, from what we know.
“more collaboration and less competition promoting regional audio trade shows;”
Newport (and before that THE SHOW Las Vegas) and RMAF [Marjorie and Richard] collaborate quite closely. It didn’t save THE SHOW Las Vegas and isn’t helping Newport that much. Most shows are very local and there is not much competition for audiophiles, just a little competition as they try to get the press and the manufactures to once again pack their bags and attend yet another show.
“utilizing (all) advertising and broadcasting assets towards promoting a specific trade show; ”
Munich charges 10 (ten) times what shows in the U.S. charge. U.S. shows make approx. $1,000 to $2,000 per room. Say there are 100 rooms. $100K to $200K has to support the organizer and pay for advertising and maybe a guest artist or two. Munich has $1M to $2M (assuming costs per sq. ft. for lease of a convention center is similar to that of a hotel) to run some advertising.
“considering locations within walking distance or a short commuter ride to a city’s downtown assets;”
This would be nice; presumably the prices for hotels closer to interesting parts of town charge more.
“providing more varied experiences at audio shows to attract and hold attendees interests over the duration; ”
Newport has a ‘car show’ (about 15 exotic cars) and [used to have] a ‘cigar show’ [a table of lots of upscale cigars]. I do think this has helped the show quite a bit – mostly because I can think of no other reason for its success.
“encouraging local artists to integrate with the overall audio show experience.”
I thought it was awesome that Patricia Barber performed at Axpona. I thought it sucked that everyone had to stand during the show – but her performance definitely made us sit up and take notice of this show in a city (Chicago) that is not a real tourist destination.
Personally, we would most love to see Constantine and the California Audio Show in the Bay Area succeed. And I think it has the most potential.
But charging more for rooms so they can run more ads? Or investing several $100K in advertising in the hope that the show grows enough to pay back the investment?
Probably not going to happen.
But having, simultaneously in the same hotel, a small exotic car show? Or antique computer show? Or art show? Or high-end guitar show? Or several other possible shows might indeed help get some 7M or so people off their rear ends.
But I just so see how the “audiophile community can work collaboratively” any more than it is already. We post 1000s of photos of each show we attend, and want to go to more shows. The other press cover most shows with an intensity that is unmatched by any other subject that they report about. Manufactures traipse from one to the other show shipping tons [sometimes literally] of gear and in a continual cycle of setup and listen and tear down. People are already working hard together trying to impress the general audiophile and general public.
Personally, I think Munich is successful because the security state has scared off much of the international community and so CES [the high performance audio section] has forfeited its role as the gateway to international sales. Now people go to Munich to find international distributors and access to the Far East and European markets, which are far larger than the U.S. market [which is the REAL problem].
Thanks, Leonard. Hope all is well!
-Mike
Thanks for the thoughtful response Mike. It is encouraging local audio show organizers are collaborative.
Perhaps charging higher entrance fees in exchange for diversified advertising, particularly in non-audio media locally and in the region will payoff with more audio curious attendees? I agree there’s quite a lot of audiophile coverage of existing shows currently, but that’s mostly speaking to the choir isn’t it? That was a great promotional idea to use local Chicagoan Patricia Barber at Axpona.
Perhaps non-local attendees are willing to pay more for hotel rooms accessible to other downtown venues during show week? As long as the hotels have easy access to downtown transportation facilities.
Perhaps more promotion such as Lyn Stanley’s at RMAF? Or collaboration with local music venues such as professional theater, many colleges have excellent acoustic auditoriums, or even Red Rocks (transportation would have to be included)? Personally I would be more interested in more live music at shows than non-audio related activities.
It is a quandary – ticket prices vs. attendance. But there is evidence audio shows have largely replaced audio salons in all but the largest cities. RMAF ticket prices are set low presumably to draw more potential attendees, but is that really working? I’ve read attendance has dropped in recent years.
Leonard
SINCE I POSESS NOT ONLY HERMANNS PLASMAS BUT ALSO HILL PLASMATRONICS I AM SENSITIVE TO ULTRA HIGH END I REALLY DISLIKED THE KONDO AFFAIR .SO I STICK TO THE JAPANESE ORIGINALS TILL I DIE!!!!!!