Of course, all the issues listed above are inter-related, but the simple fact is that, at any audio show, there’s normally at least one system that manages to sound good. Sometimes it’s helped by the particular room it occupies, sometimes by the choice of equipment itself. But in every single case, the superior performance is the direct result of superior set-up. Logically, there should be other rooms that can sound good too, but if we take the MOC in Munich as an example (interesting because the rooms are at least large and so many of them are identical), it’s rare to find even five rooms that exhibit impressive performance, despite the hundreds there. It’s become almost traditional to point fingers at the rooms but, as an industry, standards of set-up and demonstration have been slipping for years. We appear to have reached a point where “It’s a show – what can you expect?” has become a universal excuse. The answer to that question is, “A hell of a lot more!” Yes, the rooms are crappy and so’s the AC supply, but at least make the effort. Unfortunately, the situation conspires against exhibitors and organisers alike, practically and psychologically. To appreciate why that is, we need to look at the elephant in the room, the central conflict that exists between those who organise audio shows and those who exhibit – and how it has shaped the events we now have.
These days, organising shows is a business. In many cases, the people organising them are professional events management companies, who might as well be organising an RV exhibition or a sporting goods event. Their understanding of the specific demands of an audio-focussed event is limited at best. Even when the organiser is a dedicated company that organises only audio shows, that understanding is still critically undermined by the show’s raison d’etre – profit. The High-End Society that organises the High-End Show in Munich (or now, Vienna) might have started out as an association of like-minded manufacturers and distributors, looking to promote the audio industry – their industry – but it soon became a self-sustaining entity. Looking at some of the choices made over the years, it’s clear that the show as an event has taken precedence over the needs of the exhibitors or the industry as a whole. Some years ago, a manufacturer caused a fire by leaving a tube amp on overnight, locked in a cupboard. Instead of regular safety patrols walking the corridors at night, the result was an insistence that all equipment must be turned off once the show has closed for the day. Immediately post-Covid, the organisers announced that the AC would be run throughout the show. It’s never been switched off since, creating ambient noise levels in the rooms which are simply incompatible with high-end performance. Neither decision is exactly sensitive to the issue of offering show visitors representative, let alone worthwhile, performance.
Reality bites…
Ultimately, any event is organised for the benefit of the organiser and that means selling as many rooms to as many exhibitors as possible. The problem is that this conflicts directly with the interests of the exhibitors. They want to show off their products and make the best sound possible. That in turn demands a venue with plenty of large rooms, all with acceptable acoustics and construction – and that venue doesn’t exist. I’m sorry, but hotel bedrooms just don’t cut it. Organisers will say that more exhibitors mean more visitors, but that assumes that audio equipment is a big enough draw in and of itself. Let’s get real! Audio equipment isn’t and hasn’t been an automatic or priority purchase for many years. The people still buying hi-fi are the ones who have bought into the promise of better performance. The people we want to persuade that they should be buying hi-fi need to hear and understand that better performance is possible. In either case, it’s performance that’s key. Filling a hotel or conference venue with systems that sound mediocre at best – and often a lot worse than that – simply confirms to visitors that the prices being asked simply aren’t justified. Get more visitors and you just spread that message more widely.
