It did not require great perspicacity to predict that SSI2009 would not be as well attended as last year's show. Things are tough all over. In any case, as I write this, on Saturday evening on a train en route to Toronto—yes, I manage to catch the train this time!—the show still has another day to go, and, as Michel Plante, with Sarah Tremblay the SSI's organizers, admitted, what often makes or breaks a show like this is the Sunday attendance.
But let me give you my impressions. On Friday things were decidedly on the slow side, but on Saturday the show felt like a big success, with lots of excited people in the halls and in the exhibit rooms—like the ones in the popular Totem room pictured in this photo. I would guess that the attendance on Saturday was in the same range as at last year's show. The
Stereophile “Ask the Editors” session (see below) was extremely well-attended—even better than last year's, I think—and the questions showed a high level of interest and sophistication, dealing with a wide range of issues, including the relation (or lack thereof) between the love of music and preoccupation with equipment, how to encourage people to care about quality in the reproduction of music, and the perennial one of why this tends to be a hobby dominated by males. John Atkinson, Art Dudley, Stephen Mejias and I may not have been able to solve all the problems of the industry in the time available, but I think I can speak for all of us in saying that we had a great time, and were most appreciative of the issues raised by readers. And, in the spirit of Barack Obama, I venture to say that audio industry, and audiophiles, will emerge from the current economic situation stronger than ever.
