I was there Friday and toured the rooms together with Ron. As it so happens he and I have virtually the same photos of each room so rather than posting the same pictures I would like to give my overall thoughts
1. The shenanigans that went on with the LAAS and its ultimate collapse clearly left the southern California audio community trying to figure out what happened. As KeithR pointed out, hopefully next year there will be participation by the LAOCAS to help with the success of THE Show. This will hopefully bolster attendance
2. As for attendance I was there on Friday only and there were only small numbers of attendees. Hopefully that improved over the weekend
3. The new venue IMO was terrific (I say that also selfishly as it was only a 20 minute drive for me from home to hotel). Having said that there were exhibitors only on the ground, first and second floors. My overall concern is that the rooms were all small and there were IMO only a handful of rooms that stood out with wonderful sound. My other concern with the hotel was the scarcity of large salon (banquet) rooms which typically have large speakers with ultimate set ups. I only saw 3 or 4 large salons on the ground floor. If THE Show is going to grow and flourish in years to come I see this hotel as being an impediment unless of course there are larger rooms on the upper floors. Virtually every room I was in had their speakers tucked up against the front and side walls.
4. I thought that the registration place where we got our badges was way around in the rear corner of the main floor and so many people who were there did not have badges suggesting they just took the elevators upstairs without paying or registering
5. Even though there are many members here in the LA area hoping THE Show will return to LA next year, personally I have always liked it in South Orange County and hope it remains there. My concern is the ability (or lack thereof) of the hotel to support larger systems in larger rooms
6. The hotel was clean and the staff was friendly. The food was OK and reasonably priced
7. I wasn't going to attend THE Show until I heard that my good friends Philip O'Hanlon and asiufy weren't only showing in their own rooms but supported THE Show hoping it would have a break through weekend
8. As stated, attendance on Friday was horrible. The only people walking the floors were old gamers like me who were either retired or took the day off.
9. I enjoyed what management was trying to achieve with the high end in audio, to wit the incorporation of other luxury manufacturers on the ground floor where there were 2 or 3 estheticians who were hawking skin creams and hair products, along with decorative lights for outside your house during the holiday season as well as a woman selling very expensive cigars. There was only a handful of vendors selling music and none were the big vendors who we typically see at shows. I was disappointed in seeing this. The typical muscle and vintage cars were as always through the hotel and outside and I always enjoy seeing them
10. Not only was attendance poor on day 1, but so also was vendor participation. I am certain this is due to the quagmire that occurred between the two shows and once the LAAS was canceled it was too late for vendors to move to THE Show. Having said all of this I can say that my friends Philip O'Hanlon along with asiufy have a strong desire to support THE Show and to see it thrive. This just won't occur as long as room size in the hotel is limited
11. So what did I hear that stirred my juices......
Hands down, IMO the best sound at THE Show came from asiufy and Fabio, The Boys From Brazil, aka Alma Music. Ron has shown pictures of the room with description of the components. In short this was a million dollar system and it was dialed in perfectly. I have learned from past experience that Alexandre and Fabio know how to set up a system and this one didn't fail. My only regret was that the Stromtank was inoperational when I was there as it was still charging. I was anxious to hear the sound with the Stromtank on and then off to hear the changes.
Second best sound at the Show was Evolution Acoustics once again showing their new speakers which debuted last year with an MSRP TBD. Well the speakers IIRC are $18.9K and they sounded simply fabulous when paired with DartZeel, Wave Kinetics along with Joel Durand's new tone arm called The Tosca. No longer is Joel making wands from woods but is now using metal alloys. The Tosca vaguely resembled the SAT arm. Also they were using the just released ZYXOptimum cartridge with an MSRP of $16K. I loved looking at the large external crossovers made by Kevin for this speaker. As always Evolution Acoustics room was fantastic. What I found amazing is tgatcKevin gold ne that EA was only building 100 pair of these speakers and then it’s done
My third favorite room was the MBL and UHA where Jeremy was playing a smaller MBL speaker than I have heard before. It was very good but again I feel the sound was restricted due to room size
Finally I thought Philip O'Hanlon put together a very simple and affordable sound system but around the Gryphon Mojo and Diablo receiver along with an entry level turntable. I was impressed with the sound of the Mojos
In summary, it has been a tough few years watching the shake out between the two sparring audio shows with the demise of the LAAS. It is certainly my hope that THE Show can once again rise to the level where it once was along with the hope that the LAOCAS will add their participation in years to come. Whether it moves back to LA remains to be seen
1. The shenanigans that went on with the LAAS and its ultimate collapse clearly left the southern California audio community trying to figure out what happened. As KeithR pointed out, hopefully next year there will be participation by the LAOCAS to help with the success of THE Show. This will hopefully bolster attendance
2. As for attendance I was there on Friday only and there were only small numbers of attendees. Hopefully that improved over the weekend
3. The new venue IMO was terrific (I say that also selfishly as it was only a 20 minute drive for me from home to hotel). Having said that there were exhibitors only on the ground, first and second floors. My overall concern is that the rooms were all small and there were IMO only a handful of rooms that stood out with wonderful sound. My other concern with the hotel was the scarcity of large salon (banquet) rooms which typically have large speakers with ultimate set ups. I only saw 3 or 4 large salons on the ground floor. If THE Show is going to grow and flourish in years to come I see this hotel as being an impediment unless of course there are larger rooms on the upper floors. Virtually every room I was in had their speakers tucked up against the front and side walls.
4. I thought that the registration place where we got our badges was way around in the rear corner of the main floor and so many people who were there did not have badges suggesting they just took the elevators upstairs without paying or registering
5. Even though there are many members here in the LA area hoping THE Show will return to LA next year, personally I have always liked it in South Orange County and hope it remains there. My concern is the ability (or lack thereof) of the hotel to support larger systems in larger rooms
6. The hotel was clean and the staff was friendly. The food was OK and reasonably priced
7. I wasn't going to attend THE Show until I heard that my good friends Philip O'Hanlon and asiufy weren't only showing in their own rooms but supported THE Show hoping it would have a break through weekend
8. As stated, attendance on Friday was horrible. The only people walking the floors were old gamers like me who were either retired or took the day off.
9. I enjoyed what management was trying to achieve with the high end in audio, to wit the incorporation of other luxury manufacturers on the ground floor where there were 2 or 3 estheticians who were hawking skin creams and hair products, along with decorative lights for outside your house during the holiday season as well as a woman selling very expensive cigars. There was only a handful of vendors selling music and none were the big vendors who we typically see at shows. I was disappointed in seeing this. The typical muscle and vintage cars were as always through the hotel and outside and I always enjoy seeing them
10. Not only was attendance poor on day 1, but so also was vendor participation. I am certain this is due to the quagmire that occurred between the two shows and once the LAAS was canceled it was too late for vendors to move to THE Show. Having said all of this I can say that my friends Philip O'Hanlon along with asiufy have a strong desire to support THE Show and to see it thrive. This just won't occur as long as room size in the hotel is limited
11. So what did I hear that stirred my juices......
Hands down, IMO the best sound at THE Show came from asiufy and Fabio, The Boys From Brazil, aka Alma Music. Ron has shown pictures of the room with description of the components. In short this was a million dollar system and it was dialed in perfectly. I have learned from past experience that Alexandre and Fabio know how to set up a system and this one didn't fail. My only regret was that the Stromtank was inoperational when I was there as it was still charging. I was anxious to hear the sound with the Stromtank on and then off to hear the changes.
Second best sound at the Show was Evolution Acoustics once again showing their new speakers which debuted last year with an MSRP TBD. Well the speakers IIRC are $18.9K and they sounded simply fabulous when paired with DartZeel, Wave Kinetics along with Joel Durand's new tone arm called The Tosca. No longer is Joel making wands from woods but is now using metal alloys. The Tosca vaguely resembled the SAT arm. Also they were using the just released ZYXOptimum cartridge with an MSRP of $16K. I loved looking at the large external crossovers made by Kevin for this speaker. As always Evolution Acoustics room was fantastic. What I found amazing is tgatcKevin gold ne that EA was only building 100 pair of these speakers and then it’s done
My third favorite room was the MBL and UHA where Jeremy was playing a smaller MBL speaker than I have heard before. It was very good but again I feel the sound was restricted due to room size
Finally I thought Philip O'Hanlon put together a very simple and affordable sound system but around the Gryphon Mojo and Diablo receiver along with an entry level turntable. I was impressed with the sound of the Mojos
In summary, it has been a tough few years watching the shake out between the two sparring audio shows with the demise of the LAAS. It is certainly my hope that THE Show can once again rise to the level where it once was along with the hope that the LAOCAS will add their participation in years to come. Whether it moves back to LA remains to be seen
