I was there on Saturday. As I've found with every show I've attended, better for looking and chatting with folks than listening. The sound in most rooms ranged from mediocre to poor. I'm not sure why anyone would do a "live" display of equipment with retail pricing at this level (total system costs exceeding $100K) in a tiny hotel room with people crammed together and often talking over the music. And we wonder why "normal" people don't get it? If I came in off the street or with an audiophile friend who was trying to "convert" me I'd walk away quietly scratching my head. The worst sounding systems were often the most expensive, with enormous speakers designed for spaces 5-10 times larger than the rooms at the Park Lane. Lots of poorly defined bass, limited spaciousness, colored sound. Musical selections often highlighted sonic aberrations or simply drove me out of the room. I thought the show organizers (Chester Group) did a lousy job organizing this as well--a freezing cold day in the city and no coat check? I loved squeezing by everyone with my winter coat and bag of LPs. Most folks just left their gear on and sweated it out--fun! Three floors reserved and none of them fully subscribed--the third floor was nearly empty. (How about one of those empty rooms left open so people could dump their coats?). I know, I'll stop. I thought the Woodbridge Stereo room with the Martin Logan stat hybrids sounded pretty good, as did the simple Fidelis system with the Harbeth Monitor 30.2s. That's how a room should be done at these shows--keep it small and simple, create space around the speakers, keep the price at "sane" levels, and play real music that people actually enjoy. OK, I'm done.....
