Is The New York Show Sustainable?

[MylesBAstor]

Sunny Cable Technology’s top-of-the-line H3W15S speakers. Third appearance at the New York Audio Show and still don't get it. Are they headphones or speakers? At least there weren't any naked wires or open crossovers hanging out the back this year.

[MylesBAstor]

Blink Audio based out of Boston brought down the new Finke Team Borg speaker. The Borg's are a two way speaker design marrying a Heil AMT tweeter with a 10.25 inch high power, mid/bass driver. The speakers were powered by Aavik M300 monoblock amplifiers and preamplifier. The "relatively" large for this venue room was always packed making getting a good seat for listening impossible. But these speakers definitely deserve some further listening under better conditions. (Kroma speakers from Spain are on the side but not heard.)

[DanyelfromGermany]

I could hear the speakers sometimes in Germany, it seems they are well done... would like to hear it with a SRA (SoReal Audio Germany) Seismograph turntable, a SME tonearm and an Audio Technica Art System pickup and a real good Phonostage of course... and do not forgett to do some roomtuning for example with Acoustic Revive and Audio Replas, I have it (but other speakers) and it is really well done...

[MylesBAstor]

Louis Manno, Audio History Library and Museum brought along some cool analog items from his collection to the show.

http://Www.Audiohistory.com.

[Metamatic]

that Marantz linear tracking table is so cool. and it dates back to 1963. never seen one before today

[MylesBAstor]

So the million dollar question is: Will there be a New York Audio Show in 2020? So far the Chester Group isn't tipping their hand; nor are they showing any 2020 shows on their website either. That not exactly a ringing endorsement given that there's always been a "save the date" for the following years show. It's sad that other shows seem to be stepping up their game (CAF comes to mind here) and New York is shrinking. Plus there's no other value added parts such as seminars, talks, etc. to draw people into The New York Audio Show. Or much in the way of advertising. This is also the first show that I didn't receive even one pre-event press release. So it remains to see if 16 rooms and some assorted tables are enough to keep the show financially viable and running.

[SundayNiagara]

Too many HiFi shows.

[DanyelfromGermany]

Yes, in Germany we have the same ... too many Hifi shows and unfortunately it seems the appreciation of Music and Hifi is very low? Most customers spent a lot of money in their car, but listen music with their phone, how sad! Regards Danyel (SoReal Audio Germany) Hope you unterstand my German English...

[Richard Austen]

I have been reading commentary from a few sites that Harbeth and Audio Note didn't sound good - and that there were very few rooms. So when there are few good rooms they may stand out but are they "truly" a standout or just happened to sit the room better?

I remember at one show (CES) with LOT of competition that two of my lowest rated rooms were YG Acoustics and MBL (my best rooms at the show were Audio Note UK / Magico / KingSound / Trenner and Friedl RA among others) - then at the next show I covered I ranked YG Acoustics and MBL number 1 - worst to best. And the AN room was pretty bad - near best to worst).

Grrrr. Room construction? Size of room? Music? Listener fatigue? - if the speaker happens to excite that node - and booms - well - it's not going to do very well.

There are a lot of shows but you would think New York is far enough away that it would still be a hit. How is the economy in New York? Should be a lot of rich guys left still no? Not well advertised?

California Audio Show was much bigger in 2017 than 2019 and Constantine has cancelled CAS 2020. A shame because that hotel is quite good - most of the rooms sound better at the Oakland Hilton than other venues.

[DanyelfromGermany]

So you are lucky, could never hear a YG Acoustic or MBL very well... and I am in Munich at High End every year.

[Ritmo]

Thanks for the summary and pictures Myles.

[GT Audio Works]

I was so busy at CAF 2019, I didn't have time to check out the Vinnie Rossi, Triode Wire Labs, Well Pleased Audio, Innuos room.
Luckily I found them at NYC showing the same modestly sized and priced beautiful looking setup with Vinnies integrated 300b front end and solid state output and DAC feeding QLN speakers. The system is small enough for a NYC apartment but with a big transparent musically satisfying sound.
A highlight of the show for me.
Greg

[Alrainbow]

ESD horn speakers from China brought their Dragon full horn system (seen last year at the New York Show) along with the smaller Crane floor standing horn speakers (debuted the week before at CAF) to the New York Audio. ESD paired up with Greg Beron and United Home Audio (as they did the week before at CAF) with Ultimate 4 OPS reel-to-reel machines serving up music in both rooms. Unfortunately, not even tape couldn't save the day.

Hahaha well said Myles what a damn shame
i can’t understand how they never sound coherent. Even the smaller room shown above was so out of phase and distressed at times.
the big ones I think have big potential of setup well.
One thing I noticed last year was they are all field coil horns and use one dc buss feed for all drivers. I wonder if the 5 coils feedback to each other or just make the dc vary as well. Next they seem to have a phase issue but if you move around there were tiny glimpses of coherent sound

[marty]

Great coverage and pics as always. I never knew the Sherman/Grand Army Plaza story (embarrassing for a New Yorker) Now I get it!

But these were my favorite pics

[rjensen]

Myles - thanks for the usual interesting and candid summary.

Rick

[Musica]

Thank you for taking the time to post pictures and add commentary. However I was disheartened to read your thoughts on digital and streaming since it's not the future but the present and can provide quite exceptional sound. In fact (I've said many times before) IME digital outperforms analog $ for $ up to ~$10K, maybe higher as digital gets better and better. Make no mistake that I love records too but it's simply reality. So to trash digital I'm afraid to say makes you sound old and out of touch. Note: I'm probably around your age and grew up with turntables but am open to all technologies. Great sounding music is great sounding music irrespective of the source.

[Richard Austen]

Reply meant for DanelfromGermany

Well MBL is omni-directional and so they are hugely a slave to the room acoustics - so you sort of have to cut them more slack than most speakers because I would imagine it takes a lot more work to get them to sound right than other speakers. Interestingly YG Acoustics design is typically not something I would care for and they sounded better in a small room - which made less sense to me. You would think a bigger room would be better but IME the reverse was true.

The one thing noted to me about MBL sounds better at high volumes and that if I heard them at low volumes I might not like them. I only heard them at high volume so I can't say. I also used hard rock music Guns N Roses and the designer apparently is a metal-head or something. I may be wrong. If so - I played music in the speaker's wheelhouse. I did also use Hugh Masekela. Still both were impressive.

The reality is no matter what one person thinks is great - others won't. With the crowds, complaints about the music genres being played, noise from the hallways, personal biases, fatigue of the listener - was it your third room or the 18th room you heard that day, mood, the sales pitch of the guy running the room, size and price (bigger is better - more expensive is better OR more expensive is overpriced so I am not going to like it etc)...all of it has way to bias the listeners.

[Dan976]

Myles, thanks for the pictures and description of the show.
The best NYC Hi Fi Show i ever went to was the 1996 Stereophile show at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. There were so many great sounding rooms.
I heard the Sonus Faber Extremas at this show on Meridian 557 Amps bridged. The Extremas had the best midrange i ever heard on speakers. I heard the Dunlavy 4 speakers on a Alchemist Amp and Alchemist Preamp which were designed by Tim De Paravicini. These speakers sounded amazing. They drivers blended in perfectly. I heard these speakers called ARS Gravitas Max that looked like the Wilson Watt Puppy speakers that sounded great.
I also went to the Hi Fi Shows in NYC in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2014, 2017.
You're right about the shows getting smaller and smaller.
My friend went to the 1990 Hi Fi Show in NYC that was really good and he said it was just as large as the 1996 Hi Fi Show.

[Afveep]

I think that the last decent NY show was Brooklyn in 2014. We (XtremeFidelity) exhibited there and our relatively large room was constantly packed. From what I recall, the hotel was decent and cost wasn't bad, and there were a lot of exhibitors. From there, it went back to Manhattan and went downhill.

[Genghis6400]

I totally remember that show!!!