Over the past 20 years, I have been to MANY consumer electronics shows. Most of these are trade shows (i.e. the large and very well known CES held every January in Las Vegas) with very broad coverage for everything from Cell Phones to HiFi gear plus audiophile side shows (literally... separate Hi-Fi only shows held at different locations which makes for a major PITA of going from venue to venie to see everything). They are also focused on the trade as well and its generally not easy for the audiophile consumer to get into these shows. As well, CES is very large and very crowded.. it can be hard to get time to listen or talk to the people you want to. The expense of CES as well, means you also have multiple Hi-Fi vendors sharing the expensive show suites, not to mention the cost of exhibiting at CES means certain manufacturers do not even show up. Basically, this means any serious audiophile needs to wade through a lot of people, hotels, vendors etc etc just to get to hear/see what you want.
Next up was the venerable Primedia Home Entertainment Shows which have floated around the country for some 10 to 15 years in various major cities (mainly NY, LA, and SanFran). Since this show was put on by a magazines specialty magazine group (Stereophile and Home Theater magazines mainly) in rather expensive show venues, this meant a somewhat ho-hum mix of Hi-End Hi-Fi and Home Theater stuff mixed together in one show. These shows were even MORE epensive to exhibit at that CES as well, so this often meant even more vendors sharing (smaller) show suites (generally a emptied hotel room) and even less of the smaller Hi-End manufacturers being able to afford to show. I found these ("Stereophile") shows to be a rather mixed bag... the small sized big city hotel rooms (often the only thing that many Hi-End manufacturers could afford) made for crowded and often to noisy listening situations. The only good point was the big city location was often home to a good number of us Audio-Geeks. It will be interesting to see if these shows will continues as the magazines associated with this show have been sold off and no longer are owned by Primedia and it is not quite yet known if their new owner plans on sponsoring shows like this.
This brings us to a really nice guy. A retired small businessman and a former customer of mine Al Steifel (who is also part owner of a small HiFi company called Red Rock Audio) who is the driving force behind the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest - a show put on by audiophiles for audiophiles every October since 2004. The venue is the lovely Denver Colorado Marriott Tech Center from Friday October 10th to Saturday October 12th. Al and his team (wife Marjorie and the good folks from the Colorado Audio Society) have put together a first class show here in a venue that is eminently affordable to just about all Hi End Audio Manufactures. Rooms are nicely spaced out, very reasonable in size (compared to smaller big city hotel rooms), the staff in the hotel is friendly and quite helpful . . . all things which make this show a joy for vendors to go and show off their wares. Denver is a easy city to get (fly or drive) too, lodging is not expensive (unlike NYC or Vegas), making this Hi-Fi ONLY show a joy for Audiophiles to go to. With less vendors per room... you get a better idea of what each vendors product is about and how they would like to set-up and use it. Rooms are less crowded too (along with the general pace of the show) which mean you often get ample time to listen to the gear AND also talk with the manufacturer. In its fourth year, the show continues to grow (though its not of a size that make it hard to go and see most all of the exhibitors) and has quickly earned the reputation in the trade as one of the premiere Hi-End Hi-Fi shows. Its modest exhibit costs also means you will see some more of the interesting/smaller companies doing some of the most creative work in Hi-End Audio.I do understand things are tough right now and folks are concerned and preoccupied about many other things these days, but this is a great opportunity to get away for a few days (for not allow of money) and check out some very cool Hi-Fi gear made by some pretty amazing folks. I'm sure you'll have a great time, meat some awesome people, plus you can come up to Room 1007 in the Marriott Tech Center and visit with me and my buddy Bobby Palkovic of Merlin Music Systems. We will be playing the Merlin Music Systems VSM-MXe speaker system using Joule-Electra LAP-150MK2 preamp and VZN-100 OTL amps, Cardas Audio cables, and my Audio Aero Prestige CD Player as the front end. Come to the show and join us for a listen to some greet Hi-Fi gear. I look forward to seeing you there!!!
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