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Paul, Charlie "How To Listen To Music" Car Audio & Electronics August 1996: 94-102.
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Fired up some of those Jazz at the Pawn Shop recordings tonight for the first time thanks to this article. Thank you for posting this.
Yeah - it's the only way to listen to Jazz with some semblance of enjoyment [emoji38]Quote:
Originally Posted by chithead
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They touch on, but don't quite send the point home on the importance of not just reference material, but listening to reference systems.
It's not just "a better car audio system than mine", but anything that sounds better.
I had the massive opportunity to attend CES in several capacities for 9 or 10 years, and my secret was to LEAVE the car audio area, and even the LVCC entirely - to go visit the high-end audio vendors area.
In the '00s it was at the Alexia Park hotel, these days I believe it's in the upper floors of the Venetian. They would empty out the furniture from the rooms, and allow each vendor to prep the rooms as they wished, bring in and place furniture where they wished, and power it with whatever esoteric gear they wanted to drive their products with.
You can literally walk from room to room through the hotel, listening to a $50k system in one room, a $100k system in the next, $500k system in the next. Every system optimized with full respect of the need to exceed the systems down the hallway... to shape that vendor's sales for the year - the full weight of the importance of CES, of buyers, of journalists, of competitors - all the systems truly high-end reference systems in their own individual right...
...and being able to walk from room to room not just listening to one, but dozens and dozens - you aren't in charge of what's played in each room, but it's still the fastest way to use what's in this article to develop a reference ear for yourself.
It's been another 8 or 9 years since I was last at CES - but those benefits do persist.
I do think it's hard to have that true high-end experience in most car audio shops, even their demo cars and competition cars might be very good, but lots of shops simply know how to install. Sound can be middling at best - and you might not know UNTIL you have a "reference ear".
So if you can get into CES, possibly under a "buyer" badge - consider it a worthwhile trip. Mecca for audiophiles.
Alternatively, If you have some true high-end home audio shops near you, and the salespeople aren't pricks, listen to the Martin Logans, the Focal, the KEF, or whatever gets that salesperson going.
IF they have a decent listening environment, this could be nearly as good.
It takes effort - but it's worthwhile.
And you don't have to tell them that your REAL goal is to develop a reference for your car audio system... in fact that's one way to turn that salesperson from "engaged" to "get out". [emoji38]
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If you want to listen to high-end home audio and can't make it to CES, you can always try AXPONA.
I've never been to that but would love to...Quote:
Originally Posted by Euphonic
My main hesitation would be that at CES, when my badge said "buyer", I had different treatment by vendors than when my badge said "vendor". Although in both cases I still managed to get some good listening in.
I see AXPONA also has an even bigger differentiation in badges... Basically "industry" vs "consumer", being a public show that anyone can attend for less than a typical concert ticket, even.
Have you been to this?
Does each vendor have isolated listening spaces, like the separate hotel rooms of CES? I imagine so - it's pretty obvious why it's not side-by-side across a convention floor...
Do you receive different treatment, maybe a difficult time getting auditions with a standard, non-industry badge?
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I have not been to AXPONA or CES. I'm always too busy during that time of year to miss work. One of these years, I should just go. As far as how people get treated, you'd think they'd give the consumer a fair listen. If they don't, they just lost that consumer to someone that treated them better and some of the stuff they're trying to sell costs more than a house.Quote:
Originally Posted by geolemon