Problem Solving

Audio show exhibitors have a lot of obstacles to contend with: equipment not showing up or showing up damaged, problem with room acoustics, problems with the electrical supply, equipment malfunctioning just as the show starts, and countless others. Ian Grant of Grant Fidelity told me that when he first set up his turntable front end it was picking up the signal from a local radio station! Being an ingenious engineering-type, he located the source of the interference (he could see the station's antenna from the hotel window), and got some building insulation material that had aluminum foil as part of its construction, and taped it to the hotel window. Voilà! Problem solved!

COMMENTS
Danny's picture

Interesting. Could it be that your products are "not ready for prime time"? A good friend of mine was exhibiting in a room on the same wing as you with the window just below yours. 3 turntables, no radio problems. No other exhibitor complained of this problem, and many people live in downtown Montreal near this radio antenna. My friend's store is right downtown and they don't have any requests to solve similar problems from their customers. Perhaps you should test your products outside of China before trying to sell them here.

Ian Grant's picture

It was the Japanese Dynavector that was picking up the station, I insulated the P-307 Phonostage and the Opera Consonance Tonearm and leads with no effect. All of our gear is thoroughly tested in Canada and we have zero reports of problems from customers on the TT or Phonostage. Many have reported the same problem at the old venue, which I experienced as well. We do many shows in many cities and towns across NA and only in downtown Montreal do we have this issue to deal with. Other exhibitors that came to our room thanked us for identifying a fix.Last year since our we weren't able to play our TT, the Chinese built phonostage was borrowed by HeadFi and worked fine in their lower floor room.

Cleo's picture

What about a tin foil hat to keep the martians from reading your mind? that does happen you know. Just like Chinese made, stuff that is promoted as meeting all current electrical and safety issues?

Rod Moysey's picture

Ian Grant could solve the biggest problem in the audio business by simply closing down his company. Nobody would even notice.

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