I think I'm done with audio shows for awhile. Just not feeling it anymore, for several reasons. For starters, I am that rarest and most forlorn of breeds: A working-class audiophile. Room after room of mid-to-high-five-figure systems just don't speak to me. When I went to my first CAF (2012) the tagline was ‘everything from the humble to the stratospheric’ or something to that effect. The ‘humble’ has all but vanished with a very few exceptions (about which more later). And I'd have to say I was fairly disappointed in the show in general, and two ways specifically:
One, there was very little headphone presence. No dedicated space. I think that's a mistake. As I've told CAF directly, if they want to bring in more younger people, as they say they do, $500 interconnects and power cables won't do it. Headphones will. CAF has gone back and forth on this; seems like they only have 'CanMania' on odd-numbered years. I believe Woo is showing, but I didn‘t go to their room, and I saw some guy selling cables down in the “pit“. Last year I found some headphones (Beyer Amiron Home) in the CanJam space, which I bought.
Second was a specific exhibitor, (not their fault) which I will get to.
Plus, I peeked in the door of some rooms and had a feeling of "been-there-done-that": MTM floorstanders, check; I've heard about a hundred of 'em. 6.5" woofer standmounts, ditto. Big horns, not a rookie.
I skipped rooms that bring the exact same stuff every year, rooms with 'Haunted House' lighting, and turntable rooms (no offense intended; I just don't spin vinyl and have no plans to.) So as a result of focusing sharply and with an entire product category (headphones) virtually nonexistent, I was able to get through everything I wanted to see at the show in about 2 1/2 hours. Those who have seen some of my other posts lately know that I have been burning the candle at both ends and would just rather stay home and chill today than do the room to room gauntlet, especially since I'm not in the market for anything.
More general beef had to to with the fact that yesterday was a warm day and the AC in the rooms did not seem to be on. Understandable on one level; you wouldn't expect to need it in November. But it had two unfortunate side effects: One, a number of rooms were uncomfortably warm and stuffy; and two, quite a few rooms seemed to be keeping their doors open, perhaps as a result of problem number one, which led to massive crosstalk in a number of cases between adjoining rooms. The weather is more seasonal today so today should be better in that regard.
With that, some specific observations and thoughts from the limited time I was at the show:
Andrew JC: Yep, Zu was a no-show.
jwtrace, I didn't make it to 521. Don't know which specific product(s) there you were wondering about, but Amphion (showing in 521) had two excellent floor standers in 509. One was about 5K and one was about 20 K. Visually low-key and a nice natural sound.
Spatial had some very nice open baffle speakers. I was impressed by the balance and the base power. With something like 3 12 inch woofers, I guess they ought to, but I thought open baffles had a reputation for watery bass. These didn't.
Went to the Vanatoo room to look at their inexpensive little Active monitors ('Transparent One' and 'Transparent Zero'. The gentleman in the room (forget his name) was very friendly and had a no pressure presenting style. Nice little speakers. Neither was what I would call 'high end' in terms of definition, but then again, they weren't what I would call 'high end' in term of price either.
Last year I ignored it, but this year I went to the million dollar VAC/Vandersteen room. Last year, a lot of people seemed to be getting 'woodies' over this room, saying things like "Even if you know you'll never own a system like this, you owe it to yourself to hear it just so you can hear what hi fidelity can be." (That was from either TAS or Stereophile IIRC; I forget which.)
Bull.
The system had fairly good detail, but it was on the bright side. I was fairly close to, if not in, the sweet spot, and far enough back that that should not have been a problem even though complex driver layouts sometimes seem to shrivel the stereo image to 'X-marks-the-spot' proportions. Imaging was good, but not exceptional. I've heard it equalled or bettered by numerous systems at five cents on the dollar (The Vandies cost around a quarter mil.) I noticed two things about the imaging which I found very strange. First, the sound seemed to be coming predominately from the top part of the tower.
(I heard a similar effect from the Carver Towers last year.) Second, the stereo image was 100% between the speakers. It came to a dead stop at the speaker position. There was no sense of space outside of the speakers whatsoever. I have heard speakers costing a few grand provide this. If you want to impress your friends with how much you spent, by this system. If you want to impress them with sound, I would suggest buying something at 1/10 or 1/20 the price and sinking the money into real estate instead. It will hold its value a lot better when the next 'audiophile darling' product takes its place in a year or two. This isn't even a 'statement' system; it's a 'rich idiot' system IMO. Also, I've noticed as time goes on that, in general, the more complex the speaker, the less I like it. "The more complicated the layout, the harder it is to create the illusion of a single source" is how an AudioNote rep put it once.
Lastly, the biggest reason the show was disappointing for me was the one exhibitor I came specifically to see: Ohm Acoustics, with their very unusual design. I've heard about them for years and years and finally had a chance to hear them-or so I thought. It took a while to find them, and when I did I was in disbelief. I don't know how else to say this, but here goes: Their set up was easily the worst I've ever seen at any audio show, going back almost 40 years. I don't blame them, though; I think they walked into the situation sight unseen.
Here's the set up as I came upon it- one of their smaller systems out in a hallway, under a staircase, right next to another exhibitor who was (as is customary for this particular exhibitor) playing their system loud AF, and with the door open (perhaps because of the temperature issues mentioned earlier).
Photo one:
Here is a shot down the hall, showing what the Ohm system(s) (there were two) were up against (remember, the other room was loud, close by, and open) :
In addition to having to compete with the system next door, Ohms was forced to compete with
themselves. Here is a shot from partway up the staircase, showing the HT system Ohm had shoehorned into the alcove directly above their other system (and completely open acoustically) :
And lastly, here is a shot of the fronts of the HT system shoehorned into the little alcove (partly visible in the previous shot) :
Acoustically, the situation was a complete fustercluck. At the listening position of the small system under the stairwell, you were listening to three separate systems at the same time. The crosstalk between the two Ohm systems above and below each other- separated by only an open staircase- was massive in both directions. The downstairs system had to compete with the system at the end of the hall too, so that was a three-way fustercluck from that spot. Upstairs you couldn't hear the system at the end of the hall quite as well, small comfort I'm sure for the poor baztyrds who had to schlep those beasts up those stairs (I didn't notice any other way up there.)
It was impossible to make any kind of evaluation (even an 'under-show-conditions' evaluation) of the speakers under these conditions. After wanting to hear them for years (and coming to the show specifically
to hear them), I left after the time it took to take the photos. It was pointless trying to listen. I feel sorry for Ohm. They put a ton of work into a no-win situation. Seemed like nice people too, with kind of an aging-hippie vibe.
I hope they come back, in a better space, but I wouldn't blame them at all if they didn't.
Lastly, on a lighter note, like Ohm, an unusual speaker design, the Planter Speaker:
And I finally got a Qobuz trial code so that will doubtless instigate another thread by someone or other around here...
Follow-on note: Ohm had (according to Stereophile) an 'obscure' room off of the second of the two spaces that were already hard to find. I wonder how many other people missed them too, or were turned off by the dismal first impression and therefore didn't investigate further. Stupid me. I was told by a show spokesperson that Ohm had
two spaces... I
found two spaces (or one-and-a-half spaces, depending on how you look at it)... They were both terrible due to the crosstalk (Ever been stuck between two loud car stereos ata traffic light?)... I left. Oh well.
