Windsor Hi-Fi Show Live 2018 - Any views?

[User211]

Totally agree. And you go to these shows where the rooms are identical in every respect and one bloke is getting a good sound and next door is not.

Lotta bollocks spoken about room acoustics.

It is relevant, but still, I maintain the above statement.

[User211]

Were the heritage JBL L100s being demoed?

No.

[User211]

So .... the cable lifters didn't do a lot of good, then?

No - definitely a downlifting experience

[Macca]

Lotta bollocks spoken about room acoustics.

It is relevant, but still, I maintain the above statement.

Yep. And don't get me started on the 'This hundred grand system would sound awesome but the mains supply in these hotels is so polluted it is making it sound unlistenable.'

If you believe that come and see me about purchasing some beach front property in Nevada.

[walpurgis]

I found these to sound very congested and I am starting to think the old excuse of the hotel rooms not being good is just that, an excuse. Some setups sound fantastic even in tiny rooms with obvious room modes and ceiling tiles flapping. The room detracts from the presentation in a few areas but overall the good gear shines through. I'm starting to think that a lot of high end gear is just not very good no matter where it is placed.

Yup. To me, some high end equipment simply does not sound that great.

[Marco]

Yep. And don't get me started on the 'This hundred grand system would sound awesome but the mains supply in these hotels is so polluted it is making it sound unlistenable.'

If you believe that come and see me about purchasing some beach front property in Nevada.

Lol... First of all, many thanks again to Justers for taking the time to post some great pictures and add comment, which has helped give folks who didn't attend the show that feeling of 'being there'. Always appreciated bro, so keep up the good work!

In terms of the above, as ever it's a question of context, and also one of demonstrating a love for and pride in what you're doing... Adding some room treatment (within reason) and addressing the undoubtedly poor mains quality in hotel rooms, compared with what we're likely to enjoy at home, if successfully implemented, *will* always improve matters.

However, NEITHER bad mains nor poor room acoustics should make a system sound fundamentally broken. It will simply hinder its potential, but then there has to exist some potential in the first place! If equipment intrinsically sounds shit, then it won't matter a jot whether it's hard-wired to the national grid with 99.99999% pure-silver cable or housed in the most acoustically optimal room known to man!

In my experience, the best sounding rooms at shows are invariably ones which satisfy the following criteria:

1) The system in question has been properly thought out, in terms of the components chosen complimenting each other sonically and electrically, rather than assembled from a disparate collection of parts, cobbled together at the last minute, simply to fulfil an obligation. And rather crucially, the right speakers have been chosen for the room they'll be going into!

2) The day or night before the public are due to arrive, the demonstrator in question cared more about setting up the system properly, paying proper attention to every aspect of optimising its sonic presentation, *especially in terms of ensuring optimal speaker positioning* and eliminating, as far as possible, any 'room boom' or other obvious and undesirable sonic aberrations, than being first to bar!

3) The system in question is capable of playing a wide variety of ('real world') music, to a good standard, and not simply undemanding, yawn-inducing audiophile pap, at whisper levels, which would sound good on a clock radio, and at a realistic volume level, but not so loudly as to 'excite' the room in a bad way or that highlights the limitations of the system.

Plus it also helps if the demonstrator is himself or herself a music lover and able to use the system in question to demonstrate that fact advantageously, so that people attending leave the room having both been stimulated/impressed by the sound the system produced *and* in the choice of music used.

Generally speaking, the systems which get all or most of the above right will produce a more than acceptable result in ANY hotel room and leave punters happy!

Marco.