. . . and I feel fine

The High End 2020 show, scheduled to take place in Munich in mid-May, was canceled due to concerns about the coronavirus. The California Audio Show, which usually takes place in late July, is also off, although the reason for its cancelation isn't clear. And as we've just learned, AXPONA, the biggest show in the Western Hemisphere, has been postponed from its original dates (around the time this issue hits mailboxes and newsstands) to the second weekend of August.

The reason, of course, is concern about the spread of COVID-19.

The AXPONA organizers have the peace of mind that comes from being in good company. Events are being canceled all over the world: scientific meetings, home shows—even SXSW, the giant music, tech, film, and culture festival that takes place each year in Austin, Texas. Colleges and universities are canceling classes, and we're going to go sit in a hotel room voluntarily just to listen to some random hi-fi tunes?

I doubt I'm the only one not eager to stand in line to try on headphones right about now. There isn't enough disinfectant on the planet. Toilet paper either, apparently, judging by news reports and grocery store shelves.

A show like AXPONA attracts people from all over the world, so it's a prime venue for virus transmission—not just from person to person but also from place to place. Go for the music and the gear, bring back a virus for the family and the neighborhood.

As I write this, on a Monday afternoon in mid-March, the stock market has just had its worst day since 2008—which is relevant only in that the coronavirus was the proximate cause of the sell-off, and also in that it seems to suit the character of these days, which have an Old Testament, end-times feel.

Fortunately, we audiofolks know how to handle times like these—just crank up the stereo and put on a record; REM's Document would be a solid choice (footnote 1). Self-quarantine suddenly doesn't sound so bad.

"Too many of today's audiophiles think audio is a numbers game. They discredit direct experience and deny the concreteness of observation and memory. Instead of listening and trusting their impressions, they block them out with graphs and numbers and sonic check-lists, all based on preconceived notions about what is correct or incorrect. . . . Never once considering why they can't measure the cause of these effects."

So wrote Stereophile's Herb Reichert in his March Gramophone Dreams column. What's the reason for the sad state of affairs he describes? Herb blames "bean-counters" and "advertising hucksters" whose "relentless blabber is convincing people to think abstractly and quantitatively about devices whose only designated purpose is to make recordings tangible and engaging to a listener." C'mon Herb, tell us what you really think!

If Herb—bless him—were less passionately committed to his perspective on what makes audio great, I'd be far less interested in publishing what he writes, and his readers would, surely, be less interested in reading him.

Stereophile is a big tent—big enough to encompass several circus rings of high-wire opinions. Including mine.

Are elements in audio indeed "convincing people to think abstractly and quantitatively" about audio? Why would they do such a thing? Maybe it's because, for the last several centuries, that is how human progress has been made in most areas relevant to the human experience. That's how diseases get cured, for example. It's the reason why today we can stream in high-rez—indeed, why we can stream at all. It's what led to the invention of the very first audio-recording devices and then to decades of subsequent improvement—even if, as some believe, audio stopped improving decades ago.

Perhaps those bean-counters understand that substantial deviations in measured frequency response—or, let's say, a particularly high level of harmonic distortion—is proof that the device is altering the music that passes through it. Maybe hucksters don't consider that an acceptable trade-off, even if they do hear and acknowledge a certain feeling of immediacy and recognize that it could be lost in a more technically accurate system (although not necessarily: I've heard astonishing presence and vividness from conventional, measurably accurate hi-fi systems).

More than once, our community has been waylaid by numbers and measurements—by the tyranny of THD+N. When that has happened, advocates like Herb have provided a necessary corrective. Maybe it's happening again.

Herb certainly is right about some things. Measurements can be a crutch. When I first started reviewing, I often felt a strong impulse to measure something—anything—because I knew I could depend on measurements.

Herb is also right—I'm sure of this—when he says that graphs, numbers, and sonic checklists can get in the way of listening—and, hence, of hearing. The improvement in my listening skills over the years has resulted mostly from my increasing willingness to set aside critical analysis—not forever, but in the moment—and just listen. I don't understand how this works, but somehow my desire for certainty distances me from the experience.

Is perfectionist audio being waylaid again by a preoccupation with numbers and measurements, at the expense of careful listening? Or—an alternative perspective—is audio being held back by subjectivists who refuse to consider quantitative notions of fidelity and evidence about what constitutes good sound?

Or—a third alternative: Are engineers and designers doing just fine, focusing on what matters most, and creating devices that are capable of producing recorded music that sounds better than it ever has before? Send letters to stletters@stereophile.com.—Jim Austin


Footnote 1: Or stream live music. You can find a regularly updated list of live streaming music events here.—Ed.

COMMENTS
Bogolu Haranath's picture

They could do 'virtual audio shows' and post those videos on Stereophile and other audio magazines' websites :-) ........

hb72's picture

love my REM..

wish to everybody here, to all their loved ones and to everybody else lots & lots of good health and excellent & successful treatment if needed

Jack L's picture

Hi

"being held back by subjectivists who refuse to consider quantitative notions of fidelity and evidence about what constitutes good sound?" quoted Jim Austin.

Sorry, I tend to disagree.

With so limited knowledge of our aural perception, the audio industries
generated some feasible methodology since day one, to ensure the audio products manufactured for the audio consumers at large being within certain universally recognized standards, e.g. frequency response, total harmonic distortion, phase distortion, inter-modulation distortion, jitter, etc etc.

The key issue is such measurement specifications ever used do NOT carry any relevance to what our ears perceive !!!!

Yet so many so called "objectivists" erroneously consider all those measurement specification have been made to tell how an audio product would sound instead of being a gross standard to govern how audio products should be built.

Apple to orange comparison. Yet, objectivists do NOT realize that.
They still think what can't be measured per those already established manufacature specifications since day one, should not exist & therefore should not be heard.

Take an example which is taken from as an audio engineering master degree thesis some 10 years back:

"A class A tube amplifier measured 5% THD sounds much better than a sold state amp measured 0.00005% THD, under same measurement conditions.

Objectivists would surely declare such hearing was erroneous as they still consider only measurement tells the true. Lower measured distortion should sound better to the ears.

But apparently they fail to realize how our brain perceive the music. It does not go by what our man-made measurement shows. It gets its own way of perceiving music sound of which we still have very little, if not zip. knowledge.

One likely explanation is: our brain like certain patterns of distortion & dislike certain patterns of distortion. We can call such brain behaviour as masking effect. So that tube amplifier generated distortion of certain patterns that our brain likes & vise versa for that solid state amp.

Ears well versed in music can tell pretty well which sounds better.

Like Yours Truly who enjoy listening music from its 1,000+ vinyl collection, I only love the sound from a tube amplifiers built with
ALL triodes only. I can substantiate my such hearing technically, thanks to my electrical engineering background.

Listening is believing

Jack L
Canada

Archimago's picture

Sure Jack, that's great that you enjoy your vinyl and triode sound!

Personally, I collect old "first press" vinyl of music from my youth but rarely play them when I'm enjoying my music. I do it for the art work and for sentimental value; if there's a fire in the house, I'd be rushing to save my hard drives rather than the vinyl collection. My preference is solid-state amps with high damping factor as well rather than something like the single-ended triode sound.

If indeed it is some form of "euphonic distortion" you're after, I'm not sure this should be accepted as universal. Perhaps within certain groups of audiophiles this might be true.

I trust that neither opinion is wrong and this is just a function of subjective preference. However, I do believe digital audio and modern solid state amplifiers provide higher fidelity reproduction which can be verified.

Michael Fremer's picture

By measuring? Measurements remain crude, though now much better than ever. CDs measured "perfect" by 1984's analog standards but they sounded terrible for many reasons. I could name a few: ringing filters, and converters. Yet there were people back then who were persuaded by the measurements only because they didn't trust what they heard. Not one person who's visited me and compared among the best digital playback (dCS Vivaldi One) and the best vinyl playback thinks the digital sounds better or as good. Of course we didn't measure. We listened. Many of these folks thought digital was better until they heard state of the art analog. And I don't use triode amps. I have solid state electronics. And the claim that this is about "sentimental value" is truly insulting. Your claim off "verification" of your opinion is the clincher. It's your opinion. Not "verified".

Jack L's picture

Hi

"Now much better than ever" means measurements are still not yet there.

So what "measurements" you are talking about? Frequency response, total haromonic distortion, or what else ????????

So show me just one single formula of the "measurements" you prefer that will qualify what our ears percieve???

Jack L

PS: I am a huge analogue music lover with electrical engineering background. I design/build audios, including phono-preamp & power amps for decades.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Hi, Jack ....... If you have any audio industry affiliation, Stereophile policy is, you need to disclose your affiliation, and mention it in your comments :-) .......

Jack L's picture

Hi

Audio design/build is only my hobby, & enjoying music (90% analague classical on vinyl & tape & 10% digital on Blu-ray Pure Audio, DVD-audio, redbook CD, & streaming) is my leisure. NO affiliation to the audio industries at all.

My profession in the past 20 more years was power engineering, particularly on VHV power transmission. I dealt with hydro power companies as their power problem solver.

Unlike so many audio engineers out there who spend most of their time on design/build rather than music enjoyment, I do the other way. How can any audio sound musical if the designer does not know or love music enough??

Bogolu Haranath's picture

So, D'Agostino, Nelson Pass, Charles Hansen, dCS, CH Precision, Paul McGowan, Bryston, Harman Luxury group (Mark Levinson, Rotel), darTZeel, John Curl, Krell, Benchmark etc. etc. 'doesn't know and don't love music enough' :-) .......

Jack L's picture

Hi

Have Nelson Pass, Mark Levinson, John Curl etc etc ever made any tube amps for sale yet?

Unless I've missed a lot, I am yet to audition any tube amps design/built by those professionals.

FYI, I've auditioned quite a few super expensive tube amps in the past years, e.g. the USD125,000 Audio Note Japan: "Kegon" the pure silver-loaded 17W+17W all triode stereo power amp, hand-built by late Kondo-san, the founder & chief engineer. He only judged his super expensive design/builds by listening his prototypes with VINYL only.

To have a pretty good idea of how much one loves music is to check out how much music hardware he/she possesses to play.

FYI, though I am still working some 40 hour-5-day week, I can still manage to enjoy my LP music (out of my 1,000+ vinyl collection 95% classical music) nitely before going to bed.

IMO, only analogue music & electronics, e.g. vinyl & tube amps, can bring home the emotion, being-there engagement of the original music performance which no digital music media can touch yet todate. Output power & measurement data alone just can't achieve that yet.

Please don't argue until you have acquire the music fondness like mine.

Listening, not measurement alone, is believing

Jack L

Bogolu Haranath's picture

May be Nelson Pass, Mark Levinson, John Curl etc. etc. don't know how to design and build tube components ...... They should go to school ...... Don't you agree? :-) ......

I think I'll wait till the above people design and build tube equipment and then I'll know how music sounds like :-) .......

Jack L's picture

.... and then I'll know how music sounds like :-) quoted B Haranath.

Hi

Don't hold your breath, my friend. They might never design/build any tube gears.

Jack L

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Jack, I can arrange to send you some of our MAGA (Make Analog Great Again) hats ..... BTW, these days I'm spending 40 hours a week eating designer gourmet ice cream and chocolate stored in my refrigerator :-) ........

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Jack, you must be an 'essential worker' ...... So, you are working 40 hours a week ....... I'm a 'non-essential worker' ....... So, I'm eating ice cream and chocolate :-) .......

Jack L's picture

Hi

Yes, unfortunately I am one EW.
I envy you enjoying yr sweets at home. Keep it up.

Jack

Jack L's picture

... digital playback (dCS Vivaldi One) and the best vinyl playback thinks the digital sounds better or as good."

To show us how much you LOVE your music, tell us how many "best digital playback" music titles & how many vinyl LPs you got to arrive such conclusion.

Do you know at all why digital can't touch analogue in reproduction music signals ?????

If you don't even know the very basic of digital, please be all ears instead of all mouths !!

Jack L

Jack L's picture

.... digital playback (dCS Vivaldi One) and the best vinyl playback thinks the digital sounds better or as good." quoted Michael Fremer.

Hi Mike

Do you know what minimum output power of an amplifier needed to reproduce realistically Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture for a room of say 700 sq feet?

Say 300W+300W for a solid state power amp ?!

Believe it or not, my design/built ALL triode power amp (5W+5W) in a metal housing only 3" thick, rocks my basement audio den of 700 sq feet.
My wife went down to see what was going on, saying "the floor upstairs was shaking !"

What happened? One day, I was demonstrating how little David (my home-brew 5W+5W triode power amp) killing Golliah by playing Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture.

With the battlefield sound thundering, cannon balls virtually charging upfront way over & beyond our heads, my audio fans dropped their jaws bigtime. So powerful so realistic, never heard 1812 like this before!!

How could this happen? To be honest, the small power amp was working together with 3 active subwoofers: L, R, & L+R which were set 100Hz low-cut frequency. That said, the small amp still handled the most part of the music performance - no sweat.

Jack L

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Were you using horn speakers as your main satellite speakers? :-) ........

Jack L's picture

Hi

Nope. IMO, compressor-driven horn loudspeakers gets 2 polarized features:
low distortion (clean sound even at very loud volume), & high coloration
(music sounds horn metallic tainted).

My last audio I want to own would be to reproduce music coloration.
So horn loudspeaker is way way out of my audio equation.

Besides, multi-cellar horn loudspeakers give super wide dispersion, originally designed to cover largest areas inside auditoriums & outdoor fields.
But when used at home, most multi-cellular horns, if not all, usually
exaggerate the true size of the musical images. Human voice would sound coming out of a huge over-sized mouth, musical instrument would sound larger than real.

My stereo front loudspeakers are still the old old KEF 2-way bookshelvers, mounted on spiked steel tripods with their tweeters beaming at my ear level.

These factory KEF bookshelvers rang like hell in the mid-high frequencies due to its Mylar dome tweeters. They were a pain to my ears.

So I replaced those tweeters with Norwegian SEAS soft-fabric dome tweeter as both the KEF tweeter & the SEAS tweeter shared the same 1KHz
x-over frequency. NO more ringing, thank goodness!

For much better sound upgrade, I rebuilt the entire crappie 2-way x-over network by replacing all the cheapie tiny polar electrolytic caps with over-rated metallized polypropylene film caps. More important upgrade I did was to convert it to bi-wiring & relocate the upgraded x-over network board OUTside of the loudspeaker cabinets to the back of my tube power amp. The sound improvement was nite & day. I made it happen 2 decades back.

Such OUTBOARD X-over network idea is not new at all. B&W did market a small floor loudspeaker model with OUTboard x-over network decades back.

Well, my little David (my home brew 5W+5W all triode power amp) sounds so fast, so transparent & so clean like a solid state amp, but without the latter's typical clinical odd-harmonics of non-linear bi-polar junction solid state devices.

Listening is believing

Jack L.

Kal Rubinson's picture

One's own children are always the most beautiful and most intelligent.

Jack L's picture

...... most intelligent." quoted K Rubinson.

This is what I call: Total Involvement. Nothing else can beat it.

Like you were a gourmet, who loves fine dines. What could be better if you were also a chef, who loves cooking the best delicious food.

Here you go. I am a music lover, addicted to vinyl (1,000+ stereo LPs at home). I am an audio DIYer as well, thanks to my electrical/electronic engineering background.

So I believe I am capable of tailor-making audios to reproduce closest possible the music I am addicted to for a very affordable cost without
wrecking my bank accounts to finance the audio vendors.

Since day one decades back,. I design/build & upgrade TUBE phonostages, linestages, power amps, loudspeakers, 99.99% pure silver interconnnects & power cords, inline EMI/RFI audio signal & power conditioners, sound improving tweaks, e.g. acoustical tiptoes, cable floor suspenders, various acoustical damping devices.

Music love, common sense, & technical knowhow combined to help me go ahead of the audio game !!! Frankly, not many vendors can get my hard earned money !!! 'Cause I know this audio business better than most of them.

Listening is believing

Jack L

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Jack, you could have saved a lot of time and trouble, if you bought the KEF LS-50 ($1,500/pair) ....... They should work well with your subwoofers :-) .......

Jack L's picture

.... provide higher fidelity reproduction which can be verified." quoted Archimago.

So, show us HOW you would have digital audio & solid state amps verified for their HIGHER fidelity reproduction !!!

Jack

Lars Bo's picture

Yes, no opinion is wrong... or true. Practically, they're mere preferences of illusion.

Consider Stereophile's credo: How does the music make you feel.

To me, then, hi-fi components are primarily tools of emotion in an aesthetic realm. Which means that any alternative exclusively formulated within in a world of (natural) science is either too reductional to "get it" and/or not really concerned with how the music makes you feel. Which is fine, for some.

Jack L's picture

......... aesthetic realm. " quoted Lars Bo

Music listening, like watching movies, can make us sentimental.

Attending a live music performance is a lavish way of getting sentimental or emotional as we just can't afford to do it so often due to limited availability of leisure time & of course, money. But there is no alternative in the good old days where recording technology was not there yet. Being there in person was a must.

Nowadays, recording & playback technology allow us to have the opportunity of enjoying the same music performances at home whenever we are ready to do so.

So audio components phase in as a bridge between timely personal attendance of live music performances & home listening of the performance reproduction whenever we are available & ready.

Therefore the fidelity level of reproduction equipment becomes a deciding factor of our home music enjoyment.

While the measured specifications of an audio component can tell us nothing about how the reproduced music should sound to our ears at home, there should be a more realistic way rather than "preference of illusion" as you quoted above.

My yardstick in gauging how good is audio component(s) goes back to my personal experience of attending live music performances. How close the audio system can ring me back the sentiments & emotion I experienced in live performances is the deciding factor of the audio component(s) quality. NOT "illusion" at all.

When I said experiencing live music performances, it does not confined to concerts & the like. FYI, I can experience live music performance FREE at least once a week if I want to.

Guess where I go to get such FREE live performance in-person experience?

Listening is believing

Jack L

Lars Bo's picture

NOT an illusion at all? Well, seems like your illusion is working out fine.;-)

On a serious note, I'm not sure we disagree all that much. We agree that hi-fi is less about being transparent to source and more about the transcendence to sauce, so to speak; it's about how the music make you feel (... mind you, I'm sure some see source transparency as their emotional bag as well - not just "accurate sound").

I think I regard playback as a singular genre of musical reality altogether. It's not really close to the experience of real live music and "being there". To me, musical playback is about being credibly "somewhere", in an organically live simulacrum where the sounds and especially the emotional contents of music still can feel quite authentic and intense... never mind that it's a trick; the illusion is indeed to make that fact irrelevant.

Jack L's picture

.....that fact irrelevant." quoted Lars Bo

Illusion defines: a DISTORTION of auditory senses.

What "irrelevant"? Distortion in our aural perception on the real musical performance is therefore relevant. As I already said above, home audio is an attempt to bring home live musical performances without going there so timely in person. It is factual that reproduction is not identical to any live performance.

It has been our ambition since day one to bring home reproduction of live performances CLOSEST to reality possible. It is therefore very relevant.

Such ambition fuels up the HiFi business & keep it going.

I think I have made my point very clean that by going more often to live music shows, the distortion in our auditory perception will be reduced accordingly. Like harmonic distortion of an audio amp, after trial & error, can be reduced from say 5% in the past to 0.00005% today.
As of todate, electronic technology can't create an audio amp with zero distortion yet unless there were no amplifier.

Our brain knows to learn to improve from memory of more frequent exposure to live.

Unlike selling coconuts to Eskimos who may never know or see such fruits in their freezing world. So they just can't have any "illusion" at all as to how a coconut look like & how tasty they could be. Right?

Listening is believing, not "illusion"!

Jack L

Kal Rubinson's picture

"Consider Stereophile's credo: How does the music make you feel."

I never got that memo.

Lars Bo's picture

Jim's restatement of the magazine's core principles:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/how-does-music-make-you-feel

Kal Rubinson's picture

I know I read that but, while I agree with the premise, it doesn't work for me in practice.

Lars Bo's picture

what's implied in Stereophile being a big clubhouse.

I know that's what I mean with preferences of illusion.

tonykaz's picture

One Electronics Designer advertises in Stereophile with the concept of "Improving on Perfection", Hmm, ( who would brag like that? ).

It's 2020, transducers are still improving, with stuff like the full Ribbon from Magnapan within reach of our everyman civilian ( who might not have a "budget" like those Wilson Reviewers seem to brag about).

Now-a-days, our Traveling Audiophile can Quarantine nearly anywhere and still have a full library of music and a pocketable Music System to rival Anything on offer at any Budget busting price levels.

Seems like, the only thing left to complain about is the outrageous prices by fancy gear packaging outfits and the antics of their volunteer Brand Ambassadors .

Our greatness comes from the visual descriptives presented, clever & effective designs from our traditional outfits and the fertile soil being allowed to be explored by competent intellects.

Stereophile is our Big Audio Show, Long live Stereophile.

Tony in Venice

lmanley's picture

[Editor's Note: The following letter was distributed earlier today to people in the industry.]

Dear Joel,

Hi-Fi Shows have long been an important and familiar part of the audio landscape, as important to manufacturers and magazines as they are to consumers. But the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic has clearly altered that landscape out of all recognition.

Large segments of the US (and World) population are enduring limitations on travel and social interaction. Governments and city administrations are banning audiences from sports and cultural events, with many major festivals and conferences that were scheduled between now and the end of the year already choosing to cancel. Public willingness to travel or attend live events is dramatically reduced, and the health risks of doing so are well documented.

Unfortunately the conclusion is as inescapable as it is serious. With no widespread testing or vaccine in sight, there will be no quick return to normal. According to economics experts the economy is nowhere near re-opening, and we are all looking down the gun barrel of a recession.

The postponement of Axpona from April to August this year partially recognizes this reality, but we do not believe it truly reflects the gravity of the situation faced by your exhibitors. Any suggestion that the industry want and broadly support the idea of a show in August is also wide of the mark.

Far from supporting your exhibitors, clinging to the prospect of holding Axpona in August is actually making their situation worse. Facing the almost total loss of at least three-months’ revenue, the resultant drain on available cash and the additional costs of re-starting supply and production, many companies are facing a critical cash-flow crisis.

Even once business re-starts, consumer confidence is likely to be cripplingly low, directly impacting revenue for the rest of the year. The risks of social interaction and communication, as well as the substantial additional costs, make attending any show in an effort to stimulate sales a very real threat to both exhibitor and business health.

Visitors (and please remember that many audiophiles are in the most vulnerable demographic groups) will have similar health concerns, especially as regards the risks of travelling to and attending such an event, with the small rooms and crowded nature. Press will be similarly inhibited, and the prospects of a positive visitor experience, decent levels of attendance, or coverage are clearly minimal.

The whole world is facing a health and economic crisis – and the audio industry is no different. Supporting the industry that Axpona serves means helping hard-pressed companies by cancelling the show and releasing the money they paid in advance for an event that will not now happen.

Under the circumstances we feel that it is no longer reasonable or responsible for JD Events to try to use the promise of a postponed Axpona show to withhold exhibitors’ (in many cases desperately needed) funds, and we urge you to follow the lead of other events and announce the cancellation of the show immediately.

Even if you do not cancel, the fact that you simply cannot deliver the show as originally sold (in terms of attendance or coverage) means that all exhibitors should be offered the option of withdrawal and an immediate refund.

We are confident that this would be as widely welcomed as it would be appreciated, a genuinely positive step towards preserving your exhibitors and the possibility of next year’s event.

Yours Sincerely,
Jolanta Conti, Basis Audio
Elliot Goldman, Bending Wave USA
Florian Cossy, CH Precision
Irv Gross, Constellation Audio
Don Better, Don Better Audio
Scot Markwell, Elite AV Distribution
Sandy Gross, GoldenEar
Alvin Lloyd, Grand Prix Audio
Jeff Rowland, Jeff Rowland Group
Peter Mackay, Magico
EveAnna Manley, Manley Labs
Leland Leard, Music Hall
Paul McGowan, PS Audio
Jean-Pascal Panchard, Stenheim
Charlie Schnyder, Stereo Haven
Bill Low, The Quest Group (dba AudioQuest and GoldenEar)
Todd Sutherland, Vivid Audio
Luke Manley and Bea Lam, VTL
Lily Luo, XLO International
David Komatz, Dick Diamond and Kerry St James, YG Acoustics

JoeHarley's picture

Excellent letter Luke (or whoever actually penned it). An international audio show in August?? If the Axpona organizers were foolish enough to even attempt such a thing, the results would surely be dismal by any standard, aside from the obvious health risks of exposure. Audio shows are nearly perfect living Petri dishes for virus transmission.

Axpona: Do the right thing. Refund the exhibitor's money and monitor the testing situation to see if a 2021 show is feasible. I'm sure the industry will reward you for doing so.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

I'm not sure if we wear PPE, we can hear anything, may be we can see the exhibits ....... Just kidding :-) ......

James.Seeds's picture

The company I'm employed with has in the past put out YouTube videos on new products recorded in their showrooms after hours, and now we have a dedicated home theater room that can easily accommodate and transform into a listening room to showcase new up and coming components. I understand it's not like being there but hey it's better than nothing

Kal Rubinson's picture

Not much better than nothing unless the visual aspects of a sound system are important to you. In some ways, they are but higher quality photographs do that fine.

What I think might be an interesting use of such a medium might be to test the ability of the listener/visitor to identify the sound of a given system w/o any visual information or to match the video with the audio. How much do the systems sound the way they look? ;-)

Bogolu Haranath's picture

If they also include the prices, then a system which costs a million bucks could also sound like a million bucks, ie. wonderful :-) .......

Kal Rubinson's picture

The appearance of the system in the video will usually permit one to infer the price range.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Agreed ..... Towering appearances of Wilson XVX, Wilson Master Chronosonic, VAC Statement are some examples :-) .......

JulieAudiophile's picture

And I love the R.E.M. reference!

X