Tampa Audio Expo 2022

Uh oh. That’s not good.

Did you buy your ticket in advance or at front entrance?

People are now posting various Youtube videos of the different rooms and setups to get an idea of what was there.  Seemed like there were few people sitting in chairs in some of these rooms, or maybe they filmed early or later in the show. Good to see a show going after a 2yr stall...Some new amps and new speakers popping up.  

My take:  the turnout was decent… maybe 1000 people on Friday. The rooms were not crowded so it was easy to make requests. The hosts were friendly and there was time to talk. Some rooms were a little bright but generally I found the sound to be pretty good.  The presentations by WallyTools were excellent. 
 

Thanks and congrats to Bart, the other organizers and all the sponsors for coming and for setting up some very nice exhibits. 

I will agree with the OP. There were more bad rooms than good. Most sounded mid fi at best. 

For this event, I really feel sorry for the organizer and vendors.

It wasn’t as fun and excited as 2017 RMAF and I think it did show on EV1’s faces?

There were as few rooms as my local Lonestar Audio Show in Dallas- that’s bad.
Well, I got myself a brief pep talk and a selfie with Jay Audio and we thought it was hilarious. Great guy indeed.

Chicago Audio Show is in April if anyone interest.

This was my 1st Tampa audio expo and I agree with a couple of other people here that it didn't have the sound quality that other shows have had, especially for the price. For example, only a few years ago at RMAF, a pair of $6000 totems would have been in the top 5 of the best sounding rooms at this audio show. I also liked the systems on the 2nd floor. I was listening to many speaker systems that were mid fi at best that cost anywhere from $30k to $100k+ that a pair of Revel Salon 2's/Studio 2's or Wilson $20k/$30k speakers would have blown them out of the water for 1/2 the price. 

I was also disappointed on the number of rooms showing equipment. I'm guessing each floor averaged 4 rooms that were demostrating.

Listening to the various clips that Jay posted, I thought the Borresen room and the Piega room both sounded good.  Several of the other hi-end demos were just kinda ho hum.

I thought it was me as I walked into a room only to walk right out as there was no reason to listen further. That bad, 

I was shocked that there were 3-4 rooms per floor so maybe 40 rooms total for this show. 

VAC seemed to be represented the most as they were in 5-6 rooms. 

The MBL room was interesting but would be cheaper to get a mortgage for a ocean front property than the asking price of those speakers and amps.

That’s pretty concerning when such a high percent of supposedly “special gear” fails the test. Someone may be a bit out of touch with things.  Why even bother?

For the amount of money that most of these rooms had invested in their equipment that sounded pretty bad, 2 rooms for me stood out that weren't that expensive: the Black Ice room and the room with creek gear. This was the best sounding Creek gear I ever heard, the downside was they were hooked up to $100k speakers that were just decent. For $100k, there are much better speakers at that price level or many times less IMO: Von Schweikert, Wilson, Usher, Revel, Raidho, Magico, etc....

I heard a rumor during the show that RMAF will be coming back later this year. If so, that would be good to go to. 

Gershman  Acoustics I believe on 12th floor I was impressed with 

When I asked the owner how much for their monitors I was taken back at the price. I literall]y asked how are you making any money? They were extremely nice couple (man and wife) and you could feel they lived and breathed this business. 

Another room was Infigo Audio out of Canada. They had amps and a DAC and it was impressive. Very knowledgeable gentleman. Hans was his name. I remember as he was very personable. 

I struck up a very interesting conversation with Volti Audio with horn tweeter and nice looking audio stands. I point blank asked him there is no way you are going through distribution at this price point and he confirmed they were market direct. 

The passion from these three stood out and funny enough their rooms did also. 

I look for the good in things. so even though the show was nor CES or RMAF I took it for what it was and utilized my time there.

I was mesmerized by the Volti Audio Rival II Horn speakers. That SET amp and those horns were wonderful sounding. I think the little DAC was also quite impressive.

The other speaker that left an impression on me were the granite Acora speakers. I walked into that great Hall and saw these two diminutive granite towers that just didn’t seem to go with the great sound filling this giant space. I went back that evening to hear a talk about the 24 Channel mix tape of Bohemian Rhapsody and marveled even more at the bass these speakers can deliver. The Mastering Engineer presentation was interesting and informative as well.

The Infigo Audio room had  AudioKinesis Gina speakers I believe with a bass module of some sort.  I never heard these speakers before and I was glad I had the opportunity to hear them. 

Very natural sounding with an ease to them that welcomes you in. 

@duramax747 thanks for the  compliments. I was working the show for the Infigo Audio company. Thanks for stopping by! It’s a great amp and Dac! 

There is a YouTube video from avshowrooms that is gushing with rave reviews of most of the rooms. I saw them there but I’m wondering if I get went into the same rooms that I visited. They mentioned a room sounded good with speakers costing $40k. I have watched some of their reviews and prior audio shows and they were in line with the sq that I heard too, but they were way off at this show.

Im wondering if they get paid for reviews they do just like the magazines have been doing for years. If you are getting paid by ads in magazines or by reviews, then they can’t be credible. I’m not sure if this is happening here or not