NY Audio Show 2017

Just one week after Capital Audio Fest, the three-day New York Audio Show opens on Friday, November 10, in Manhattan's Park Lane Hotel. With two live references close by—the great outdoors of Central Park is just one block away, and Carnegie Hall is just one block farther in the other direction—the three-day show promises 25 or 26 active listening rooms and up to 100 brands.

Although in exhibit room numbers, the show remains virtually unchanged from last year, there is one major difference. The hotel's ballroom, which last year was divided up to host vendors, seminars, and an exhibit from New York retailer Sound by Singer, has been rented out to another party, and will not be in use. That means, in a departure from customary US audio show expectations, there will be no seminars, entertainment, and marketplace. Instead, Chesky Records, HDtracks and Acoustic Sounds will share a hotel room, and Vinyl Times Magazine will show its face. As for dealers, while Woodbridge Stereo Video and Audio Doctor of New Jersey and Value Electronics of Scarsdale will be at the show, the only dealer with a "call for appointment" New York presence is Adirondack Audio, whose main showrooms are in upstate New York and Vermont.

Truth be told, this year's New York Audio Show almost didn't happen. According to show promoter Roy Bird of The Chester Group, the Park Lane had anticipated a transfer of ownership, which fell through six months ago. Although the Chester Group's contract extends through 2018, who knows what will happen with the hotel and the show between now and then.

What is without question is that the New York Audio Show has been the most unintentionally peripatetic show in recent memory. From the Waldorf to the Palace to Brooklyn and then Westchester it has gone before alighting in the Park Lane in 2016. For reasons, look to New York City hotels' high union fees and a pattern of offering enticing rates for year one before jacking them up to untenable heights for the next.

For attendees, however, the show's compactness can translate into a major bonanza. According to folks who attended this summer's California Audio Show in San Francisco, which was even smaller, a limited number of exhibits gives people far more time to linger in rooms without being tempted to run to the next, or feeling guilty for hogging seats.

Exhibitors, in turn, welcome a small show's potential to enable them to spend a long time with someone, and allow them to demonstrate all their system had to offer. And for small firms, or companies that don't have a big market presence, a small audio show may be their best opportunity to get the word out.

Given the New York Show's location in the city and state that so many of our writers call home, you can expect a slew of show reports—even, perhaps, multiple perspectives—from a bunch of us. Please stay tuned to this very site for all that's fit to print.