The 2018 audio show season is about to start and it's not just Stereophile's coverage of high-end audio shows—which has taken a leap forward with the inclusion of Jana Dagdagan's binaural videos—that's changing. The shows themselves are on the move.
Take the free Montréal Audio Fest (March 23–25, Hotel Bonaventure Montréal, Quebec). Exhibitors are invited to present systems for under $5000 in addition to their preferred systems, and, in an attempt to attract visitors aged 18–35, are encouraged to play music from video-game soundtracks. In addition, musicians will perform live some of the most popular of these soundtracks.
A major change comes to the Audio Expo North America (April 13–15), whose Chicago location shifts from the Westin O'Hare in Rosemont to the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel. While this may seem like a puzzling move for AXPONA, an immensely successful show that, in 2017, sold close to 7000 tickets and boasted 140 exhibit rooms, the opportunity to consolidate its Marketplace, Ear Gear Expo, new Record Shop, and other non-exhibit room aspects into a single Expo Hall makes sense.
"It will be similar to the expo area in Munich High End, except that the Ear Gear Expo will be consigned to the quieter back half of the hall," said Joel Davis, founder and CEO of AXPONA's owner and promotion company, JDEvents. "We also think having one big open space will attract even more young people."
The new venue is right off I-90 at the Schaumburg Convention exit, just 13 miles from O'Hare International Airport, and offers a "giant" free parking lot. The CTA train stop is just two miles away, the PACE bus much nearer, and frequent shuttles to and fro are promised. Some distributors have grumbled about room sizes, but AXPONA's conference and programming director, Liz Miller, insists that the total square footage is about the same as in 2017—a few inches narrower, a few inches longer—and ceilings are a most desirable 9.5' high.
After High End (May 10–13, Munich)—the huge annual consumer show that has supplanted the Consumer Electronics Show as the primary yearly meeting place for high-end audio manufacturers and distributors worldwide—the newly renamed LA Audio Show–Orange County 2018 takes place June 8–10 (footnote 1). Given that T.H.E. Show has seemingly fizzled out, and too many people were disappointed by the layout and the number of attendees at the first LAAS, held at the LAX Sheraton Gateway Hotel last June, it's shifting south, to Irvine and T.H.E. Show's former venue: the Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport, across from the John Wayne Airport Orange County . . . at least for this year. The Atrium Hotel, next door, will also be used for exhibits.
The show's theme is "Putting the Show Back in the Audio Show." "This is show business," says LAAS promoter Bill Kanner. "We want to provide an entertaining experience, where getting to an exhibit is as enjoyable as the exhibit itself. People have family members who are not all committed to audio, and we need to have something for them. This shouldn't be an exercise in acoustic technology; it should be a smorgasbord of fun."
Although the entertainment roster at LAAS 2018 is not yet set, Michael Fremer will assemble a $1 million system, and an entire floor will be devoted to entry-level and "non-stratospherically expensive equipment," says Kanner.
Other than the Bay Area's small California Audio Show (July 27–29, Hilton Oakland Airport), the US's audio summer may be quiet. But in Asia, the High End Audio & Visual Show (August 10–12, Hong Kong) expects to attract an astounding 30,000 people. Things back home pick up in the fall, when the venerable Rocky Mountain Audio Fest returns to Colorado (October 5–7, Denver Marriott Tech Center), and the TAVES Consumer Electronics Show to Ontario (October 12–14).
This is the 15th RMAF and the final year of RMAF's contract with the Denver Tech Center Marriott. Although plans had not been finalized by press time, show owner Marjorie Baumert was contemplating ways to expand RMAF's popular innovation and entry-level exhibits.
TAVES promises "numerous improvements and enhancements, especially to the HiFi element of the show" when it returns to the International Centre in Mississauga. (TAVES 2017 was held at the Toronto Congress Centre.) I'm not convinced that scheduling it just one week after RMAF will attract a large number of US companies, however.
Just three weeks later, the fast-expanding Capital Audiofest foresees filling as many as 80 exhibit rooms in the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville Hotel & Executive Meeting Center, in nearby Rockville, Maryland (November 2–4). Show promoter Gary Gill, who plans to "push the show a little bit more toward the lifestyle," was pleased to discover that CAF's heavy emphasis on vinyl, along with show posters hung in area record stores, attracted a younger crowd in 2017. Ditto for the presence of local distillers, whose numbers at CAF 2018 will be increased. Expect at least one needle to careen across a groove.
After the small New York Audio Show, which takes place November 9–11, at the Park Lane Hotel, Central Park, next comes Adam Mokrzycki's Warsaw Audio Show (November 16–18). Last year, this 21-year-old show, the second largest in Europe, attracted 12,000 visitors to 168 exhibit rooms and 60 exhibit stands (including a headphone section). That makes it bigger than any US audio show, and, along with Munich's High End, more attractive to industry folks than CES, where the historically low participation of high-end audio companies in 2018 may have driven another nail in that show's coffin.—Jason Victor Serinus
Footnote 1: After this issue was printed, THE Show announced that it was holding its 2018 show June 1–3; one week before the LAAS and also in Irvine, CA; see https://thehomeentertainmentshow.com.
Footnote 1: After this issue was printed, THE Show announced that it was holding its 2018 show June 1–3; one week before the LAAS and also in Irvine, CA; see https://thehomeentertainmentshow.com.
