NY Audio Show 2016

The New York Audio Show Returns to NY this Weekend

Jason Victor Serinus  |  Oct 31, 2016

Now in its fifth year, the UK-based Chester Group's New York Audio Show opens to the public this Friday, November 4, at 1pm in the Park Lane Hotel overlooking Central Park. (Friday hours are until 7pm.) The three-day show, a smaller version of what has come before, promises 30 exhibit rooms, half of which are "oversized," two ballroom-sized exhibits, and two more ballrooms filled with exhibits and vendors selling merchandise. All-in-all, the event, whose one-day visitor pass costs $30 ($26 in advance, with significant savings for multi-day passes) promises almost 110 brands.

Christina Yuin, a longtime Director of Sales who currently also works with Capital Audiofest, explains that there are very few hotels in New York City that are willing to provide adequate exhibit space by moving beds and furniture out of hotel rooms. Even fewer that do not burden exhibitors with countless union-based regulations. (Stories of people needing to pay exorbitant sums in order to plug equipment into the wall are legion.) The Park Lane, however, has not only welcomed the show with open arms, but also offers old style masonry construction with superior acoustics and oversize rooms. The location is also ideal, with easy access via subway, foot, the park, horse carriages . . . everything except helicopter. You may, in fact, wish for a helicopter on Sunday, when the annual New York Marathon ends right across the street. A great day to arrive at 10am and stay until pack up time.

"The hotel is extremely helpful and cooperative," says Yuin. "They are even allowing exhibitors to begin setting up on Wednesday night, which means that some systems will have settled in by the time the show opens. While there are only two really large meeting rooms, there are many 14 x 21 rooms conducive to better listening. And as show organizer, Roy Bird, has noted, the small nature of the show, combined with superior acoustics, will enable people to spend extra time listening to the gear they like."

Due to space consideration, NYAS has dispensed with seminars and live music. Instead, there will be ample time for listening. Among the exhibitors are Sound by Singer, Art of Sound from New Jersey, Value Electronics from Westchester, Krell, Chesky, and Adirondack Audio/Video. Electrocompaniet is returning to the US via SimpliFi Audio, and Sam Laufer of Laufer Teknik is give away a Memory Player 64. In addition, the fabled Bob Carver, now of the Bob Carver Corporation, will personally demonstrate his Amazing Line Source (ALS) loudspeakers, and Robyatt Audio will demonstrate the first new production True-mesh-plate 50 tubes since the 1930s.

As if the New York Audio Show's moves from the Waldorf and then the Palace in NYC to Brooklyn and then to Westchester and now back to NYC were not enough, its show dates will change for 2017. Given that Capital Audio Fest is moving to November starting in 2017, the New York Show has abandoned plans to promote its NY show in November. Stay tuned for further developments. Even before that, please remain poised to read our complete NYAS coverage on this very site.

COMMENTS
Kal Rubinson's picture
Submitted by Kal Rubinson on October 31, 2016 - 8:37am

"a smaller version of what has come before"

How can it be smaller than last year in Westchester?

Jason Victor Serinus's picture
Submitted by Jason Victor Serinus on October 31, 2016 - 1:52pm

Try the Vancouver Audio Show.

Kal Rubinson's picture
Submitted by Kal Rubinson on October 31, 2016 - 4:57pm

Vancouver? It would have to be HUGE to entice me. I can walk from my home to the Park Lane Hotel, so it is worth a try. I am actually looking forward to it.

volvic's picture
Submitted by volvic on October 31, 2016 - 8:36pm

It's the Chester group, weren't they the ones that dropped the Montreal Show last year, one week before it was slated to start? Hoping it's good if not will take M31 back home.

jmsent's picture
Submitted by jmsent on November 1, 2016 - 4:12am

10 of which could easily be stuffed into a single small exhibit room. Just list all the various brands of the display gear, including turntable, cartridge , digital source, amp, preamp, speakers, interconnects, speaker cables, power conditioner, equipment rack, and room treatments, That's easily 10 right there. The simple realities of this "show"are: 30 rooms, 30 bucks, NYC, pathetic.

corrective_unconscious's picture
Submitted by corrective_unco... on November 1, 2016 - 11:30am

Ohm was listed as exhibiting when I last checked, and that is unusual for that company and is a draw for me. The small size might make for a manageable day trip from my semi adjacent state.

You other people please stay away. The fewer sniffling, texting, talking attendees the better - many of you show up acting as if you're off your meditations....

Kal Rubinson's picture
Submitted by Kal Rubinson on November 6, 2016 - 4:43am

"- many of you show up acting as if you're off your meditations...." I hadn't thought about that.;-)

Kal Rubinson's picture
Submitted by Kal Rubinson on November 4, 2016 - 3:17pm

I am not blogging this show but I have to say that it was worth the visit today and I may go back tomorrow. That says that I found a sufficient number of interesting and, in some cases, good-sounding rooms. Even found at least two products I'd like to review.

ganyc's picture
Submitted by ganyc on November 5, 2016 - 12:28pm

I just left the show. It was not a great experience. There were too few exhibitors There were three floors but only a small number of exhibitors on each floor. Most of the rooms I went to were crowded to the point that being able to see the equipment, much less properly listen to it, was a challenge. Plus, in too many rooms there was so much talking that it became difficult to really listen. The rooms were small, the entrances narrow, and the hallways were dark. In one sense I'm glad the rooms were crowded because I want the industry to prosper. However, this show was a disappointment for me. For the little actual listening I was able to do I didn't hear anything that stood out in one way or another. It was all fairly ordinary and unremarkable. I stupidly paid in advance for a two-day pass and left after a little over two hours. I won't be back.

corrective_unconscious's picture
Submitted by corrective_unco... on November 9, 2016 - 10:37pm

Confirmed.

One full day was about right. That allowed me to attend Bob Carver's talk on line source acoustics and his speakers, and to return to the Audio Note, Triangle, Alta and Charney rooms, which had among the best combinations of sound and programming, imo. (I'm not any sort of single driver speaker maven.) The Gamut and Robyatt (sp?) rooms also had some good music and sound, but I didn't return as it worked out.

Some of the rooms just turned me off immediately for one consistent reason (bass boom with the Paradigms) or for some presumably arbitrary reason (Carmels sounding extremely constrained in dynamics and response on the particular recording they had on) and I never ventured back.

The main disappointment apart from the organized posses which wanted to have debate clubs right in the doorways of each audio room was the number of late cancellations by scheduled companies, including Nola and Dave Lewis. I may have heard there was an insert detailing them, but I had to find out by trial and error.

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