by Michael

Exhibiting at a Show: What Associated Equipment To Choose?

The typical question is that you have a great component you want to impress people with at a show. How do you do that? The answers to this question will help explain why we see some rooms setup the way we do, and conversely why some great products do not get the show accolades they deserve.

The answers are different depending on the type of component if the component is a:

AMP: you want speakers and sources that do not detract from the fact that the amp is the most important piece in the system [i.e. not too hyped or visibly impressive]. You want well known components, that people already know the sound of so that they can attribute all of the above and beyond extraordinary goodness of the system to your amp [i.e. the other components are plain jane well known components that everyone knows the sound of]. DON’T put your amp on speakers that the amp can’t drive [please please please. But so many do anyway]. DON’T use amp stands that rob your amp of much of its goodness.

CD PLAYER: You want a state-of-the-art, GREAT sounding system and to play the CD player all the time. People then attribute the fact that the system sound does not suck to the fact that the CD player must really be pretty darn decent. Putting your CD Player in a mediocre or bad sounding system is only a slight negative – unless the turntable ‘fixes’ many of the problems with the system due to its warmth or whatever sonic characteristics – then they will think that digital sucks, especially your CD Player.

CABLES: Well, you can either do the Nordost thing, with wonderfully explanatory presentations that let you hear the sound of the cables, or you can have a static display like Kimber Kable, or you can have a mixed static display and demo system like Gutwire. DON’T put your cables into a bad sounding system with great components – especially not with signs all over the place indicating that the cables responsible for this sound are yours.

SPEAKERS: You want as good a sounding system as you can get with components that are as generic as possible [but even with famous or hyped components – they speakers will still get most of the credit for the sound].

in CES 2011 / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Philosophy / Show Reports 0 comments
 by Michael

CES is still fun

[I am preparing another blast of photos. But because these photo posts will be so long, I am letting these smaller posts simmer here for awhile.]

It seems to me that many of the people writing about CES are bored. They are tired of it. They do not enjoy it. They wish they didn’t have to go each year.

We, however, love it more than ever. It is a blast.

Why are they bored? Maybe because they are getting paid to attend? Maybe because this is just their job, not their adventure?

Why do we enjoy it so much? The people. The music. The learning process and testing what we have learned here against 100s of other systems. The excitement of entering each room hoping and anticipating something potentially GREAT: great sound, great music, great friends. It is like a giant building (a hotel) full of toy stores, and your friends are there and there are hundreds of parties going on.

What is not to like?

in CES 2011 / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Philosophy / Show Reports 0 comments
 by Michael

Wilsons, the Sasha, and the Alexandria X-2

I was reading the RMAF Show report in TAS… We already did our report, and our report on the Jonathan Valin report – (JV’s report from their website is printed in the TAS as part of their report in the mag). But glancing through the other reports…

These show reports, just like the ‘Best of the Year’ reports, esp. in TAS, and Hi-Fi+, etc. and ALL of the online rags… well, you would do better picking good gear with a monkey and some darts and a lot of beer.

But I want to talk about Wilson, how dealers are selling Wilson, how reporters are reporting on it, and how it reflects what is wrong with… well, it just reflects the lack of support for decent ethics and due diligence in our culture at large, so not much to say there.

Alexandria X-2
The Alexandria X-2 (thanks Jim :-))

To put it simply, dealers are pushing inferior equipment to drive Wilson speakers, and the ‘press’ is, through incompetence or worse, saying that this is just great.

We can talk about WHY, and WHO, and WHAT… but the answer to these is easy [follow the money] but fraught with finger pointing and blame and there is enough of that on the faux news channels.

What we can talk about though, is the IMPACT this has on [the reduced ranks of] audiophiles and the [proliferation of gear in our] industry. I mean, how mucked up is our hobby that the #1 selling loudspeakers have an …undeserved!… reputation for being bright, edgy and hard to make sound good? [where the real truth is that the equipment they are being sold with is bright, edgy and hard (impossible) to make sound good. And to make it Suck Less they are sold with cabling that is choking the sound as much as possible because the less there is of the (bad sounding) sound, the better]

Or we can talk about how to fix this [there are many people, however, who do not want it fixed – again, who makes money off the status-quo?]. The fact is that most dealers and reviewers do not give a hoot. Reminds me of the U.S. auto industry before Japan killed us. Some decent equipment manufacturers do an end run around the whole kit-and-kaboodle – choosing unique, and perhaps crazy [that would be us :-)] dealers who care about the sound. Others try to play the ‘game’ and hope that their higher quality will get ‘noticed’ by dealers and/or audiophiles… someday… hopefully real soon.

But the truth seems to be that it would be very difficult to fix. Someone would need to start their own magazine, with honest (but not ruthless) reviewers. They would have to have a dealership in most major metropolitan areas that focused on what things sound like, and trust that money would eventually follow quality. They would have to eschew manufacturers that, for whatever reasons, just gave up the pursuit of quality a long time ago.

And they would have to point out every once in awhile that the industry status-quo is very sick and this sickness is killing off audiophiles and potential audiophiles faster than they are made [which is pretty darn fast].

Hmmm… [our entire industry] kind of reminds me of the newspaper industry [which doesn’t have to die either, but it does have to change]

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Philosophy 0 comments