Obviously, I agree that set-up, warm up are major show issues but I'm not sure they should be rolled out annually as excuses.  If you can't set-up, warm up in time for the trade day then book in earlier and make sure you do.  Must be worth the money.  Path Premier/Mark Levinson used to do that and apparently managed to get a great sound out of their ref gear.  Naim were proudly exclaiming that the Kan replacement's drivers arrived the day before and had only been bolted in on Thursday evening.  Brinkmanship maybe, in-built excuse for poor show sound, maybe.  Its hardly as though the show dates are announced the day before.