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Did get a free Stereophile, so I should be happy, right?
Especially with 'Old Guy' horns on the cover!
RMAF itself is SAD.
Remodel of the MARRIOTT Hotel is not complete, the only rooms available for use are the ones in the tower which seem even smaller than they are due to some built-in furniture which can not be removed.
Some of the 'big rooms' on the main floor are around the atrium which is still very much under construction so quite a few exhibitors stayed home.
Good news, at least for this year, not so many visitors either so you can talk to and ask questions because you are the only one in the room.
Sad.
Oh, and the Can Jam is in a large tent in the parking lot so if you got booted from your earlier reservation at the Marriott to a hotel two freeway exits away due to the construction being ongoing, as I was, and have to rent a car, the parking lot is unavailable and you have to park across the street at the IBM building(very short walk though).
I have attended every RMAF since the first one, even stopped going to CES with the last one was 2007, but am sad to admit this will likely be my last.
Constantine Soo stopped putting on the San Francisco show this year but the local Audiophile Club goes the Newport Beach every year en-mass, so there is that.
Oh well.
Follow Ups:
Yes indeed. Here is to a better showing (no pun) in 2017.
> Did get a free Stereophile, so I should be happy, right?
Yes indeed.
> RMAF itself is SAD.
> Remodel of the MARRIOTT Hotel is not complete, the only rooms available
> for use are the ones in the tower which seem even smaller than they are
> due to some built-in furniture which can not be removed.
Despite the problems due to the incomplete remodel of the hotel, I thought
the show was sutprisingly upbeat. Yes, some rooms were quiet, but others
appeared to have good traffic.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
Before Stereophile paid in any mind at all. Recall it was a big deal the first year Stereophile bothered to send someone low on the masthead to cover it.
That said, there are now MANY such regional shows and the pressure is on as manufacturer have to make hard choices as to which shows to attend.
After this year, I am guessing many will pass on Denver. :-(
> Before Stereophile paid in any mind at all.
The first RMAF took place in 2004.
> Recall it was a big deal the first year Stereophile bothered to send
> someone low on the masthead to cover it.
It wasn't a case of sending "someone low on the masthead". As with any
show, covering it requires expense - airfare, hotel, and incidental
expenses - and I wasn't going to invest heavily in our reporting
from a new show until I was convinced it was real. IIRC, Tom Norton
covered the 2005 show for the print magazine and Jason Serinus, who
is Stereophile's primary show reporter, covered the 2006 RMAF on-line
at the link below. We have subsequently reported in depth on every RMAF
since then.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
It was published in the mag a couple months later.
According to Marge, this was the 13th year.
So maybe the first year WAS 2004.
Math is hard.
In any event, I was there and to be fair the first years it was more along the lines of DIYers and small manufactures, lots of tube, almost everyone from prior VSAC meetings were there exhibiting. In fact, I seem to recall Ron Welborne was one of the early organizers. Certainly Doc Bottlehead was an early exhibitor as well.
So it would seem that the exhibitor profile of RMAF and the advertisers profile of Stereophile was not much of a match in those first few years (not that there's anything wrong with that).
That's all changed now and this year at least VERY few DIY or small manufactures where in attendance. No Madisound, no Parts Express, no AudioKinesis, no Grant Audio, no Bob's Devices, no Intact Audio (Slagle) and on and on.
OK, the hotel situation might have had some influence on that but still.
Different show than the first few years when we were all young and had some hair.
OK, SOME had hair, me...
Not so much.
> > After this year, I am guessing many will pass on Denver. :-(
Yes.
But, I'm willing to bet that, should the Zu crew and other Utah-sters
have the remote-est of interest, they would host an hella-ish event!
Utah-2017 ... I can see it ... and hear it ... now.
Don't believe everything you think.
- Thomas E. Kida
But Zu was in attendance and had their usual BIG room on the Mezzanine level as usual (no changes to the rooms there).
And me, I'm not in Utah anymore having returned to San Francisco. ;-(
That said, we did get back to the 'Land of Zion' last year to see the Utah tube and horn crazies, so there is that.
Got to get up to Eastern Washington before you 'downsize' yourself out of existence.
Me, I'm auditioning audio systems appropriate for Assisted Living Centers. =:-0
Come on down ... erm ... up ... ahhh ... over.
Just show up some damn time! Bring the kids!
As for your ALC rig, check the link below:
Don't believe everything you think.
- Thomas E. Kida
(nt)
as well as some built-in furniture which runs along one wall of the room and significantly reduces the usable size of most if not all of the rooms.
Plus even the suits have been remodeled with larger kitchens which means less room in the sleeping area to turn into a listening room.
I fear that once a vendor passes on a show it's hard to get them back. I saw everything I wanted to see on Friday and Saturday this year, even though in other years I would close the place up on Sunday afternoon fearing I might have missed something.
Also, the crowds were sparse. REALLY quiet, plenty of time to BS with even the bigger, more important vendors. Smaller vendors were reduced to dragging folks out of the hallways in desperation. This desperation seem to extend to the way many chose to present their wares. While wild claims of exclusivity and superiority are pretty much a common theme in Hi End Audio, such claims were thrown about more aggressively and with even more abandon this year, or so it seemed to me.
Perhaps I'm just getting old and irritable. Perhaps in past years I found such behavior amusing. Could be.
Worse yet, many of my friends in the business passed on exhibiting this year. Most are small with companies who have to pick their shots and have more shows to choose from now, especially if located a ways for Denver. But some larger companies didn't show as well because half of the big rooms on the main floor were not available for exhibiting this year.
All and all I would predict that RMAF will evolve down to a small, regional show and nothing at all like what it was 5-6 years ago, at its peak.
JMHO and I certainly hope I'm wrong.
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