What do you get from audio shows?

[Fidach Lad]

When I started to get highly interested in recorded music, going to shows was a positive experience for me. It helped me to get started and pointed me toward my earliest purchases over several years - a new entry-level SS integrated amplifier, followed by a somewhat better set of SS monoblocks and hybrid preamp from the same mfr, and later on a tube headphone amplifier and a pair of LS3/5As. Shows later turned me onto tube PP and finally to SET systems. I started in the '90s, but by about 2005, I was finished with shows. It became harder and harder to find anything I liked. I found the room culture to be bizarre, the mfrs and dealers mind-numbing, and the music generally awful. In the end, i spent an entire day in two rooms, virtually and gratefully alone, listening to music with the exhibitors. I've never gone to a show, since.

But a lot of people are enthralled by audio shows. I just wonder, why?

 

[cpp]

When I started to get highly interested in recorded music, going to shows was a positive experience for me. It helped me to get started and pointed me toward my earliest purchases over several years - a new entry-level SS integrated amplifier, followed by a somewhat better set of SS monoblocks and hybrid preamp from the same mfr, and later on a tube headphone amplifier and a pair of LS3/5As. Shows later turned me onto tube PP and finally to SET systems. I started in the '90s, but by about 2005, I was finished with shows. It became harder and harder to find anything I liked. I found the room culture to be bizarre, the mfrs and dealers mind-numbing, and the music generally awful. In the end, i spent an entire day in two rooms, virtually and gratefully alone, listening to music with the exhibitors. I've never gone to a show, since.

But a lot of people are enthralled by audio shows. I just wonder, why?

Why, for me catching up with old acquaintances, looking at new gear, establishing a few new friendships and just getting out of the house.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Free carry Totes. I'm always running out of them.

 

[Joe Whip]

I go to see equipment in one place to see if I have an interest in upgrading what I already have. I generally don't. It is fun to see what is new and to see really high priced gear to see if it is what it is cracked up to be. I also get to see old friends in the hobby both manufacturers, record company people and audiophiles.

 

[amirm]

I enjoy the most the opportunity to talk to chief designers and company principals. I also find great demo music. And coming back and sharing my experience at the show with you all .

 

[slowGEEZR]

I'm not sure. I've gone the last four out of five years, always interested in what's new that I might have to buy to make my system better. Now, I'm not sure I'm going this year. The only thing I need to address is some kind of base to drain any spurious energy from my mass loaded turntable. Other than that and some fine tuning on my listening room acoustics, I'm a happy camper with the system. So, if I go it will be as part of a road trip to include other places.

 

[treitz3]

Hello Fidach Lad and good evening to you sir. Welcome to our forum if I haven't said so before.

What I get from audio shows is a chance to listen to something I may not have heard before. A chance to hear something that may possibly be better than what I currently have. A chance to hear something that I may want to spend some time on researching, listening to in a different rig(s) or even in my own system. I personally do not rely on reviews, except for a select few I personally know and trust when it comes to audio (none of which are reviewers). My ears lead the way with my system and if I don't hear it? Well, I don't know. Going to shows or audio events gets my ear on.

Tom