Before drawing any conclusions on the basis of what you hear at a show, understand just what it is you are hearing. The rooms may start out all identical, but that soon changes once the exhibitors get in there. Then there’s the issue of the systems themselves: beyond the question of set up, all too often they are the result of shotgun weddings (down to shared distribution) or marriages of convenience (the result of shared funding). These rarely result in optimum equipment combinations and occasionally in unfortunate coincidences. Having so many Wilson speakers at the show placed incredible (unwise?) pressure on those setting them up, while also underlining the generally lack-lustre performance that resulted. But it also begs the question, what part the preponderance of dCS front-ends contributed to that situation. It was certainly noticeable that the best results from the various Wilsons were all achieved using record players to feed them, while digital/vinyl comparisons were less than flattering. Meanwhile TechDAS might well be asking whether maybe they should have allowed the same person to set up their swanky new arm on the AirForce One as set up the far cheaper (and in this instance, musically much more impressive) AirForce III?
If nothing else, shows in general offer multiple proofs of the law of unintended consequences. What other proof they provide is far more general in nature and more often about process and practice than the actual products involved.
If exhibitors take away only three lessons from the 2023 Munich Show, in most cases they should be:
The record visitor numbers show that people still want to buy into and sell the high-end audio experience – but it needs to be an experience!
It doesn’t matter how pretty your products are, or how well you’ve dressed your room: it’s not good enough if the sound doesn’t measure up.
High-end audio is a performance related pursuit and that performance comes first. You can’t just assume its presence. You need to work for it.
If visitors take away three lessons, they should probably be:
Don’t think you are going to learn much if anything about individual products. Very few rooms were conducting any sort of comparative demonstration (Nordost, AudioQuest and CH being the obvious exceptions), meaning that what you actually heard was the sound of a complete system and its state of set up, factors that swamp individual product characteristics.
Don’t assume that manufacturers are the best people to set up their own systems. They may know about the equipment they build, they may even produce a complete system, but product design and system set up are very different skill-sets – as this show demonstrated all too clearly.
Shows are about accidental collisions: unexpected meetings, unexpected musical discoveries and unexpected revelations. It’s in these tales of the unexpected that the real joy and interest lies. Enjoy the event for what it offers – not what it doesn’t.
Retro is a look, not a design philosophy…
