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The 2007 Home Entertainment Show sponsored by Primedia just wrapped up and for those who attended previous years it was either a breath of fresh or stale air. If you are a two channel music fanatic with a penchant for esoteric technologies and analog reproduction you where in your element. Close to 90% of the show was dedicated to you. However, if your horizons are broader, say you have an interest in video and home theater or gaming or photography there was not much for you too see. In previous years this show was held at the Hilton and boasted a much larger roster of exhibitors. Big companies like Sony and Monster Cable rented out entire ballrooms to display their gear and new technologies such as SACD, Blu Ray, HDDVD and HDTV where at the for front. This year vinyl playback in demo's grossly outnumbered all of these technologies combined.Now that the show has moved to the more cramped confines of the Grand Hyatt it seems to have completely morphed into a high end 2 channel show. This year the only significant "mainstream" none high end audio companies to attend where Logitech and HP Computers, and they had relatively small displays. The title does not seem appropriate anymore, it should really be called the Stereophile show. The average age of the attendees appeared to be 55 or higher and there was precious few people under the age of 30. High end audio may still be alive, there was definitely some new and innovative products at the show but the rather depressing feeling I got, as I approach the age of 40 myself, was that the hobby of music listening over quality systems will not see a new generation. The industry has collectively failed to capture the youth market and its apparent anathema towards home theater has insured that those willing to spend serious money on home entertainment will end up with HTiB instead of real systems.
The Show occupied 3 floors and several ballrooms but the rooms where not as densely packed together as in years past. This was welcome as it minimized the leakage of sound from demo room to demo room. The total lack of home theater demos also made for a quieter show. One positive trend that I noticed was that the use of room treatment, both electronic and acoustic, was much more prevalent than in the past. On average the treated rooms tended to sound smoother, fuller and better balanced. This was most clearly demonstrated by Rives Audio who had two similar rooms with almost identical systems - Wadia CD palyer VAC electronics, Talon speakers, but one was treated with both Rives electronics and RPG room treatments. The treated room sound smoother and more refined, not that the other system sounded bad but the difference was noticeable.
I was heartened to see that vinyl made a strong showing, several of the better sounding rooms such as the Vandy/ARC room, the HiFi One room playing the Continium TT and the Sound By Singer room featuring the Brinkman turntable, Escalante Fremont speakers driven by VTL electronics featured analog playback. I also enjoyed the KEF/Chord room, the Dynaudio/Simaudio demo and the Lipinski/JVC room (although I much preferred the latter system in two channel rather than multi channel) There where some interesting new speakers on display such as the Haniwa Audio Systems design that combines a horndriver with what they claim is the worlds first "closed loop phase shift control system." The speakers look like silhouette's of a statue of Buddha and are quite imposing visually. Driven by Haniwa electronics the company claims the system effectively eliminates phase shift. The speakers sounded much better than I was prepared to believe they would, given their odd appearance and dubious manufacturer claims.
Other "different" looking speaker designs included the Cabasse Le Sphere which looks right out of a 1950's Sci Fi movie and is surely priced in the stratosphere. I did not get to hear the Cabasse system but the word on the street was that the bass was prodigious but uncontrolled. Arguably the most innovative concept came from newcomers Proclaim Audioworks who debuted a complex system of spherically enclosed drivers suspended on a milled aluminum base that allow independent positioning of the woofer, midrange and tweeter elements. The system comes with an external crossover but the room was so packed I could not get a decent audition.There where some logistical problems associated with holding an event at a new venue. The line to get in was way too long on the opening day, even for those that preregistered. The computer system was not working correctly and to make things worse the event staff acted most rudely. When I got there at around 3PM on Friday there was a security guard literally barking orders at attendees as if they where children. The fact that the show registration was crammed into a hallway further added to the chaos. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the show but it was not the best run event I have attended. Hopefully things will go smoother next year. And I am sure there will be a show next year, there was certainly enough energy, enthusiasm and innovation, but I wonder where we will be in five and ten years from now. By then the average age of show attendees will have crept even higher, the high end is a dieing planet, it desperately needs new blood.
I wonder if there was a deliberate effort to scale back the size and scope of the show on the part of the organizers or was it that big name exhibitors just decided to focus on larger event such as CES. In any case for an event sponsored by Home Theater Magazine and billed as featuring "the ultimate in home entertainment" and the "high performance sound and imaging event of the year" there was virtually no home theater. This show has a bit of a crisis of identity that it will need to resolve. If not by next year, certainly within the two or three.
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I just spoke with a local retailer that I am friendly with and who has participated in the show in previous years; He claims that the reason that so many companies stayed away was because of the date - the last day fell on Mothers Day.
Hello there: I like your points of view. I spent the three whole days at the Show, since they opened it to the public in the morning until they closed the doors, so I know that your comments are very well-placed and reflect the reality of the Show. Many interesting items and combinations, a few new manufacturers, I recall specially a French Company showing a pair of bulky Black Color speakers (hybrid ribons/dynamic) with great sound; of course the flagship of B&W, and the highly expensive Australian Turntable; also the big room of MBL (probably the biggest Showroom of the three floors). I second your opinion about the double Showroom of Rives Audio, very interesting and sui-generis A/B comparasion.By the way, the Seminar "Acoustic Treatment, Design, and Your System" with Richard Bird and Christopher Huston (Rives Audio), Ethan Winer (Real Traps), Friday evening, was very interesting with real-life questions from the public and authorized answers from the panelists.
Overall a very good Show and a lot of fun. Thanks again for your Show Report, Best, Antonio Machado.
While I agree with your analysis, I for one was thrilled to see the greatly diminished presence of home theater garbage. We did not have to endure the thunderous footsteps of Bambi tiptoeing through the forest from some god-awful video system in an adjacent room. I had seriously considered not flying out for this show, and was glad that I attended.It shall always be the "Stereophile Show" to us audiophiles.
In general, the overall quality level of the systems I auditioned seemed considerable higher than the norm; there were relatively few lemons.
Art
There are tons of high resolution photos at audioxsell (high resolution pictures) and also audio junkies.http://www.audioxsell.com/
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