AXPONA 2019 – Sights, Sounds, and Snow!
Another successful year is in the books for Audio Expo North America, but I am horribly depressed.
Huh?
It is a rather simple matter of remedial math. An ear gear
expo, a record fair, nightly concerts, a daily raft of industry seminars, and
over one million listening rooms (Would you believe 200?) spell doom for any
attempt at truly comprehensive coverage by a single human.
With that in mind, I’ll venture into a 30,000 ft view of the
weekend and provide a few observations, takeaways, and miscellaneous ramblings.
The last few years, through concerted effort, the industry has
been chipping away at the age barrier and attracting more youth to this
wonderful hobby. The trend continued in Chicago with plenty of sub “old guy”
audiophiles wandering about, impressively including sightings of several
parents with their offspring. This old guy even tripped over a stroller or two.
Go figure!
Product debuts at AXPONA seemed to outnumber years past. It
is a pleasure to speak with the designers and hear firsthand the design philosophy,
engineering, and passion behind these products. Note: Stay tuned in the coming
weeks for more targeted articles on some of these products.
Music genre variety continues to expand. Despite every third
room playing Ella and Louis, the stereotype of “classical and jazz only”
continues to fade away. Folk, R & B, Rock, Blues, and Electronica emanated from
various listening rooms, all of it sounding damned good!
Which brings me to my next point. I realize that my aural
faculty is fading, courtesy of father time, but I will put hand on heart and
swear that the great majority of the rooms sounded consistently top shelf this
year. Sure, there was a room or three where the piano was too veiled, or maybe imaging
lacked proper specificity, or the bass was…wrong, but these are hotel rooms
after all. A thumbs up to all involved!
Before I sign off, kudos to the folks at JD Events who continue to set the bar high
for audio shows, and the industry and general public are the beneficiaries. Heck, they even arranged for several inches
of snow on Sunday. *wink*
There will be more in-depth notes in the coming days, but now, for your viewing pleasure, a few pictures from that
million-room audio onslaught:
Cheers!
Marty Feldmann, The Connoisseur, is the highly sought after consultant who assists businesses and individual clients with the acquisition of the finer things life has to offer. Whether you are planning a weekend getaway to wine country, selecting audio equipment to outfit your home, planning your dream vacation or purchasing your ultimate transportation, Marty is your personal connection to the good life…
Marty can be contacted at: 916.952.9529 Marty@ConnoisseurCorner.com