Heathrow

To be fair Greg, marketing costs! This cost ends up being passed onto the Exhibitors, which sadly prices many of the smaller players out of the market.

I'm all in favour of these kind of "roadshows", maybe all they need is a little creative marketing and sales incentives.

Time to "think outside the box guys"

 

Merlin, I think you have hit the nail on the nut.
The venue certainly lends itself better to high-end equipment than say the Marriott in Bristol.

I think everyone enjoyed the lack of crowds, so perhaps any initiative to improve on the low numbers needs only to achieve medium numbers in order to be considered a success as long as the "demographic" was the right balance.

So if a future event attracted medium numbers of enthusiasts and as long as a few of these have some real cash to spend, I would say this balance would be ideal.

Maybe ZG is a good incubator for such an initiative. I would actually be quite interested in getting invloved in trying to hatch a plan (based on the fact I havent remotely thought it through yet).

Consider:
- an independently marketed show, where
- ZGers work together to form interesting features and virally market said event
- vendors/manufacturers could show by invite only
- Titian could bring his home kit over

I think such a show could reach cult status within 2 years.
naturally there may be some financial risk for some, but the chance for kudos, and perhaps a small profit for the ZG foundation??

Anybody else interested or am I talking arse gas?

 

We may well then start to get outstanding *incentives* from manufacturers which is a good thing. Then we can slowly descend into vice and corruption and misplaced loyalty before being bought off completely by Nordost.

 

If I'm not part of the 'else', why not. Till then I might need to hire a truck and 4 people to bring down the stuff from the top floor...
I just ordered today new..... RACKS. :yikes:

 

Got it in one.

Actually, as I keep saying, but nobody believes me, I generally try and play things I think: (a) will be new to most people, and (b) most people with a modicum of taste may actually like. There's no pleasing some people mind you...

-- Ian

 

Photos

Finally got a chance to post some of the pics I took. TBH the only pic I took which I really like is the one of the parallel tracker. The rest are pretty boring.

The 7th Veil room with posters advertising some dodgy cables


The McIntosh room. That amp looks nice doesn't it merlin?


That parallel tracking arm. Can't even remember the make :shame: . Was fitted to a Continuo TT playing through some Korato amps and more Dali speakers. Best sound of the show for me.


Shanling SACD player, Music First transformer based passive pre and I think it's a shanling monoblock on the right. Looks good, didn't get a chance to hear it properly.


The Townshend room. Chrome speakers not really my cup of tea but the whole thing sounded pretty good.


When I left I saw this in the car park. James, no comments on the show then?


Michael.

 

Nice photos. Especially the 7V speakers. They look very nice.

By the way, could some one explain to me how does positioning a few chinese chess pieces on the Shanling CDP makes it sounds better? Must be some chinese mystism that I am not aware of. I will try it latter on my DVD transport. Can't knock it without trying first.

 

No ordinary Shanlings, Grasshopper. These were heavily modified by Internet hi-fi guru Thorsten :notworthy and were played with his own, rather pretty, acrylic open baffles.

Thorsten and I have had many email duels over the years so it was nice to finally meet him in the flesh. When I first knew him he wouldn't listen to any speakers that didn't have an efficiency of 106dB and take up as much space as a small caravan. He just couldn't understand why I was designing down to self-imposed size constraints ...

... Then he got married.



The Chinese chess pieces were there for decoration only but serve to remind us, once more, that China is becoming a serious player in the high end market.

Great photos, Mike. :respect:

 

NB I believe the parallel tracker is by that ole Bottleneck favourite Kuzma.

Only about 500 squids I think for it too, which is bargain.

NNB
I think the turntable was an Opus, the model may be continuo though (?)

Nice pics Mike. Im envious of your digi camera!

How much do you have to spend to get picture quality like that?

NNNB - Steve - you really need a 2nd rack next time dude

 

Nice pictures.

The TT is an Opus Continuo 3, and the arm is an Opus arm as well. Turns out Walrus stock them, in case anyone is interested in buying one (Michael, you really need a turntable...)

-- Ian

 

Chris,

Don't even go there about the rack
I reckon Mikes camera, was in the £2K Iaasc league Plus lens

Ian, your right, Mike neeeds a TT now he has the best digital source the TT is next I feel

Problem is there was no Well Tempered being used oh well maybe next year

 

Oh well. I had great hope it might just beat the Double Blue Diode effect. No such luck since you have now kill off the mystic.

 

Oh, I don't know.

Ah, you want the 7V modified, blue-glow Chinese chess set. Definite sonic benefits then.

 

Given the recent discovery regarding the positive effects of two blue lights being introduced to the system, it doesn't take long to look at the pictures and realise which room had it right

 

Not quite. It's an Olympus E-10 which is a digital SLR but it has a fixed (zoom) lens (ie you can't swap lenses about on it). Details here.
I don't remember exactly but I think it cost me about £1K a couple of years ago but you can get them now on eBay for well under £500. In digital camera terms it's now pretty old and has "only" 4 megapixels but I've got no plans to upgrade it . It's a great camera.

Getting a TT....hmmmmm......

I've been tempted by the idea but at the moment I have two problems: I have nowhere to put a TT and I have no LPs. Neither is insurmountable but I'm not going there for a good while I feel.

Michael.