It’s interesting to note that, the World Premier presentation of the hotly anticipated Magico M7, a speaker that bears the same relationship to the company’s M9 that the Wilson XVX promises relative to the WAMM, a speaker whose critical and sales success will be financially vital to the company, is taking place not at a show, major or minor, but in Paris at the French distributor’s store. That same weekend, in Bordeaux, Neodio is holding an open house to introduce customers to its remarkable TMA amplifier, along with the fascinating new Diptyque DP160 Mk2 speakers. Reality seems to have struck both one of the high-end’s largest and most visible companies and two of its smallest, simultaneously!
Obviously, events such as these, or the Ultimate Audio show-lets, are no substitute for a major international gathering like the Munich Hi-End, with its important B-to-B function. Bringing the whole industry together at least once a year is an essential function that Munich certainly fulfils admirably – at least on a business level. But beyond that, the smaller, regional shows are not just ineffective, they’re a serious drain on the collective promotional capability of the industry as a whole. Which brings us right back to the core issue. We all love a good show. The industry desperately needs to put on a good show. But the real question is how exactly do you do that? It’s high time we started giving that some serious thought and stopped abdicating responsibility for our collective welfare (whether you are a manufacturer, writer, re-seller or end-user) to third-party show organisers with an entirely understandable agenda built entirely on self-interest.
