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How to listen to the good stuff?

How is one able to hear some of the 100's of great systems described in review after review?

There's been six or seven high-end dealers in the local area and I've been to a few out of state, and among all the auditions I've listened to at these places with all sorts of different speakers and electronics, from systems costing hundreds of dollars to systems costing many tens of thousands of dollars, only one system ever sounded 'great', and only one or two I would consider barely 'good'. The vast majority have sounded quite poor to awful.

The funny thing is, even with the awful sounding systems, the dealers will gush about how great it sounds, how it sounds so live, and use all the usual audiophile superlatives and descriptions to describe what I'm supposed to be hearing. Yet it sounds nothing like that to me at all -- poor sound, little emotional connection with the music, no PRAT, nothing like live music, and almost always boring. It doesn't come anything close to what I hear at home, or anything like the descriptions in so many reviews. Yeah, I know it's their job to talk about everything in glowing terms, but that is the point I'm trying to make. If all of this stuff sounds like crap at the dealers, how do I find speakers I might like better than the ones I have? How do I hear a great SET amp or an exotic horn system?

I want to hear some more of these setups that are described as being able to image a full size orchestra right in your living room and you can pick out each individual player, etc., etc.

The descriptions I've read of all the different audio shows over the years make it sound even worse than auditioning at a dealer. Crowded rooms with little chance to sit in the sweet spot. Systems setup the day before in a crappy hotel room. Poor selection of music. etc. And I don't know anybody with a high-end system, let alone the high-high-end stuff, and the audio 'club' (society?) is pretty much dead.

Do you guys think most of the dealer setups you've heard sound good? How do you guys listen to some of the more exotic stuff? Pretty much going to shows, or do you live in L.A. or N.Y.?

(Some of the speakers heard at dealers: Magnapan 1.7, Sonus Faber, various B&Ws, Wilson X-1 and Sasha ?, Joseph Audio Pearl, Linn, Vienna Acoustics, Totem, various Martin Logans, Thiel, ...)
bdhgon
david12
1,454 posts
 
I think shows are the answer. Yes the sound is usually awful, but what do you expect from a system thrown together the night before, in an inappropriate room, with corrupted mains. BUT, if you can find a reaonable sounding room, then the kit must be pretty good to survive the context they are performing in.

I found several good sounding rooms at RMAF last year and many very poor and very expensive ones. It always seems odd to me, that the rooms with cheaper kit sound so much better than the costly ones. Perhaps because the latter often have high output monoblock amps and top of the range large standmounts, which just can not function in the small rooms they are in.

I still think the best route is visiting audio contacts and listening to their hopefully sorted systems, appropriate to the rooms they are in. I enjoy demoing myself to and spending a couple of hours chewing the fat.
bdhgon OP
10 posts
 
The problem with making audio contacts is the WAF -- "Hey honey, there's a guy I just met on the internet that wants to come hear my $20,000 stereo system. I have no idea who he is, but that's okay, right?"

It seems like the bigger issue is the question about why dealers demos usually don't sound very good. If my livelyhood depended on impressing people enough to spend that much on a speaker system, I'd make sure it sounded absolutely increadible. I'd never buy something that sounded lifeless and boring.
bondmanp
1,785 posts
 
I used to go the HE Shows (by Stereophile) when they were in NYC. When they ended, I too was having trouble hearing great hifi without bothering audio salesmen who need to make a living, and I wasn't buying. In late 2008, I joined my local audio club (the NJ Audio Society) and haven't looked back. Each month, we have a meeting in a different location, with different systems. We've had meetings at dealer showrooms, where we could hear numerous high-end systems. Sometimes it's just the host's system (which is usually very good). Sometimes we have live music, sometimes a particular manufacturer brings his wears to showcase. We've also had DIY meetings where everyone brings their home-brewed creations and vintage meetings where we listened to estate sale bargains. It's a hoot chatting in person with other audiophiles, gear designers, factory reps and music enthusiasts. The $30 annual membership fee is the best bargain in audio I've ever come across. So, I suggest you seek out your local audio club (there is a section for these here, on the Stereophile web site and other audio-oriented sites).
texas42
98 posts
 
Go to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver next month. 100s of companies will be there and it is set up for audiophiles, not dealers like CES in Vegas. Runs Oct 14-17.
rhljazz
1,250 posts
 
I would also recommend RMAF. I attended the 07 show and found many oportunities to listen in uncrowded rooms and speak with the equipment designers. I had an enjoyable one on one with David Belles listening to his amps and Usher speakers. I spent a lot of time in the ESP room and enjoyed the music. Yes there are rooms that are overcrowded and hard to get into, MBL and Wilson come to mind but with persistence you can hear them as well.
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