Let's see whether I can describe something about our "show experience". Should be done by others actually, but maybe people don't like to write about it. Anyway, invited !
Most of the demo/show music I use myself, has been tuned to my own system, hence the Orelo MKII speaker system. "Tuned" means : sounds very good and interesting and such on my system.
The Sigma speaker was ready only 3 weeks or so ago and obviously can not use the same filter settings as the Orelo MKII. Now it is challenging when someone else is doing the "tuning" of the speaker itself. And to keep in mind : the DSP which controls the bass and cross-over at the top side of the bass, is just user-tunable; everybody (customer) can do that him/herself and everybody is allowed to have his/her own taste.
Next though, the music taste could be dependent on that tuning ...
Of course it was.
So with the as usual too short time to do everything and all, we both (Bert and me) did not have sufficient time for the actually longwinded changes and especially listening, so what sort of happened is that the tuning was done to Bert's music. Not the music in my own demo Gallery. Also, Bert could not find the spare time to build up a demo Gallery himzelf from his own music. Thus it so happened that I played my tunes on Bert's tunING.
haha
Some worked out, but some did not. Still the only stuff available was mine and we noticed on the first day that while Bert could work on music from his own libraries, that it is not easy at all to ad-hoc make shares from (to) a Windows 10 Operating System running in MinOS mode, running from RAM and where connecting the USB disk to that otherwise completely diskless system is ... well, not the best thing to do of course.
And so to my own idea the first day did not work out. Possibly others did not agree, and what zzzzzoomed in my ears did not in other's, but anyway I was not happy.
Also it is quite frustrating, or bothering, to be forced to play music which to my ears is not "perfect".
Somewhere in the afternoon on Saturday I started to walk around a bit and observe what other exhibitors were making of it. Well, hmm ... actually we weren't doing so bad, it appeared to me. It seemed that something happened to all of the other exhibitors ... what a way lousy booming bass all over the place. True, I hadn't been to all rooms, but to my feeling I visited a few quite "expensive" ones and ... No.
I must say that I started to wonder whether our own standards went up again.
Side note : By now the first "reports" are coming about, and I already see the same complaint : lousy bass all over (the rooms).
We decided to spend some time Saturday night to hook up Bert's music, so Bert could sort out some demo music from his own known stuff. Sunday morning this proceeded with Bert spending time in the early hours to additionally fine tune the system somewhat (better) and to finish his demo material.
I recall to enter the room before breakfast and quickly run out because I did not like what I heard. But alas, Bert was not finished yet without reason.
Then breakfast was over, and Bert announced to disappear for his own breakfast, while meanwhile it was show opening time.
I asked whether the Playlist was large enough to survive his breakfast and that I could disappear to wherever just the same. Yes, that was the case.
But oh boy, was that NOT necessary ...
I pressed Play at the first track and immediately was impressed. Well, not so important, but the room filling up with people showed really different from the day before. I saw most people with nodding heads (really so), if you know what I mean. All showing the "OMG, impossible".
And yes, something like that was now my own idea as well.
The tunes Bert had selected worked out very very well and at stages things got quite impossible because people did not want to leave any more. This, while people kept on coming in.
While this all happened in what I call a first crazy hour on Sunday, somewhat later people started to come in telling me that ALL the others played to loud, that with ALL the others the bass was stumping and stupidly loud and that with ALL the others it was "nothing". Yea, well, uhm, it became a little embarrassing, especially because I still could hear some distance from how I have it myself, at home. It felt a bit like everybody grouped up and served us an April 1 fool's joke.
Here's an anecdotical story which I try to mimic as genuine as possible; try to feel the atmosphere :
I am approached by two people;
One of them holds a blocknote. He says :
"Look, this is you. What you put in is a 9.3 and what you get out is a 9.6."
Uhm, on a scale of 1 to 100 ? not so good.
"No, on a scale of 1 to 10".
"This is serious, you know".
Uhm, I don't know; if the others score 9.7 ....
"No way; they all score under 5; we have been everywhere".
I'm sure I know the guy not holding the blocknote. But I don't know from what or where. Must be reviewers ? has to be, because who else is going to perform this serious effort to rate rooms in numbers like this and also announce this so seriously.
So you see ? this looked like a joke.
When things are really going well, people keep coming back to your room. Nice to see that people actually are there now to spend a few cosy hours on a Sunday afternoon. Listen to whatever music. "What can I play for you, Sir ?" -> I don't care.
So yes, that happens when all sounds right.
I have been talking to people who sort of ran into psychological problems. "Must have ! ... but can't have". The real audiophile stepped forward ?
Well, enough for this "self talk". But let me finish by concluding that a few strange things happened, or are happening;
With the notice that people tend to call computer playback "streaming" these days, too many people came to me and suggested that Streaming is an unfinished product at this moment. "So what are *you* using ?". Uhm ...
Why is there a trend of too much poor bass ? I mean, if people explicitly tell about the too much bass everywhere, what's going on ? Btw, I noticed it myself too (but haven't been everywhere, by far).
It looks like the Dutch manufacturer of audio has disappeared. This is so strong that people tend not to believe you when you say that all is "made by ourselves". I don't think that Dutch manufacturers have disappeared, but I suppose if we (all) don't name it explicitly on the doorstep, people start to think that all what's available is from elsewhere.
Possibly the show organizer is guilty because what I saw happening this year is importer A end B and C and (to empasize the example) 60 exhibitors with 250 brands or whatever. Something ain't right here. So the guys doing the work (like us) disappear from the show floors and instead the dealers or importers are there ? maybe.
So far my own impresion.
Peter
