Thoughts from THE Show, is $29k the new $10k?


Had another enjoyabe brief one day visit to THE Show, Newport Beach last weekend. Great to see so many fellow hobbiests, and great gear. Went in search of speakers; here is a brief and disjointed summary of my impressions:
Many vendors were focusing on the $25-32k range; with most for sale around $29k as an entry point to 'quality'.
Rockport showed their new entry, $29k speaker in the Atrium. Had great balance; was warm, detailed, and engaging. First show presence for dealer; nice guy. My first experience with Rockport; was very impressed.
Eficion: at the Hilton; wow; for $16k I think it gives Wilson a run for its money with the Sophia; its AMT ribbon tweeter had great crystal highs, and its large woofer filled the room with satisfying bass, I enjoyed it.
BMC: nice gear; their $32k speakers had dipole arrangement; with both front and rear firing speakers; very engaging, huge sound stage, and great low end response. Paired up nicely with their amp/dac
YG: brought my own CD; so I was familiar with what was possible; initialy liked their sound;but in the end found it a bit 'dry', and brittle; and not totally enjoyable, this was at at least three different rooms showing their speakers.
Wilson Shasha's in the Brooks-Barden room; always a treat; enjoyed their room treatments, and professionalism, nice analog set up. Warm, detailed, lovely, and engaging.
Ventures: wow, very expensive; and very large...but totally engaging; great integration, warm, detailed, expansive sound stage, great bass, huge open subtle nuance on female voices...
Ayon: liked their Lumen White's better last year, than their own speaker line this year, but great amps and dac.
Found the KEF blades a bit disappointing, surprised at how large they are in person.
Enjoyed the TAD speakers again this year, well balanced, integrated very well.
There was a 'curved' line array speaker; I forget its name that also was quite good, interesting design, but filled the room with great sound; no glare.
The Veloce gear, with its battery source was extremely 'quiet' and detailed, and enjoyable.
Surprised how many room utilized the Synergistic Research ART treatments...hard to tell how it improved things; but can't argue with the results.
Too much to see and listen to in one brief day. Curious to hear from other members their take....I know you don't need to spend so much to get quality sound, but so many vendors showing off their $29k speakers made me want to chuckle; and take out a home loan...also thought the digital and computer audio was getting very close now to the analog rigs.
Love having this showcase in our backyard on the west coast; and will contiue to support and attend. Kudos to Bob Levi; and his team at LA/OC audio society; another great job; and Tierney Sutton singing on Friday night was an extra special treat.
mribob

Showing 2 responses by david12

"I wonder how many of these companies with rediculously priced components will be around next year".

Quite a few I would think. I am not trying to write an apologia for high end manufacturers, but we live in a world where true high end kit may only be sold to a handful of people. So all the development costs, fixed costs in premises, utilities, have te born by a few sales.

That is only the beginning. Next you have marketting, distributors and retailers %, all this has to be born by the poor buyer. No wonder high end kit, be it speakers, amplifiers, whatever, only a tiny percentage of the cost, is in the material content.

I know none of this is new and has been discussed ad nauseam on this and other sites. What may be more interesting, is how every part of the"industry", is adapting. Retailers seem to be lowering fixed costs by abandoning shop fronts, to work at home. Small manufacturers, use word of mouth and shows, to avoid the need for advertising and direct sales, to reduce distributor, retailers cut.

What underlies this thread is the rapidly changing customer base for HiFi ie rapidly declining and how the industry is adapting. Adapt it must, or die.
As far as show sound is concerned, I helped out at a show last year, by lending my speakers for the duration of a show. They were built in the US, the show was in England, so it was much easier and cheaper to use mine. I watched the set up, which was scrupulous and detailed, for hours and the sound next day was pretty good. The room was an insoluble problem though, The ceiling in particular, had loose foam tiles sitting in multiple square metal brackets. You could see them jumping about with low frequency sound, nothing you can do about that.

The basic problem many manufacturers seem to make, is to bring their top of the range, full range speakers, to use in a small hotel room. It just is'nt going to work. Why don't they bring smaller floorstanders or monitors? I am sure that is why cheaper systems often sound better at shows, than the megabucks ones