[Brian Cheney]

In recent years it has become more apparent than ever that CES hates Specialty Audio exhibitors and will do anything to keep them away.  Ill-suited suites, ridiculous rules, heavy fines for minor infractions ($400 for opening the refrigerator door!), $thousands in hidden expenses billed when you're ready to leave, and thuggish enforcers who'll literally eject you from a prepaid suite for--get this--holding meetings there! 

The alternative has been Richard Beers' T.H.E. Show, this year moved to the Flamingo, a few doors down from CES in the Venetian.  Richard likes me: I've done nine shows with him in 11 years, at the St Tropez, the Alexis Park, and now the Flamingo.  He gives me the biggest ballroom (Lake Mead I and II) in a great location (30ft from the registration desk).  I find a wonderful partner to share expenses in Ralph Karsten of Atmasphere, whose electronics sound better to me than any others.  I'm anxious to make a good impression with a new, big speaker and confident we can pull it off.

This year we bring our own recording gear, which turns out to occupy five large travel cases taking about a quarter of our van space.  No matter, our sound man, Jim Harger, is an expert and the test recordings we do in my soundroom are marvelous. Plus, the redoutable Dave Housteau will bring a backup Korg DSD recorder and stereo mic, just in case.  What can go wrong?

As you might suspect, things go wrong immediately, even before we leave home.  Richard emails that because two of the large exhibit spaces he rented can't be occupied because they're full of non-removable banquet tables, a company named PTE will occupy one half of my space, the Lake Mead II, and we will be separated only by an "airwall", or folding partition.  PTE plans to show their new $44k 120dB-at-20Hz rock speaker.  I'm doing a live-vs-recorded demo featuring acoustic guitars, piano, solo voices and delicate percussion played by a delicate percussionist, namely me.  I have visions of trying to perform music in a demolition zone.  Fortunately there are no refunds offered, so no worries there, mate.

We arrive and the Lake Mead ballroom seems quite nice, with my leftover space measuring 28x32' with a 9ft ceiling.  We install plywood panels covered with Sonex over the "airwall" and the hotel adds heavy draping, no extra charge.  We move in from the convenient hotel loading dock in just two hours and reserve Wednesday for setup.  Ten people will be involved, all volunteers, all working like demons for 10 hours.  I am eternally grateful to these people, now on my forever list for Christmas and birthday presents.  The Atmasphere MA 1's drive our ribbons beautifully. Jim Harger lends me his vintage 1000W Classe monoblocks for bass.  We get a battered upright piano instead of the promised grand, which allegedly won't fit through the ballroom doors.  We do get free tuning, tho.  Our neighbors to the sides are quite audible, and we damp those walls too.  PTE has not arrived, so no problem yet.  Maybe they won't show.

I look forward to Day 1.

(continued)   

[gerald porzio]

Changes in performance space sure can & do present additional problems.
Sounds as if this turned out very well.

[Don_S]

One exhibitor at the Venetian told me he would get fined if he moved one of the listening chairs from one level in the suite to the other level. 

The chairs were the portable kind that were used around the small table in the suite. They were not the stuffed chairs. 

Were there roving "furniture police" or what?

Dear sir or madam, you are being arrested for suspicion of a moving violation--furniture.  Up against the wall and spread your legs. You have no rights.....this is the Venetian.

[Don_S]

They can't take your money and not live up to the terms of the contract. 

Someone needs to acquaint the CES with the terms 'tort' and 'class-action lawsuit'. 

So, you wanna argue with their "lawyers" Guido and Fat Tony?  The house always wins.

[Brian Cheney]

Thursday Jan 8, 9am

Our biggest problem yesterday was that our Mike Galusha modified DCX controller, which had performed faithfully in my home system for a year, would not emit a sound in Las Vegas.  My backup is a stock unit which I reluctantly press into service.  A third, modded unit is still at the modder's; my phone call determines they have shipped it to the wrong address and we would not see it for another 10 days.  Our stock unit sounds OK but all settings require changes.

Just for fun, we also lose our Krell CD transport and replace it with Jim Romeyn's modded Sony, feeding my Wadia 27ix (now 11 years old).  Oh well, we're not here to play CD's now, are we?

This morning the system sounds unbalanced towards the right and plenty muddy.  I inch the speakers forward while adjusting toe-in, then do PR mass loading adjustments ("putty pinching").  This is still not enough.  We have some crackling panels--this will remain a problem for two days.  The stock DCX does not allow me to duplicate the crossover settings of the modded unit, so I make changes there, ending up with a 48dB bass rolloff and 24 dB mid rollin.  There is a builtin analog filter to the tweeters.  Now comes adjusting overall bass levels and floor-to-ceiling room mode cuts at 65Hz.  I have Dave make new settings in 0.1dB increments.  Taming the floor to ceiling mode is absolutely critical, and any system in this hotel, or elsewhere, that does not do it will sound less than optimum in the bass (now there's a real lesson for audiophiles).  We settle at 4.3dB of cut with a Q=10, the narrowest range. That done, I check the amount and bandwidth of cut in the "presence peak" region of our panels, which their designer thoughtfully included to make them more exciting, I guess.  A 3.8dB cut at 2.16kHz with a Q=1 turns the panels completely flat.  We are ready to reproduce.

There is no live music today, just CD playback.  People bring in all the usual suspects and the system dispatches them with aplomb.  We have great sound and people comment to me over and over to that effect. I wiggle with pleasure at the kudos.

There is an evening reception, hosted by Harry Pearson, featuring live music and a singer Harry is fond of, Napua Davoy.  A terrible P.A, system gives her voice a hooded quality which is most unattractive, and she makes no impression on the crowd, who barely pays attention.  The Meyersound people who foist this abortion on the sound reinforcement community ought to be ashamed.  Later the excuse circulates that the hotel sound man had blown the speakers with feedback moments before the band went on.  Yeah, right. 

Ms. Davoy's failure to impress would have a tremendous consequence for me, my booth, the success of this show, and for the future, but I didn't know it yet.

Harry comes into our booth to bang the bass drum and listen to the other instruments, commenting on the purity of unamplified live sound.  I try to recruit him as a bass drummer in our "Rhapsody in Blue", but he demurs.  Maybe he'll be in later to hear the system, maybe not.  John Atkinson has promised, and there is more press around.

All day we are tortured by the huge output from our neighbor PTE, whose extremely powerful bass wipes out not only our demo, but that of Wavac and Purity Audio adjoining.  A protest to the Show office brings some diminution, but the man plays the "Sheffield Drum Record" eight times a day, as loudly as possible.  I talk to him and he agrees to turn it down during the live music Friday.  We shall see.  He's a nice guy, he has a good product, but the "airwall" and our so-called soundproofing do not attenuate a monster bottom octave in the least.  It's stronger in my room than in his.

(continued)

[Housteau]

Thursday was also our first day of test recording to gauge the potential of our efforts.  Thankfully Jim Romeyn was there with some of his guitars that would stay in the room serving as an advertizement and display.  Jim played two songs and then James Bongiorno did two on the piano for us.  We also did a good bit of percussion and bass drum tests to get an idea of recording levels to be able to capture such sharp transients without clipping.  We did not want to limit the recordings in any way to harm the full dynamic range of the instruments.  The downside to the low end resolution was the most accurate capturing of that room next to us.  The subsequent playback highlighted exactly what we would need to deal with over the next few days.

Both the DSD and high res wav format of 88.2 sounded quite good, but each different.  Adjustments over the next two days would bring them closer together, but for now opinions started to form on which one each liked better.  The first system used two M-Audio tube condenser mics set up in an M/S (mid - side) pattern.  They in turn went to a Grace mic preamp and into an Alexis Masterlink.  The second parallel recording system used a single Audio Technica stereo mic in X/Y connected directly to a Korg Mr-1000 by 30' of custom Belden cable to record in 5.6MHz DSD, or 2x SACD quality.  Each microphone had a built in low cut filter, which at first was made active to help eliminate the outside noise, but I felt it took too much away and was removed.

The recordings at last years show were done by professionals with some pretty pricy gear.  Their mics alone were over 10K.  The Kimber cable used for the mics and various connections was easily as much.  The Emm Labs DSD converter / preamp was also hovering close to 10K.  Then, there was the Sony Sonoma Work Station which is really up there at way over 100K.  So, we were up against a good benchmark, but so far the test recordings gave us a lot of hope. 

[Brian Cheney]

Friday Jan 9, 9am

We continue to hear crackling in the left channel mid panels and narrow it down to one of the rear firing "ambiance" mids.  Replacing it brings no improvement and until we figure things out, I replace the panel with a 4 Ohm resistor to complete the series circuit.  These leaves an attractive gaping hole in the back of the speaker.  Later on, we determine a ring terminal used in panel rebuild is slightly too large and causing traces to short out internittently.  But for most of the day, there's that lovely hole to contend with and explain to people.

Michael Levy, manager for singer Napua Davoy, comes in and is very pleased to hear our live vs recorded sound.  It's rehearsal day for the band and we barely get through the "Rhapsody", since our pianist Angela is having a hard time with the complex writing and the heavy, slow action of our miserable upright piano.  Michael asks if we would like to have Ms Davoy sing in our room.  Y'know, sometimes it's downright advantageous to have a band and recording equipment in your Show booth!  Although Lesley Olsher is in great voice this year, an additional performer would be nice, so I say of course.  Ms. Davoy appears with entourage later that afternoon and indicates she could perform Saturday after Lesley's set.  She leaves a copy of her new CD which, while very good, gives no inkling of the overwhelming talent she would display for us the following afternoon.

Our neighbor PTE tones it down a little during the live sound but blasts like dynamite inbetween.  It's just as bad for nearby exhibitors Purist and Wavac, and I commiserate with them.  It's rotten that the Flamingo sold Richard Beers useless space, forcing him to shuffle around his biggest drawing card, the Magnepan exhibit, which lands on the 4th floor displacing PTE.

Visitors continue to love our sound, both on playback and from CD's.  At least that part is going well.

(continued) 

[jackman]

Brian, you're killing me!  I look forward to hearing the rest of this cliffhanger!

J

[Brian Cheney]

Saturday Jan 10, 9am

Dave Housteau identifies another crackling panel on the front left speaker, but now that we know what to do, it takes half an hour to rebuild and reinstall the driver, which performs flawlessly for the rest of the show.  We are ready for our Big Day.

The events that follow now constitute some of my best life memories: great music, great performers,  highly pleased listeners, repeated compliments to me about my product. But mostly I think of the wonderful music made by these supremely talented artists who volunteered to be there and make our exhibit shine.

Austin Weyand, master finger-style guitarist, comes in and picks up some of Jim Romeyn's exquisite hand-built six strings which take five months to build and sell for $10k and above.  He plays standards and original compositions, then does a "Bluegrass Duet" with Jim R.  The delicacy and dexterity of his play are beyond description, and difficult to reproduce.  Neither the DSD/Audio Technica nor the 24/88.2/M Audio setups get it exactly right, particularly the etherial overtones in Austin's solos.  But still there is rapturous applause for both performance and playback.  I'm busting my buttons with pride and grinning ear to ear, as is the rest of the crowd.

The band arrives and again we barely get through the "Rhapsody". At its conclusion John C gives the bass drum a mighty whack that the system reproduces perfectly for transients, extension, level, and pitch.  The bass drum has two diaphragms, one tuned higher than the other and resonating in sympathy when the first is struck.  The room reverberates with the long bass overhang (the good kind) and our recorders don't overload.  Nor do the amps or speakers.

Lesley Olsher sets up and gives terrific renditions of some standards with our band backing her to the hilt.  She's in great voice and doesn't hold back one bit.  Again we handle her soaring high soprano with perfect fidelity.  Both playbacks seem excellent, with the DSD sounding livelier from my seat.  Fred Haller supplies great sax and flute solos--the man is at least 70 and better than ever. Bill Bailey's bass slaps out a beat even I can't miss.

It's 4:15 when Napua Davoy makes good on her promise and sweeps in.  She has no music with her but asks for blank paper.  While the band spends 15 minutes recording and playing back some A.C. Jobim, Napua is busy outside, then returns with handwritten charts for all three players!!  In the next half hour they concoct two versions of "Georgia on My Mind", including a jazz uptempo version which I will treasure on CD in both formats for the rest of my life.

It's 5pm, the band departs, Napua wants to stay.  We turn the upright around and push it under the mics.  For the next hour, Napua plays slammin' two fisted jazz piano STANDING UP, one foot on the sustain pedal, singing into the mic arrays either solo or with a male singer, from memory.  Material is from her original Broadway shows "Stella Rising" and "Miami", the latter yet to go into tryouts.  It's great stuff.  "Miami's" pounding first act finale blasts us all out of our seats.  The sheer talent of the woman is amazing, overwhelming--we're all slack-jawed, incredulous. Playback on the 24/88.2 (the big mics favor her voice) is spot on and completely conserve the illusion of a live performer in front of us.  What an entertainer, what an entertainment!

(continued)

[Brian Cheney]

Sunday Jan 11, 9am

After the once in a lifetime events of Saturday, this day appears a lot more laid back.  But people arrive soon in the AM and we listen to some of yesterday's playback, plus CD's from Norah Jones (delightful), Diana Krall (whose two block chords plus an arpeggio piano style contrasts rather sharply with Napua's Tatum-esque assault on the keys) and other usuals.

Napua stops by and we discuss future endeavors.  She agrees to come to N. California for a hi-rez recording session which will result in a new album, with VMPS people supplying the venue and gear.  I see a Napua Davoy SACD in the future, recorded without any processing, reverb, overdubs, limiting, compression or fooling around--much like what we did on Saturday.  This will happen in the spring.

The band and Lesley Olsher arrive and our soprano, perhaps inspired by yesterday's goings-on, tears the roof off with "Summertime" and other cuts, including an acapella "Jerusalem of Gold".  As she finishes we notice John Atkinson and Jason Serenius have taken seats, and I play back both the combo track and the solo song.  J.A. tells Lesley what a treat it has been, and Stereophile publishes a very favorable notice for our booth later on.

Our bandmembers then jam and solo.  Pianist Angela Chan plays a recital which shows off her singing tone (hard to believe this is just an old upright) and fine musical sensibilities in Debussy, Mozart and a popular song.  I persuade Fred Haller to take a turn directly in front of our mics.  He blows a stunning two-minute improvisation for the ages, and the playback is so lifelike my pianist and bass player chime in, improvising an accompaniment to the phantom alto sax coming through the speakers.  I take this as a great compliment to the fidelity of the system, and it is.

At 4pm we wrap up and manage to be packed and gone by 7pm.  A great end to a wonderful show.

(final thoughts to follow)

[James Romeyn]

I too thoroughly enjoyed the experience in Brian's booth this year.
 
The energy and determination to do these shows annualy is difficult to comprehend.  The workload must be staggering to prepare, pack and return to some sort of normalcy after its over.
 
My hats off to Brian and his crew; megadittos for wife Shirley.   

[Brian Cheney]

Epilog and Final Thoughts

This has been moved to the main Show report thread.