. . . and nobody came? If you look at the numbers for the high-end audio sector alone, it certainly looks like something went south. However the rest of CES is thriving: gadgets, AI and even self-driving cars have supplanted much of what used to dominate these shows (one of the Innovations Award winners this year is Kohler's "intelligent bathroom.")
So it looks like the downturn is just us. A few short years ago, high-performance audio had a thriving presence here. We occupied three floors of regular rooms at the Venetian hotel, with plenty of exhibitors occupying large swaths of the top two floors, where the much larger suites sit perched over the city.
Outboarders, as I like to call them, exhibitors off the official program, could be found in the surrounding hotels with the Mirage being particularly popular. You could land on any of the top A/B/C/D floors there and find unofficial hospitality suites and parties everywhere.
Not anymore. This year high-end audio occupies only one floor of the Venetian, and there are just a couple exhibitors in the suites above. The Mirage is also down to a couple suites and around town is particularly quiet. So I'd say we are operating at less than 30% of peak CES. Someone may be crunching official numbers somewhere, but I'm suggesting they won't be far off from this.
Stereophile is still here however, and we are running a skeleton crew of John Atkinson, Jason Victor Serinus, Jana Dagdagan (for video) and myself. Where in the past we've focused mainly on new product announcements, this year we'll try to cover everyone who made the effort to show up.
I ran an unofficial survey of manufacturers, both of exhibitors and those who have abandoned the show, and two stories emerged: the costs now outweigh the benefits, and there are plenty of other shows around the world that attract their buyers and customers. Interestingly, of the exhibitors who are still with the show this year, many say the benefits still outweigh the costs, but they will re-evaluate after this year.
Of course, I'm thinking, that's if there is a next year.
PS: The photo above? That's what it looks like the first morning of the show outside my window as I type. Certainly feels the part.
PPS: Thought I should add that I don't consider this downturn at CES indicative of high end audio itself, just its presence at this event. The fact that so many other audio shows are thriving is cause for celebration.
